Boys Home Sued for Alleged Abuse

HASTINGS, Fla. -- A teenager claims he was abused by an employee at a Department of Juvenile Justice facility.

Anthony Vessels, now 18, claims that in February, 2008, he was brutally assaulted by a female employee.

The boy's attorney says surveillance video shows the worker twisting the boy's arm behind his back until it snapped. 

The reason for the force: Marraffino says Vessels had been asked to sweep the floor and refused.

"You can see, they get him away from the door, to the ground then boom! You can see the way his arm snapped," Marraffino said.

Lawrence Marraffino says the employee, Kutanna Woods, knocked the boy to the ground and sat on him.

Marraffino says the teen has had numerous surgeries to repair the damaged arm.

"They had to use hardware, pins to put his arm back together," said Marraffino.

Vessels is now suing the Department of Juvenile Justice, Woods, and the contracted company that manages and staffs the facility: G4S Youth Services.

Two years after the incident, Vessels lives in Orlando, has a job and is working on his GED.  Marraffino says they waited until the teen was fully physically healed before filing suit.  He says Vessells still suffers mentally.

"He has trust issues with adults," Marraffino said.

The state paid for Vessels' medical bills, but Marraffino says his client is suing because the facility, "breached their duty of care through delibrate indifference toward a substantial risk to Vessels' health or safety by neglecting to properly train and screen employees, failing to follow established safety procedures, [...] and failing to prevent foreseeable harm," the lawsuit states.

According to their website, the mission of Hastings Youth Academy is to reduce juvenile delinquency through effective prevention, intervention, and treatment services that strengthen families and turn around the lives of troubled youth.

"That's the whole point, that when you get out, you can start over again. By doing this and brutalizing [Vessels] when he was in there, they made that much more difficult for him," Marraffino said.

The Department of Juvenile Justice says Kutanna Woods was fired a year after the incident.

Samadhi Jones, with the Department of Juvenile Justice, released this statement:

The Department of Juvenile Justice does not tolerate the mistreatment of any youth in our care, and staff who are found to mistreat youth are dealt with accordingly. In this case, the staff person was terminated from employment.

We have received a notice of claim from the law offices of Lawrence J. Marraffino, P.A., regarding this incident.

The Department of Juvenile Justice Inspector General's Office found that the staff used unnecessary force. DJJ cooperated fully with St. Johns County Sheriffs Office, which conducted a criminal investigation.

Hastings Youth Academy, a contract provider run by G4S Youth Services, terminated the employee, Kutanna Woods, on February 13, 2008.

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