Posted on 04/30/2005 1:01:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
ST. PETERSBURG - Largo lawyer John Trevena correctly predicted that outrage would follow his release last week of the now-famous videotape.
Three police officers handcuffing a crying 5-year-old girl in braids, white socks and a neatly pressed tan dress? It was a stunning abuse of power, he concluded. A legal "no brainer."
What he did not expect was that people would view the 28-minute tape and direct so much of their anger at someone who wasn't even on it - the girl's mother, Inga M. Akins.
"I fully expected some backlash," said Trevena, who has since been fired by Akins. "But not to the degree and volume which occurred in this case."
From cable television shows to Internet chat rooms to talk radio programs across the nation, the 24-year-old St. Petersburg mother of three became a magnet for public scorn.
The disapproval is unfair, said Trevena and others, including a high-profile Florida law firm that has come to Akins' aid.
But critics have pointed to video images of her daughter ripping papers from bulletin boards, throwing items from desks and swinging at school staffers who tried to calm her.
Some said Akins was a bad parent. Some said she should be put in jail. Others bristled when she blamed her daughter's behavior on a school administrator at Fairmount Park Elementary, where the handcuffing took place March 14. Many faulted Akins for hiring a lawyer and for selling her daughter's story to the tabloid television show, A Current Affair.
She also has been roundly criticized for the perception she did not get to the school fast enough when the office called her to say her daughter was having a tantrum.
In a public drama with a real life cast of characters - the embattled assistant principal, the crying classroom teacher, the tough-talking police officer, the irascible kindergartener - Akins' role as the serious single mom seeking justice for her child has been widely panned.
Even in corners where Akins might have expected to draw unqualified support, she did not. In separate news conferences Thursday to denounce the handcuffing, civic leaders, ministers and retired educators in St. Petersburg's black community listed Akins, who is black, as one of the players who helped things go awry.
Clifton Burney, a retired social worker active in efforts to improve education for black children, said: "I firmly believe that this is a case of child abuse, not only by the school system or the police, but the parent."
He added: "I know these are strong words." But all three parties, he said, need to find ways to ensure children "behave in a respectable way in school."
* * *
Weeks before the tape was released, Akins sensed that people were blaming her for the incident.
In an interview March 17 with the St. Petersburg Times, she said of school officials and police: "They're trying to make it seem like I'm a bad person and I'm not. But it's going to all come back on them."
Since traveling to New York last week to tape shows for A Current Affair, Akins has limited her public statements to the program.
On Monday evening's show, she said problems between her daughter and the assistant principal, Nicole Debenedetto, forced her hand. "I tried getting her school changed. I tried getting her class changed. (The school district) wouldn't do anything to help me."
On Tuesday, one of the show's reporters asked Akins what she learned from the case. "Listen to your kids because they are telling the truth," she said. "Because I sure listened to mine. And what she was telling me was the truth."
On Wednesday, Akins appeared with Jesse Jackson, who asked her, "What are you doing now about it, Inga?"
She responded: "Trying to get legal representation. And I ask for you to help."
On Thursday, Akins made several comments.
On her daughter: "She's a very active child. She loves to read and write."
On people who blame her: "I don't care what they say. It's not my fault. It's the School Board and the St. Pete Police Department's fault."
On whether the girl was raised correctly: "She was raised right. She was raised very well."
On those who say she's trying to make money from the case: "Get paid for what? I want justice."
Asked what she tells her daughter now, Akins said: "I tell her to try to keep her head up. There's going to be bigger and better things."
Tim Green, smiling host for A Current Affair, signed off: "Sweet little girl. And, Inga, you're a good mom."
* * *
In addition to the 5-year-old girl, Akins has a son, 4, and another daughter, 3. Pinellas court records show she has been trying without success to collect child support from two St. Petersburg men who are the fathers of the children. The father of the 5-year-old has been arrested more than a dozen times since 1995, mostly on drug charges.
Akins is a certified nursing assistant at a Seminole retirement complex, where a supervisor declined to be interviewed for this story.
In 2002, records show, St. Petersburg police stopped Akins on Fourth Street N for driving a car with a stolen license plate, a misdemeanor. She was taken to jail, but went to jail two more times on the same charge because of missed court appearances.
She later paid a fine.
Records also show that around the time of her daughter's handcuffing, Akins was in the throes of an eviction proceeding with the owners of her St. Petersburg apartment. A note she wrote to the court indicates the problem involved subsidized rent payments from the St. Petersburg Housing Authority.
In a recent interview, Akins said the arrest prompted the state Department of Children and Families to investigate her. She said he passed a DCF review. "The focus should not be on her background; it should be on whether police acted appropriately when they handcuffed a 5-year-old child in kindergarten as if she were a criminal," said (Tricia) C.K. Hoffler, a partner with the law firm of Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson & Sperando, which on Thursday became Akins' new legal representative.
The 37-lawyer firm based in Stuart, is led by Willie E. Gary, whose nickname "The Giant Killer" came from nine-figure judgments against such titans as Anheuser-Busch and Disney.
Hoffler said the firm is preparing to bring its considerable resources to bear on the case.
* * *
Several of Akins' former neighbors at the apartment complex said they didn't know her well because she left early for work and came home late.
"She was a "good morning, good afternoon' kind of person," said Mariveth Rodriguez, 34, a stay-at-home mom whose children sometimes played with Akins' children.
Neighbors said they did not consider Akins' oldest girl a discipline problem.
Rodriguez said Akins' two daughters sometimes came to play with her children on the back patio, and "they were very well-behaved."
She said she is disturbed by talk-show pundits who have criticized Akins' parenting skills.
"I think they were good people," she said. Asked about the 5-year-old's tantrum, Rodriguez said, "she didn't act like that over here."
In a police report on the handcuffing, officers said Akins arrived at the school March 14, stormed to one of the police cruisers and yelled, "Why is my daughter in a police car?"
Officers said they twice directed the upset mother away from school officials they were trying to interview. The girl's great-grandparents also showed up at the school and argued with police.
Officers eventually released the girl to Akins.
"I immediately recognized that it was a wrongful arrest," Trevena said, citing laws that young children do not have the ability to participate in their defense and thus are legally incompetent.
Akins fired Trevena this week in a fax sent from the offices of A Current Affair. Now he believes her claim against the city of St. Petersburg has been "severely compromised," saying juries are reluctant to award damages to people seen as trying to exploit a case for money.
"I believe she's an inexperienced and unsophisticated young woman who is being taken advantage of by a tabloid TV show," Trevena said.
The lawyer said public criticism of her parenting skills was "grossly unfair."
"The fact with this mother is that we simply don't know what the family situation is," Trevena said. "She may be the best mother on the planet."
Times staff writers Alex Leary and Curtis Krueger contributed to this report
I am really happy someone is placing the blame where it needs to be, it was obvious from that child's behavior she has not been taught to respect authority or how to behave in public. I had a good friend who is a teacher attacked by a 5 year-old in a school hallway, she was hit, kicked, bitten, and clawed to the extent she needed medical attention (which involved an HIV and a Hepatitis test). This same 5 year-old has attacked other school personnel- sending an Assistant Principal and 3 other teachers to hospitals for x-rays, etc.
Yeah Baby! Time for the JJ Shakedown.
Hmm. She has subsidized rent housing, stolen license plates, a fleet of deadbeat dads, and 37 highly-paid shark lawyers. They must smell blood, er, money.
Awful. Just awful.
"Swinging at school officials who tired to calm her"
This is a child out of control. If she actually landed a punch on anyone...child or adult...she should face the consequences of her actions. Obviously the classroom was totally disrupted, the child could not be brought back under control by school personnel cause they cannot touch a child for fear of getting their asses sued off so they called the police. I would too. Take the brat away and never let her back in the school. If this had happened while I was growing up the nuns would have settled this problem very quickly and the child would have had a very sore butt. Thank the lawyers for the condition of our schools, the teachers hands are tied, they can do absolutely NOTHING to disruptive children and the parents could care less about what brats their kids are in school. Not their problem, they've gotten rid of them for 7 hours.
Yet another example of the result of going against God's plan for family.
How dare she put the blame for a child that was totally out of control on others. She is clearly to blame for not teaching her child the difference between right and wrong behavior. Maybe the cuffs will make the child think twice before pulling something like this again.
I believe her school was the perfect incubator for this episode with a badly raised child.
She never would have had all of this stuff come out about her if she hadn't been so ridiculous. It has nothing to do with "no father"....it's about "no brains".
Bump for later copy.
This explains it all.
That's what I told my wife. If one of our children had ever done something like that I would be EMBARRASSED that I'd failed to raise them correctly. I wouldn't be trolling for dollars.
The nanny shows on TV are disturbing trends in American culture today.
Since I've never seen these nanny shows I don't understand this refrence. What are they and what do they show?
Exactly how is the school supposed to deal with this problem? I have been in class with teenagers who 'lost it'. You can't hit them or anything. Teachers and Administrative officers have no power over these kids, and the kids know it. This child certainly can not be allowed to hit, kick and destroy her classroom. Do you know how many teachers are assaulted by students each year? Personally, I think DFACs needs to be called in these situations. The child is a danger to himself and to others. Also, it is totally unfair for 20 other kids to learn nothing because of this brat. Get troubled kids out of the schools into alternative schools.
Actually, Jackson asked, "What are you ... going to do ... when you are through ... cying boo-hoo, ... Inga Poo?
"Watch out kid, the next scam might involve you donating a finger for a bowl of Wendy's chili."
LOL!
Well, her inability to take the time to tend to her daughter because of her employment obligations didn't stop or even slow her down from traveling to NYC and tending to her TV interview schedule.
This kid doesn't have a chance to grow up to be worth anything. She's being told by her mother & others that teachers & principals are bad.....police are bad.....she's going to grow up to be another criminal that the taxpayer will get to support her whole life through.
These children should be taken from their worthless mother. The problem is that it's probably too late to change their behaviour. How many taxpayers will it take to support this child throughout her life?
Yup and they're doing it all on mine and your nickle.
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