School shooter’s brother seeks new life in Virginia

FORT LAUDERDALE – Crushed by negative attention, the brother of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz is seeking court permission to move to Virginia to start a new life.

Zachary Cruz, 18, needs approval to leave South Florida, he has lived his entire life, because he’s on probation for trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where his brother went on a maniacal shooting spree, killing 14 stu- dents and three staff members.

Like his older brother before him, Zachary Cruz has been kicked out of the home of Rocxanne Deschamps, who became a surrogate mother to the Cruz brothers after their mother died in November.

Now homeless, Cruz is staying in a hotel room, his attorney said. He has no job, no high school diploma and no driver’s license. Even some of his supwhere porters on social networks have grown weary of him, frustrated that he violated probation and was re-arrested.

Deschamps said on Facebook that he’s been verbally abusive, and she couldn’t take it anymore. He’s not welcome back. Her ex-husband, Paul Gold, said on Facebook that their young son was afraid of Zachary Cruz,

and he insisted Deschamps force him out.

In Virginia, Zachary Cruz could “find happiness and direction in life,” criminal defense attorney Mark Lowry argued. He’s been offered a home, a job and counseling.

“Mr. Cruz … has an incredible opportunity to restart his young life in a fresh location where the stigma of his brother’s alleged actions will not isolate him from the world,” Lowry argued in a motion filed Tuesday with Broward County Court Judge Melinda Brown.

Since his brother shocked the nation with his gruesome Feb. 14 attack, Zachary Cruz has been under intense scrutiny by local authorities, who’ve suggested he, too, could be capable of violence, and have jailed him twice. If he comes near Parkland, law enforcement officials want to know, Lowry said, so he’s wearing an ankle monitor.

Cruz sought assistance from the national civil rights law firm Nexus Derechos Humanos Inc., based in Atlanta, and they are helping relocate him. The firm is also suing on his behalf, alleging he was tortured in jail by being kept awake for several days, and that the terms of his probation are extreme, attorney Dallas LePierre said. They allege he’s being mistreated by the Broward justice system based on hysteria surrounding his brother’s crimes.

Nexus Services, the law firm’s parent company, is described in the motion as “a charitable bonding entity that specializes in reentry support and supervision for those in need of help rebuilding productive lives post-incarceration or post-treatment.”

The work by Nexus Services/Libre by Nexus bailing out immigrants who can’t afford bond — and requiring them to wear a Nexus ankle monitor and pay a monthly fee — has drawn the attention of attorneys general in Virginia, New York and Washington state, according to recent legal filings and news reports.

The documents in Cruz’s case say his housing will be “free,” and there’s no reference to any requirement that he pay fees during his six-month probation.

A Nexus director, Terry Ann Johnson, has spoken to Zachary Cruz and agreed to be his “caretaker,” the pleading says. He would live in her companyowned condo in Staunton, Va., receive weekly counseling at Family Life Resource Center and work full-time, earning $13 an hour as a maintenance mechanic with Homes by Nexus, another Nexus Services entity. He would study online to get his high school diploma and submit to weekly telephone appointments and urinalysis as elements of his probation.

He would continue to report to Broward Sheriff ’s Office’s Department of Probation, “starting a new life far from the trauma he has suffered,” Johnson said in an affidavit.

“Lastly, Mr. Cruz would still agree not to have any contact with the families and victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,” Lowry offers in his motion.

Lowry attempted to work out the deal with the State Attorney’s Office without filing the motion, he said, but that fizzled. State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Constance Simmons said a hearing has been set for today.

Cruz