One More for Good Measure...

Why didn't she want the sheriffs in Lake Worth?

You be the judge, was it the budget or was it personal?

SHERIFF CALLS FPL PROTESTERS' CLAIMS OF ABUSE 'AN ABSOLUTE LIE'

BYLINE: ROBERT P. KING, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer DATE: February 20, 2008 PUBLICATION: The Palm Beach Post

Some of the 27 environmentalists arrested at Monday's standoff near Loxahatchee say Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies punched them, denied them food and wouldn't let them replace their soiled clothing while in custody, fellow activists said Tuesday.

But Sheriff Ric Bradshaw called the accusations "an absolute lie." He said it's part of a pattern of falsehoods by protesters whose actions snarled traffic on Southern Boulevard for five hours while shutting the Palm Beach Aggregates rock mine and a Florida Power & Light construction site. "Did they expect that they were going to the Ritz-Carlton day spa? No. It's a jail," Bradshaw told reporters. But he said booking photos, videotapes and interviews with sheriff's employees confirm that no abuse occurred.

Instead, he said, deputies gave the defendants bag lunches and access to toilets, only to have some activists respond by stripping naked or smearing food on their cells' floors and windows.

Their credibility is about zero," Bradshaw said.

But one protest organizer, Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings, said several of those arrested have called from the county jail to report the abuse.

"I was getting calls at 2 in the morning from a young man who had just been punched in the face," said Jennings, who is a member of the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition. She said others urinated on themselves while being held in a sheriff's office bus for two hours, then reported being denied a change of clothing.

Jennings said she initially complimented the deputies Monday afternoon for their "diplomacy," which included hours of negotiations about what it would take to get the protesters to move. "We were very impressed up until we heard from people who were in custody," she said.

Coalition co-Chairman Panagioti Tsolkas said nobody hit him in jail, but he saw and heard things to corroborate the allegations.

"I was not directly assaulted," said Tsolkas, who was released on his own recognizance Tuesday. "I was denied access to the restrooms."

The coalition and supporters of the radical movement Earth First! organized the blockade, which drew more than 120 people from as far away as London to protest FPL's plans for a gas-burning power plant.

More than two dozen activists refused to leave the mine's entrance, saying they were willing to go to jail. Ten locked their arms together using tubes and duct tape, making it harder to arrest them.

"These people disrupted a private business, they disrupted public transportation, they caused the county a great deal of expense," Bradshaw said.

He added: "It's outrageous what they did, regardless of what their message is."

The protest drew about 80 sheriff's deputies and dozens of fire-rescue workers. Traffic slowed or stopped for hours on Southern Boulevard, largely because dozens of trucks could not enter the rock mine.

But Jennings said the sheriff's office made the decision to deploy so many people, and she maintained there was no reason for the protest to stop traffic.

"Honestly, we didn't think it would take such a well-funded sheriff's office five hours to remove the blockade," she said.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said eight activists were released on their own recognizance after a jailhouse court hearing Tuesday morning. Jennings said 15 remained behind bars that afternoon, with bail totaling $10,000.