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Nurse, Guards Disciplined After Juvenile’s Death

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The in-house nurse at the Brevard County Juvenile Detention Center was fired after refusing to talk to investigators

with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, and a report from investigators says she didn’t follow medical protocol in the case of Andre Sheffield, the Miami Herald reports. The DJJ report also says guards violated agency rules by ignoring growing evidence of a the 14-year-old’s illness until he was found dead in his cell in February, the Herald reports. Investigators blame the detention center’s superintendent, Vicki Alves, for not ensuring that her officers were trained in sick-call procedures. Sheffield is at least the third young delinquent to die from a non-fatal condition in Florida since 2003 because of lack of appropriate medical care, according to the Herald.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.