FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – It was a shocking sight at the Broward County courthouse after a 28-year-old woman who allegedly suffers from mental health issues was dragged by her ankles down a hallway by a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy while screaming for help.
"I gave you a chance," the deputy told Dasyl Rios.
"You gave nobody a chance," screamed Rios. "All I wanted to do was cry for a few minutes. Cry. That's all I wanted to do was cry for a few minutes because my life is in your hands."
Before she was dragged down the hall, Rios was in court for a status hearing on two misdemeanor charges.
"I've been doing this for 12 years," said chief assistant public defender Lynn Desanti. "I've never seen anything more degrading. I was shocked. I was speechless. I finally said, 'what are you doing? Stop it,' and he just wasn't listening. He was going to drag her back to jail."
"All I want is my mother -- to know why she can't see me when she comes to visit me," said Rios.
Two doctors told the court that she was incompetent to proceed, meaning she was so mentally fragile she could not go forward with the criminal charges pending against her.
Desanti called it inhumane treatment and said she's seen similar situations handled the right way in the past.
"They could have had another armed male deputy where I've seen them, they pick up the defendants and carry them," said Desanti. "They could have gotten a wheelchair and handcuffed her to the wheelchair and brought her back that way."
Sheriff Scott Israel apparently agrees, releasing a statement stating, "I am concerned by the way the deputy handled this situation, because there were other courses of action he could have taken."
An internal investigation has begun and that deputy, at this point unidentified, has been placed on desk duty.
On Monday, a judge ordered that Rios be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, but at the moment she remains at the Broward County jail.
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