Lawsuit accuses agency of negligence
Mental health provider had long history with Parkland shooter Cruz
FORT LAUDERDALE – Accused mass murderer Nikolas Cruz not only got counseling from Henderson Behavioral Health, but staff there were deeply involved in major aspects of his life: providing input about his mother’s parenting skills, his medical care and his education, a lawyer claims.
From the time Cruz was in middle school through late 2016, Broward County’s largest mental health services organization dealt consistently with the disturbed
student, attorney David Brill told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday.
Brill represents Andrew Pollack, father of one of the 17 people Cruz is charged with killing on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Pollack has filed a wrongful death suit against Henderson and others for failing to act to prevent Cruz from carrying out the deadly attack.
All sides were in Broward Circuit Court on Wednesday to deal with scheduling matters for depositions and evidence gathering. The judge also refused to let school security guard Andrew Medina escape the suit, saying claims that he acted with reckless indifference could go forward.
Medina was the first to see Cruz arrive on campus carrying a bag large enough to contain a rifle, recognized him as “Crazy Boy,” but did not intercept him or call for a lockdown of the school.
The suit also names Scot Peterson, an armed sheriff ’s deputy assigned to the school who remained outside the building, issuing radio commands, while children got shot.
Since the massacre, much has been revealed about failings of the school system and the police to adequately react and respond to threats posed by Cruz. But far less is known about the role Broward County’s largest mental health services provider played because of state and federal privacy rules governing individuals’ mental health care.
Henderson Behavioral Health has turned over 735 pages of Cruz’s mental health records to Pollack. They are under seal and not allowed to be released publicly. Pollack’s team, however, has had experts review them, according to documents filed in the suit.
Brill told the Sun Sentinel that the records show that Cruz and his mother, Lynda, who is now deceased, had extensive contact with Henderson over many years. A fact-finding commission set up under law to review Cruz’s life also reported earlier this month that — over nine years — Cruz regularly received hundreds of hours of therapy sessions from Henderson.
Details of those services were presented to the commission behind closed doors.
Pollack’s lawsuit contends that Henderson knew that Cruz suffered from mental illness and was a threat to others but failed to properly diagnose and treat him. It also claims that Henderson should have taken steps to alert the police or warn others about the danger Cruz posed.
Henderson’s employees took part in the school district’s decision to mainstream him from Cross Creek, a specialized school for children with severe emotional and behavioral problems, to Stoneman Douglas in January 2016, Brill said.
That turned out to be an unfortunate move, setting Cruz on a path for far less services and supervision.
Joshua Walker, attorney for Henderson Behavioral Health, said he was not at liberty, under court order, to discuss details of Cruz’s services but said the mental health provider disputes Pollack’s legal claims.
In the past, Henderson has made it clear that its staff had not had contact with Cruz for more than a year before the shooting. He turned 18 in September 2016 and shortly after stopped counseling and refused special education services through the school system.
The mental health system intends to argue that its psychiatrists and therapists cannot see into the future and predict how a person will behave. They also say they have no legal duty under Florida law to warn others of potential harm.
Henderson is being sued on another front, too. The parents of Anthony Borges, a student seriously wounded in the shooting, have filed a separate negligence case against Henderson, arguing that Henderson had a working relationship with the school district to provide mental health care to students, including Cruz. The suit says that school faculty and administrators relied on Henderson’s analysis and conclusions.
The suit claims Henderson failed in September 2016 to force Cruz to undergo emergency psychiatric hospitalization despite his erratic behavior, interest in guns, reported self-mutilation and depression.
If Henderson had hospitalized Cruz under the state’s “Baker Act,” their suit argues, he would have received “the care and treatment he needed” and been put on a list of people prohibited from buying guns due to mental illness.
But the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission found that even if Cruz were hospitalized he likely would have been quickly released and never barred from purchasing a gun because very few people are unless a judge commits them to a mental institution.
After the September 2016 evaluation, Borges’ complaint alleges, Henderson put Cruz into a family intervention program with an unlicensed counselor, which the suit claims was the last opportunity to address Cruz’s rage against Stoneman Douglas and his obsession with guns.
The attorney for Henderson said he could not comment.
The suit also contends that:
At meetings where school officials were deciding on moving Cruz from Cross Creek to Stoneman Douglas, Henderson employees “never advocated for him” and “failed to request” that he not be mainstreamed to a school “he couldn’t handle.”
Cruz scored a 43, “which was very low,” on a “Global Assessment of Functioning” scale, which ranges from 0 to 100. Higher numbers represent greater levels of functioning.
Cruz was heavily medicated when he transferred into Stoneman Douglas. Doctors had prescribed him Focalin, Clonidine and Risperidone for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and irritability associated with autism. The medications can increase aggression.
When Stoneman Douglas officials let Cruz, at age 18, withdraw from special education services, Henderson had a duty to advocate for him to remain in the program but “they did not and were nowhere to be found.”
After Cruz was forced out of Stoneman Douglas in February 2017, Henderson did not advocate for Cruz when he asked to return to Cross Creek so he could graduate.
In the 2018 massacre, Cruz shot Borges five times.