Opinion
RECORD EDITORIAL: Leniency seems flawed in Wednesday sentencing
You’ll not see The Record question our local courts often. But a story on our front page about an ugly attack back in March and the sentencing Wednesday begs a second look.
Understand upfront, this is no knee-jerk reaction to a semi-automatic weapon being used on a victim, in light of the Parkland shootings. The instances and their outcomes were dissimilar. It’s the similarities of the attackers in Parkland and the Sea Colony neighborhood that are concerning.
Jake Andrew Dewerth was originally facing charges of burglary with an assault or battery, aggravated battery on a security officer and two counts of possession of similitude of drivers license.
The police report by the St. Augustine Beach Police Department that night included this narrative of the incident:
“The defendant entered the ... location armed with a rifle. The victim/guard was seated inside the guard shack when the defendant entered the south side door and pointed the rifle at him and screamed for him to get to his knees. The defendant then hit him in the face with the stock of the rifle. The victim tried to exit the north side door as he was hit several times with the rifle. The victim was [then] able to exit the building and video surveillance shows ... the defendant putting the rifle to the head of the victim and appears to be trying to fire the weapon. The victim is seen falling to the ground and then trying to run away and the defendant blocks the escape and continues to swing the rifle at the victim’s head before the victim is able to flee the scene and get help. ... blood pools and blood spatter were all over the security area.”
The description is ugly, but the video surveillance is sickening.
Dewerth was found by police “with blood all over his clothing” and two fake drivers licenses on his person — in addition to his own.
On Wednesday, Dewerth was sentenced to probation, resulting from a plea agreement struck between the State Attorney’s Office and Dewerth’s attorney, Patrick Canan.
We’re not certain what Dewerth’s past criminal or mental health reports might contain — or if there were any.
But it’s difficult not to imagine a history of red flags. The guard told officers he had no idea what precipitated the beating. He did not know Dewerth, whom he says came up to the guardhouse insisting the guard tell him “What did you tell the governor?”
The security guard was taken to Flagler Hospital where he was treated for a dislocated jaw, broken nose and fractured cheekbone.
Dewerth was 19, the same age as Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz. And the similarities might end right there. But it has become clear since the Valentines Day massacre that Cruz was a troubled teen who had been ignored by the courts and coddled by a school system under a no “school-to-prison pipeline” that excused his continuing excessive and threatening behavior as a matter of policy in Broward County. And Circuit Judge Howard Maltz did mandate Dewerth’s attendance in a mental health program as part of his parole.
We have to wonder how a similar assault, committed in a poverty-prone neighborhood with a defendant of color and a public defender at his side would have fared in that same courtroom.
But either way, giving a clearly violent offender a probation pass is a double-edged sword. It’s a second chance to learn from the crime, or a second chance to get it right.
2. I have asked for all of the documents on this case. Absent through explanations, it appears that LARIZZA must resign or be fired. LARIZZA’s plea bargain in the case of JAKE ANDREW GEWERTH is indefensible.
3. We need a Seventh Circuit State’s Attorney who is ethical, incorruptible and independent, who will make decisions based on facts, not politics, without respect to who the defense lawyer is, or whether the criminal defendant is a rich kid.
4. Enough corruption and case-fixing.
5. When LARIZZA admitted several years ago that he does NOT distribute or follow the National District Attorneys’ Assn. National Prosecution Standards, I thought that this office might behind the times and below the standard.
6. Considering the cases of JAKE ANDREW GEWERTH, JEREMY BANKS, LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA, RICHARD BURTT O’BRIEN, WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS, et al., there’s no doubt -- LARIZZA is a hick hack and an unjust steward.
7. Our State’s Attorney is inept, maladroit and a national l embarrassment. He recused himself from the JEREMY BANKS case after FIVE months, only after his two top investigators asked in 2011 for an exhumation and autopsy of Michelle O’Connell’s body.
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9. The philosopher Diogenes carried a lamp during the day, saying he was looking for an honest man.
10. It’s time for Governor Scott to file LARIZZA. Let us elect an honest man or woman as Seventh Circuit State’s Attorney, someone we can be proud of -- someone one who will not commit coverups, promote inequality, injustice and case-fixing, tolerate officer-involved domestic violence, environmental crimes, Sunshine and Open Records violations, and government corruption.« less
2. Why won’t controversial Seventh Circuit State’s Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, President of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association EVER:
A. Distribute National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) National Prosecution Standards to our prosecutors?
https://www.ndaa.org/pdf/NDAA%20NPS%203rd%20Ed.%20w%20Revised%20Commentary.pdf
B. Recruit at HBCU/ minority law schools?
3. Why did NO lawyer in four (4) counties even run against R.J. LARIZZA in 2016?
4. When was the last time that R.J. LARIZZA ever tried a case to a jury verdict?
5. Why won’t Democrats recruit, nominate and elect an ethical State’s Attorney, who pledges to abide by the NDAA National Prosecution Standards?
6. Will R.J. LARIZZA be our State’s Attorney for Life? Is he the BEST person for the job?
7. Why won’t LARIZZA & Co. ever prosecute government corruption cases or environmental crimes here?
8. Why did prosecutors DROP the misdemeanor battery case of State v. LEONARD PATRICK TRINICA--St. Augustine Beach Commissioner RICHARD O’BRIEN’s campaign manager--who allegedly shoved O’BRIEN’s opponent Rosetta Bailey TWICE on November 8, 2016 (Election Day) at SAB City Hall polling place? The same trial lawyer defended BOTH Messrs. TRINCA and DEWERTH--former prosecutor PATRICK CANAN.
9. Do inept, ill-prepared, inexperienced prosecutors in LARIZZA’s office fold, not unlike a cheap suit, in the face of a skilled legal defense?
10. IF we had an ETHICAL State’s Attorney (like Dave Aronberg,Palm Beach County), your local officials would not be so brazen in their official misconduct, would they?« less