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Tag: scot peterson

  • Parkland School Massacre Survivor Now Owns Shooter’s Name

    Parkland School Massacre Survivor Now Owns Shooter’s Name

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The most severely wounded survivor of the 2018 massacre at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School now owns shooter Nikolas Cruz’s name, and Cruz cannot give any interviews without his permission, under a settlement reached in a lawsuit.

    Under his recent settlement with Anthony Borges, Cruz must also turn over any money he might receive as a beneficiary of a relative’s life insurance policy, participate in any scientific studies of mass shooters and donate his body to science after his death.

    The agreement means that Cruz, 25, cannot benefit from or cooperate with any movies, TV shows, books or other media productions without Borges’ permission. Cruz is serving consecutive life sentences at an undisclosed prison for each of the 17 murders and 17 attempted murders he committed inside a three-story classroom building on Feb. 14, 2018.

    “We just wanted to shut him down so we never have to hear about him again,” Borges’ attorney, Alex Arreaza, said Thursday.

    Borges, now 21, was shot five times in the back and legs and collapsed in the middle of the third-floor hallway. Video shows that Cruz pointed his rifle at Borges as he lay on the floor, but unlike most of the other victims he walked past, did not shoot him a second time. Arreaza said he asked Cruz why he didn’t shoot Borges again, but he didn’t remember.

    A promising soccer player before the shooting, Borges has undergone more than a dozen surgeries and still lives in pain. He received donations, a $1.25 million settlement from the Broward County school district and an undisclosed settlement from the FBI for their failures in preventing the shooting. Arreaza said it is difficult to say whether Borges has received enough money to cover his future medical expenses.

    Several other families also sued Cruz, and a mini-trial had been scheduled for next month to assess damages against him. That trial has been canceled, Arreaza said. David Brill, the attorney representing the other families, did not return a phone call and two email messages seeking comment.

    Florida already has laws that prohibit inmates from keeping any proceeds related to their crimes, including any writings or artwork they might produce in prison. In addition, Judge Elizabeth Scherer, when she sentenced Cruz, ordered that any money placed in his prison commissary account be seized to pay restitution to the victims and their families and all court and investigation costs. In total, that would be millions of dollars.

    Arreaza said he feared that without the settlement, Cruz could find a way around the law and the judge’s order or assign any money he might receive to a relative or other person.

    Borges, the families of those Cruz murdered and other survivors are also suing former Broward County sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson, the sheriff’s office and two former school security guards, alleging they failed to protect the students and staff. No trial date has been set. Peterson was acquitted of criminal charges last year.

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  • Judge tentatively OKs live ammunition for Parkland school shooting reenactment in civil case | CNN

    Judge tentatively OKs live ammunition for Parkland school shooting reenactment in civil case | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Florida judge tentatively agreed Thursday that live ammunition could be used in a reenactment of 2018’s mass shooting inside Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as part of a civil lawsuit.

    The judge also agreed the reenactment – part of a civil lawsuit against Scot Peterson, the then-school resource officer who remained outside as a shooter killed 17 people and injured 17 others on Valentine’s Day 2018 – could take place August 4, she said in a hearing.

    Broward County Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips had earlier this month ruled that each side could conduct reenactments in the school’s three-story 1200 building, where the shooting took place. But on Thursday attorneys for the plaintiffs and the defendant told Phillips they’d agreed on conducting only one, and Phillips OK’d the plan.

    “We did not see the need to put the community through that twice, and I think that the agreement that we have reached serves everyone’s purpose,” Michael Piper, Peterson’s attorney, said during Thursday’s hearing.

    The plaintiffs – several of the victims’ families and a survivor – want to record a reenactment of the shooting to show the former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy would have heard the shots and known where they were coming from, their attorney has said previously.

    The defense team for Peterson, who has argued he didn’t enter the building because he couldn’t tell where the gunshots were coming from due to echoes on the campus, also has said it was interested in a reenactment.

    As for the ammunition: The plaintiffs’ attorneys had previously said they intended to use blanks in the reenactment.

    But on Thursday, plaintiffs’ attorney David Brill asked the judge’s permission to use live rounds fired into a ballistic bullet trap, saying experts his team consulted noted a difference in the sound of blanks from the live rounds.

    The defense also would prefer live rounds be used in the reenactment, Piper, Peterson’s attorney, said.

    Attorneys for both the city of Parkland and Broward County schools said they didn’t object to the use of live rounds, but said this was their first time hearing about the proposal and would like to confer with their clients.

    Phillips told the attorneys she wouldn’t have an issue with the use of live rounds, but wanted to allow attorneys for both the city and school board the opportunity to speak with their clients in case they wanted to raise further objection.

    “Given the testimony we’ve heard here … I really don’t think that should be an issue. However, if it is, I’ll certainly take that up in the future,” Phillips said.

    The ballistic trap would be the type widely used by law enforcement to capture live rounds “in a completely safe manner and in a controlled environment,” Brill said.

    Former FBI special agent Bruce E. Koenig, an expert for the plaintiffs, testified that while blanks are as loud as live rounds, there is a difference in the quality of the sound.

    “There is no advantage there going with blanks … but as a forensic scientist, I’m concerned about giving the court and all the parties involved the most accurate assessment of the scene,” Koenig said.

    The civil suit comes after Peterson was found not guilty late last month of criminal charges. Prosecutors had accused him of ignoring his training and failing to confront the shooter, instead taking cover outside the building. The building was preserved pending Peterson’s trial and that of the shooter, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole last year.

    The school system has indicated that the 1200 building would be demolished sometime after the reenactment.

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  • Florida jury finds former deputy not guilty of inaction during 2018 Parkland massacre

    Florida jury finds former deputy not guilty of inaction during 2018 Parkland massacre

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    Florida jury finds former deputy not guilty of inaction during 2018 Parkland massacre – CBS News


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    Scot Peterson, a former Broward County Sheriff’s deputy who was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during the 2018 mass shooting was found not guilty of multiple counts, including child neglect and culpable negligence. Prosecutors said that Peterson had failed to confront the gunman during the shooting, in which 17 people were killed. Manuel Bojorquez has the latest.

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  • Parkland Deputy Would Have Seen Bodies If He Opened Door, Officer Testifies

    Parkland Deputy Would Have Seen Bodies If He Opened Door, Officer Testifies

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida sheriff’s deputy who says he couldn’t pinpoint the shooter during the Parkland high school massacre would have seen bodies if he opened a building’s door instead of backing away, a police officer testified Tuesday at the deputy’s trial.

    Sunrise Police Lt. Craig Cardinale said when he arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from his nearby home, he immediately ran to the three-story 1200 building because that’s where his son was attending class, ignoring the direction of Broward County deputies who told him it was too dangerous.

    He said he and other officers went to the door that Deputy Scot Peterson had gotten within 10 yards (9 meters) of minutes earlier and could see and smell gunpowder smoke. They didn’t know that 14 students and three staff members were already dead or dying and that shooter Nikolas Cruz had fled.

    “I immediately opened the door,” Cardinale testified for the prosecution. “About 25 feet in front of me there were a couple bodies on the floor in clear sight.”

    Prosecutors allege that Peterson, the school’s assigned deputy, knew the shooter was inside the 1200 building but chose not to confront him during the six-minute attack on Feb. 14, 2018. Peterson insists that because of the gunshots’ echoes, he did not know the shooter’s location and took cover next to an adjoining building while he tried to pinpoint the sounds and summon help. Peterson stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shots ended and other officers had stormed inside.

    Peterson, 60, could face almost 100 years in prison and lose his $104,000 annual pension if convicted of felony child neglect, the most serious charges he faces. He is the first law enforcement agent in U.S. history ever tried for an alleged failure to act during a school shooting. He retired shortly after the shooting before being retroactively fired.

    Earlier Tuesday, Kelvin Greenleaf, an unarmed school security supervisor, testified that he, Peterson and another unarmed guard had sped to the 1200 building in golf cart from the main office, arriving less than two minutes after the shots started.

    Greenleaf said that when he and Peterson got off the cart about 10 yards from the 1200 building, it was clear to him the shots from Cruz’s AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle were coming from inside because they were loud.

    Peterson drew his handgun, telling Greenleaf to back away. He said Peterson then took cover with him next to an adjoining building.

    “He just had a blank look on his face. It was so much going on and I could imagine the stress, the pressure he was on,” said Greenleaf, who has since retired.

    Cardinale said that when he spotted Peterson after it became clear the shooting was over, the deputy was pacing, his head down and muttering, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this.” When Cardinale asked Peterson who he was, he replied he was the school’s security deputy. Cardinale said he replied with an obscenity and told Peterson he should have been inside the building.

    “It’s a stressful time for everybody in that situation. It’s a bad day to be a police officer, but you go and do your job,” Cardinale said.

    Peterson sat with his arms crossed, shaking his head, during Cardinale’s testimony, sometimes passing notes to his attorney, Mark Eiglarsh.

    Under cross-examination by Eiglarsh, Greenleaf testified that in seven years working with Peterson he never showed cowardice, immediately breaking up student fights, and never failed to perform his duties.

    “He did a great job. Anytime I needed him for searches, fights, stolen cellphones — he was always there,” Greenleaf said.

    Another security guard, Elliot Bonner, under cross-examination agreed that he frequently had problems with echoes in that area of the school when students set off firecrackers or blasted air horns. The echoes made it difficult to locate those students, he said.

    Peterson is charged in connection with failing to confront Cruz before he reached the third floor, where six of the victims died. He is not charged in connection with the 11 people fatally shot on the first floor before he reached the building.

    Prosecutors intend to conclude their two-week presentation Wednesday. They have called to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who have testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was. They also called a training supervisor who said Peterson failed to follow the protocols for confronting an active shooter.

    Eiglarsh has said he intends to call about two dozen witnesses who will testify they were also uncertain of where the shots were coming from. Because of scheduling conflicts, a few of them have already testified, including a deputy who arrived at the school during the shooting. He thought the shots were coming from the football field, more than 100 yards (90 meters) from the 1200 building.

    For Peterson to be convicted of child neglect, prosecutors must first show he was legally a caregiver to the juvenile students, defined by Florida law as “a parent, adult household member or other person responsible for a child’s welfare.”

    If jurors find Peterson was a caregiver, they must determine whether he made a “reasonable effort” to protect the children or failed to provide necessary care.

    Cruz, a 24-year-old former student, pleaded guilty and last year received a life sentence, avoiding a death sentence when his jury could not unanimously agree he deserved execution.

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  • Opening statements begin in the trial of Parkland school resource officer who stayed outside during shooting | CNN

    Opening statements begin in the trial of Parkland school resource officer who stayed outside during shooting | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The trial of the former school resource officer who remained outside a Parkland, Florida, high school five years ago while 17 people were gunned down inside started in earnest Wednesday, as prosecutors began presenting their opening statement.

    The state has accused retired Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scot Peterson of failing to follow his active shooter training by staying outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, taking cover for at least 45 minutes while a former student carried out what remains the deadliest high school shooting in US history. Among the slain were 14 students and three staff members; 17 others were injured.

    The case highlights the expectations for officers responding to active shooters as the country faces a seemingly endless scourge of gun violence, with schools such as those in Parkland; Uvalde, Texas; and Newtown, Connecticut, etched in public memory as the scenes of some of the most devastating massacres.

    Peterson has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts – including seven of felony child neglect, three of culpable negligence and one of perjury – and maintains he did nothing wrong. The 60-year-old, who retired as criticism of his alleged failure mounted, has said he didn’t enter the unfolding scene of carnage in the school’s 1200 building because he couldn’t tell where the gunshots were coming from.

    Before the shooting, Peterson was a dedicated and decorated officer who had served for more than three decades, his attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, told CNN.

    “After a 32-year career, this loving husband and father of four went from hero, and in 4 minutes and 15 seconds, he went to criminal,” the defense lawyer said.

    Jury selection began last Wednesday, yielding a panel of six jurors and four alternates tasked with weighing the state’s unusual case, which experts have described to CNN as the first of its kind and a legal stretch.

    The Broward State Attorney’s Office charged Peterson under a Florida statute that usually applies to caretakers, arguing the then-deputy, in his capacity as a school resource officer, was a caregiver responsible for the protection of the high school’s students and staff.

    Peterson was at the school administration building on February 14, 2018, when the shooter opened fire on the first floor of the 1200 building, according to a probable cause affidavit. Peterson got to the building’s east entrance about 2 minutes later, per a timeline in the affidavit.

    Peterson moved about 75 feet away and “positioned himself behind the wall of the stairwell on the northeast corner of the 700 Building” – a third campus structure – the affidavit says, calling it a “position of cover” he held for the duration of the shooting.

    In a blow to both the state and the defense, the judge last week ruled jurors will not make a trip to the scene of the shooting, as the jury in the shooter’s trial did, CNN affiliate WPLG reported. Eiglarsh wanted the jury to see the exterior of the 1200 building, which has been preserved pending the trials of the shooter and Peterson, while prosecutors had wanted jurors to see the building’s interior, too.

    Beyond the child neglect and culpable negligence charges, Peterson was charged with perjury for telling investigators he heard only two or three gunshots after arriving at the scene of the shooting, the affidavit says, while other witnesses said they’d heard more.

    Peterson’s attorney intends to argue, in part, that his client’s confusion about the location of the shooter was reasonable and shared by others at the scene, including members of law enforcement, teachers and students, Eiglarsh told CNN. The lawyer also contends Peterson’s actions at the scene illustrate he was not negligent but reacting as well as he could with the information he had, he said.

    Additionally, Eiglarsh disagrees with the decision to charge his client under the caretaker statute, he told CNN, calling the choice “preposterous.”

    “He’s not a legal caregiver,” Eiglarsh said, acknowledging he understands the argument. “But he’s not a teacher, he’s not a parent, he’s not a kidnapper who’s responsible for the well-being of a child. He’s not hired by the school system.”

    In the past, Peterson and his attorneys have argued the caretaker statute does not apply to him, emphasizing one person is responsible for the deaths and injuries that day: the gunman, then-19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced last year to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury declined to unanimously recommend the death penalty.

    That outcome angered and disappointed many victims’ families, including some who see Peterson’s trial as another opportunity for justice.

    “We should not portray or allow the defense team or the deputy who failed to act properly to portray himself as a victim,” Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto told CNN before jury selection. “He was charged with keeping the students and staff safe, and he failed to do so.”

    “Regardless of the outcome in the trial,” he said, “I hope he’s haunted every day by the fact that his actions cost lives.”

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