THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF
BROWARD COUNTY JAIL'S ABUSE
"I went through my pictures today and it hurt to see how my life was and how it is now. I don't recognize my own face. Am I the happy man who had a wonderful life, like in the pictures? or am I this scared, confused and broken person that I see in the mirror?"
"My name is Andy Lepel.
I'm a 26 year old father of the most beautiful boy in the world, but on 7/21/01 my boy lost his father. I haven't seen, touched or kissed his face since the beginning of April 2002.
I used to own a very profitable landscape company in Pompano Bch Fl. I had a rather nice house in a nice neighborhood and a pretty peaceful life. Then my life got ruined. Now I'm a felon."
Before Broward County Jail employees got their hands on Andy, he was a very happy and fortunate young man. He owned his own professional landscaping business, nice race car, a beautiful home, friends, a wife, and his pride and joy, his son, Randy.
After eight months of mistreatment, neglect, abuse and drugging at the hands of Broward County, Andy feels he has lost everything, including his peace of mind.
Andy's fear, as explained to me, comes from the fact that when arrested, he was doing nothing wrong. He was just an ordinary citizen getting ready for the day. He was in his driveway loading his freshly painted bike into his work trailer, when two strangers pulled up, yelling in a language Andy could not recognize.
They jumped out of the vehicle, and one ran up and punched Andy without warning, knocking him to the ground. When they both headed for him, Andy scrambled up and grabbed the first thing out of the trailer he could reach to protect himself, yelling for them to get away. They kept coming for him, still yelling angrily in that strange language.
Shaken and not wanting to hit them, Andy jumped in his truck and drove off, around the block, smoking a cigarette to calm down. When he rounded the corner back to his home, he saw cops on his lawn. No problem - he just thought the family had seen the encounter and called the law.
But as he approached his home, the cops grabbed him, handcuffed him and shoved him into their car. "Wait. I didn't do anything wrong," cries Andy. "Yeah, well, whoever calls the cops first wins," was the officer's sarcastic response.
No, it's not that Andy did anything wrong he needed to be punished for or rehabilitated from. True, everything that happened to Andy during the eight months he was held in the Broward County Jail was criminal, but it wasn't Andy who did it... It was men we pay to protect citizens like Andy who did all this damage to this young man's life.
Before Broward County Jail got hold of him, Andy had no history of mental illness. His friends knew him as outgoing, fun-loving, and completely at ease.
Now Andy hides alone in his home. He has nightmares, panic attacks, and has trouble eating. When he hears a car go by on the road, he runs for the woods. When he sees a cop, he panics. He's afraid to go anywhere for fear they will pick him up and the horrors will begin again.
Andy is terrified of terrible men that do terrible things, uniformed men who repeatedly commit 'crimes under color of law" at the Broward County Jail.
ANDY'S RETURN TO FLORIDA: SEE ANDY'S EMERGENCY!
UPDATE APRIL 17, 2003: ANDY HAS BEEN RETURNED TO BROWARD COUNTY JAIL
