Broward’s new top prosecutor wants independent investigation of jail detainee’s death
Broward’s new top prosecutor is calling for an independent investigation into how a man died following a violent altercation with jail officers.
Kevin Lavira Desir, 43, died on Jan. 27, a week after the altercation, when family members withdrew life support after the incident resulted in a severe brain injury that left him in a vegetative state. Desir suffered from mental illness and was at the Broward County Jail awaiting trial for charges of criminal mischief and marijuana possession.
The jail is run by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
In a letter sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Thursday, Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor wrote that the policy when BSO has an officer-involved civilian death is for the sheriff’s office to contact the FDLE to conduct the investigation. FDLE would then present the findings to the county’s state attorney’s office for review.
“To eliminate any potential appearance of impropriety, I am requesting that FDLE, as an independent agency, conduct the homicide investigation of this incident,” Pryor, just recently elected state attorney, wrote in the letter.
Pryor wrote that the process was to “ensure transparency and independent review of the facts,” and requested that any future officer-involved civilian deaths, both in the community and inside any detention facility, be investigated in the same independent manner.
The death of Desir was revealed in a story by the Miami Herald last week.
Carey Codd, a BSO spokesman, said the sheriff’s office has not received any recommendation to turn over the investigation to an independent agency.
Kevin Desir was arrested by Coral Springs police on Jan. 6 on felony criminal mischief charges after he allegedly smashed the taillights and scratched the side of his neighbor’s 2017 red Dodge Charger with a brick. He was released on bail and arrested a week later on a charge of marijuana possession, violating the terms of his bond.
Broward Public Defender Gordon Weekes wrote in a Jan. 25 letter that Desir was pepper-sprayed and Tasered by county jail deputies in response to a mental health crisis.
Jeremy McLymont, one of the family’s attorneys, said his legal team is requesting a hearing in order to consider a request that any surveillance footage of the incident be released. BSO has thus far declined to produce the video.
“BSO needs to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” McLymont said. “They need to hold a transparent investigation. They need to release the video.”
Moses Desir, Kevin Desir’s eldest brother, said at a Thursday Fort Lauderdale news conference attended by a throng of supporters — including the dead detainee’s young children — said his brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than 20 years ago and was grieving the recent loss of his father, who died a little over two months ago.
“If you know any individual who has mental illness and struggles with it, when they lose a loved one they grieve and they don’t grieve like we do,” Moses Desir said.
Veda Coleman-Wright, BSO communications director, said in an email that Kevin Desir cut himself with an unknown object while in the infirmary at North Broward Bureau, a 1,200-person facility in Pompano Beach for detainees with mental illnesses and other special needs.
Coleman-Wright said Desir became violent and bit two deputies, causing injury to one.
Desir’s cousin, Frantz Abraham, said the story the family has been told does not fit with the Kevin they knew. Abraham said said they were virtually brothers while growing up.
“A lot of the stuff that we know, he doesn’t have a history of doing, as far as hurting himself,” said Abraham. “And he’s been dealing with his mental issues for over 20 years.”
Sercilia Desir, Kevin Desir’s mother, said she believes her son didn’t need to die.
“Now, at my age, I don’t have a son to take care of me,” she said.
The Broward jail system has been plagued by troubling incidents for years.
In one such incident, a detainee cut off his penis. In another a woman gave birth in her cell, unassisted and alone.
“These stories unfortunately continue a tragic pattern of mentally ill inmates needlessly suffering and dying while being held in the jail,” Weekes wrote in a letter last week to Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony.
Responding last week through the Herald, Tony said the public defender was making “unsubstantiated allegations,” adding BSO treats those with mental illnesses humanely. He said the department was investigating its own actions.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 9:46 PM.