"There's going to be bigger and better things."
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***........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. ........***
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