2-25-2008 Florida:
TAMPA - The Citrus County sheriff "doesn't know about the problems" that prevented finding 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford before it was too late, her father, Mark Lunsford, said in explaining Monday why he intends to sue the office for negligence.
Last week, Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said that Lunsford had sent him a notice of his lawsuit, which is required at least six months before a suit is filed against a government agency. Dawsy said that any claim his office was negligent is unfounded, and that he was shocked.
"I know Jeff Dawsy. I like Jeff Dawsy," Lunsford said Monday. "But he doesn't know about the problems in his office. And there are problems, problems that could have prevented a death."
Lunsford said that he and Dawsy were never friends, and what viewers saw on television about the investigation and murder trial was mostly politics.
"This is the guy who heckled me when I wanted to run for office. I've never sat and had lunch with my sheriff. He doesn't come to my house and visit with my mom and dad," Lunsford said.
A phone call seeking comment from Dawsy was not returned.
Appearing Monday on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, attorneys for Lunsford asserted that investigators went four times to John Couey's house in the days after Jessica disappeared, but did not search inside. Investigators, they say, didn't act quickly enough on suspicions about him.
Couey, a sexual offender, was ultimately convicted of the killing of Jessica "Jessie" Lunsford and sentenced to death.
Before the televised appearance Monday, attorney Mark Gelman said the sheriff's office did not execute a thorough door-to-door search in the neighborhood where the girl disappeared.
"Deputies went to Couey's house four times in the first two days after she disappeared," he said.
Gelman said sheriff's office records show witnesses reported suspicious activity at the trailer where Couey lived at 6647 Snowbird Lane, but it was ignored, he said.
One of the reports was called in by a neighbor on Feb. 25, 2005, one day after Jessica Lunsford's disappearance, Gelman said. Gelman described this report as the "smoking gun."
"Why didn't they search? I have no idea," he said. "You're reading these reports and you just have to scratch your head."
On the television show, Gelman said that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had contacted Dawsy about the sexual offenders living in the area, which included Couey. Dawsy, Gelman said, "knew Couey was living next to the little girl."
Interesting because Couey was not registered as living anywheres near the Lundsford address, now all of a sudden attorneys are saying he was?
Detectives focused on Archie Lunsford, Jessie's grandfather, as a suspect for too long, Gelman said, and manipulated the family to implicate him.
"They lied to Mark and told him that Jessie's blood was on his father's underwear," he said. "I don't have a problem with them looking closely at the family in a case like this but the way they did it was wrong."
The underware issue is new evidence, which if true, why did they never pursue that to a charge against Mark's father?
Gelman thinks Jessica was alive for at least three days before she died. "I think she was taken on the 24th and died on the early morning of the 28th," he said.
He said that forensics, Couey's testimony, and other testimony by Couey's roommates support his belief.
Gelman and co-counsel Eric Block decided to speak publicly for the first time on "The O'Reilly Factor" because host Bill O'Reilly has dedicated coverage to Jessie's Law, which aims to better track sex offenders and keep them away from children.
Gelman said it is possible Lunsford and his ex-wife, Angela Wright, may not follow through on the notice to sue, but it's not likely.
"I don't know in the history of Florida if any intent-to-sue notice has gotten this much attention," he said. "This is not about the money; this is about truth and accountability." ..more.. by Samara Sodos of News Channel 8 and Thomas W. Krause of The Tampa Tribune
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