Two years after the disappearance and subsequent dying of Caribbean-American faculty pupil Miya Marcano, the household of the teenager has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Orange County Sheriff’s Workplace, in addition to the 2 deputies who had been tasked with dealing with her lacking individual case.
In keeping with ClickOrlando, the lawsuit mentioned the sheriff’s workplace failed “miserably” to correctly prepare and supervise its deputies in how you can deal with a lacking individual case like Marcano’s. It additionally accused two staff of the sheriff’s workplace — Deputy Samir Paulino and Cpl. Kenneth Dale, Paulino’s supervisor — of violating Marcano’s civil rights.
After Marcano’s disappearance was reported on Sept. 24, 2021, Paulino went to the Arden Villas house complicated the place Marcano lived to carry out a well-being verify requested by her household.
A report acknowledged that Marcano bed room confirmed proof {that a} potential crime had been dedicated: the door to her bed room had been blocked with a chunk of furnishings, her mattress wasn’t made, there was blood on her pillow, and damaged and bent jewellery on the ground.
Dale mentioned Paulino didn’t inform him most of that info throughout an company investigation into the case. Due to this, Marcano was thought of a “voluntary lacking individual” as a substitute of a “lacking endangered individual.” The case was additionally not escalated to the Legal Investigations Division.
The lawsuit additionally claims Paulino didn’t take the household or the house complicated safety guard critically after they requested about fingerprint proof or offered particulars about issues that Armando Caballero, a upkeep employee on the complicated, may very well be concerned in her disappearance.
Caballero was discovered useless from suicide on Sept. 27, 2021. Marcano’s physique was found on Oct. 2, 2021. It’s now believed Caballero killed Marcano.
Paulino obtained a 150-hour unpaid suspension as self-discipline for the investigation failures, and Dale obtained a 10-hour unpaid suspension. Nonetheless, the household discovered that self-discipline inadequate.
“This failure to self-discipline its staff in a related respect displays a deliberate indifference to the rights of its inhabitants and is actionable underneath 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Regardless of Paulino’s willful neglect, OCSO continues to make use of him with a easy slap to the wrist,” the lawsuit mentioned.
Timeline of Marcano’s dying
Orange County authorities discovered the physique of Miya Marcano in a wooded space close to an house constructing on Oct. 2.
Authorities mentioned the 19-year-old vanished on the identical day a upkeep man improperly used a grasp key to enter her house. Her household reported her lacking after she missed a flight house to South Florida on Sept. 24.
The sheriff mentioned Caballero was thought of the “prime suspect.” Caballero, 27, apparently killed himself; his physique was discovered three days after Marcano was final seen.
Learn extra on Miya Marcano
Marcano had repeatedly “rebuffed” romantic advances by Caballero. Detectives spoke to Caballero after the Valencia Faculty pupil was reported lacking, however had no proof to detain him at the moment. They obtained a warrant for his arrest after studying he had entered her house earlier than she disappeared. His physique was then discovered inside a storage.
Within the wake of the Marcano case, Florida lawmakers handed a invoice final yr geared toward rising bodily security for renters.
Mayor of Pembroke Pines Frank Ortis final yr declared April 26, what would have been Miya’s twentieth birthday, as Miya Marcano Day within the metropolis.
Miya was a South Florida native who graduated from Charles W. Flanagan Excessive Faculty in Pembroke Pines. She is the daughter of common Trinidadian South Florida deejay, Marlon Marcano, often known as “DJ Everlasting Vibes.”