FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A jury awarded $4.5 million in damages on Wednesday after a father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Broward Sheriff’s Office over the death of his 6-month-old daughter.
In the lawsuit, Christopher Nevarez accused BSO child protective investigations of failing to protect his daughter Makenzie, who died of blunt force trauma on Oct. 28, 2016.
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Makenzie’s mother, Keisha Walsh, had left her baby under the care of Juan Santos, who was convicted of aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated child abuse.
“Throughout this trial, Makenzie’s father was forced to relive the tragic events of his daughter’s life in order to obtain justice for her,” Attorney Justin D. Grosz, who represented the father in civil court, said in a statement released after the verdict on Wednesday.
While responsible for 58% of the negligence, the judgment against BSO is for $2.61 million. Florida law caps tort recovery from a governmental entity at $200,000 per person, so Nevarez decided to petition the Florida legislature for a claims bill to recover the remaining amount of the judgment.
Makenzie was two months old when the West Boca Medical Center Satellite Emergency Center treated her for choking. The North Broward Medical Center later reported Makenzie had suffered a black eye. And about 15 days before her death, she was back at the Northwest Medical Center with leg and wrist fractures.
A Northwest Medical Center’s emergency room doctor decided to call an abuse hotline, but a BSO investigator cleared Makenzie to go back home to Pompano Beach, according to the lawsuit.
About 11 days later, Makenzie was back in the Northwest Medical Center’s emergency room — with fractures to her skull and both femurs. She didn’t survive.
BSO deputies determined Walsh was not to blame for Makenzie’s death. Santos was sentenced to 14 years in prison and the Florida Department of Corrections was holding him on Thursday at the DeSoto Work Camp in Arcadia. His scheduled release is in 2031.
Broward County Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips presided over the civil case. Attorney Stacie J. Schmerling also represented Nevarez. She and Grosz are lead partners of Justice for Kids at Kelley Kronenberg, a law firm based in Fort Lauderdale.
Grozs also said their “hope” was for Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony to “immediately intervene and end this seven-year ordeal to ensure there is justice for Makenzie.”
“After spending hours and hours to make a determination in this case, the jury weighed everything and did the right thing,” Michael Piper, an attorney for BSO, said in a statement to Local 10 Thursday. “We feel the jury reached the right result in terms of apportioning fault. I think the jury’s verdict assigning almost 40% of the responsibility to the father speaks volumes as to the legitimacy of the claims bill in this case. The ultimate number we would have liked to be lower. But I think the jury worked extraordinarily hard to reach an equitable verdict in this case.”
Public records: The verdict form
The complaint