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Nurses Charged in Jailed Juvenile's Death

Bump and Update: We are glad to see this case make the national news. We just listened to the prosecutor on CNN. She was emphatic that the nurses left this poor boy in agony for three days and did nothing. He finally died sitting in a chair.

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Original Post 10:54 a.m.

This is sickening. We need changes in our juvenile detention facilities.

Two nurses at a juvenile jail were charged with murder Tuesday, accused of failing to treat a 17-year-old inmate who died of a burst appendix after three days in pain.

In a scathing attack on the juvenile justice system, a Miami-Dade County grand jury said the women skipped examinations or falsified medical records on Omar Paisley, who spent his last days "in agony lying on a concrete bed."

Following a nine-month investigation, the grand jury noted in frustration that the state Department of Juvenile Justice is immune to criminal indictments. The panel called for wholesale changes at the jail to "prevent another unnecessary death."

The nurses, Gaile Tucker Loperfido and Dianne Marie Demeritte, were expected to surrender Wednesday. They face up to nine years in prison on charges of third-degree murder and aggravated manslaughter of a child. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys.

The nurses weren't the only ones involved in the death. The Grand Jury report says:

"We were appalled at the utter lack of humanity demonstrated by many of the detention workers charged with the safety and care of our youth," the report said. "At every turn in our investigation, we were confronted with incompetence, ambivalence and negligence."

Jeb Bush's predictable reaction: He "retains confidence in Department of Juvenile Justice secretary Bill Bankhead" but will take the report into account.

What was the 17 year old in jail for? Cutting another kid with a soda can.

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