Video Shows Cop Punch Mentally Ill 14-Yr-Old Girl In The Face

The Daily Mail
Aug. 12, 2013

A newly released footage from a surveillance camera inside a Florida mental institution for teens captured a police officer punching a 14-year-old girl in the face.

The incident took place at the Citrus Center for Adolescent Treatment Services - a 28-bed locked facility in Pembroke Pines that houses girls and boys suffering from emotional problems, substance abuse and psychological disorders.

Broward County Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes Jr. saw the surveillance video from the April incident when he was assigned to represent the 14-year-old.

The teen involved in the altercation with police has been charged with resisting arrest with violence, disorderly conduct, and criminal mischief. However, Weekes insists that the officer used excessive force when he hit her, while his colleague dosed the girl with pepper spray.

And according to Weekes, the violent encounter in the hallway of the Pembroke Pines facility is just the tip of the iceberg.

According to his investigation into the mental institution, the results of which were outlined in a letter sent to the Department of Children and Families this week, the young patients housed in the hospital are being mistreated on a regular basis.

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