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Brendan Depa, Now 18, Is Transferred to the Flagler County Jail to Await Trial

August 31, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Brendan Depa when he was last in court in Bunnell in June. (© FlaglerLive)
Brendan Depa when he was last in court in Bunnell in June. (© FlaglerLive)

Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student facing a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery in the beating of a school paraprofessional last February, has been transferred to the Flagler County jail, from the Duval Regional Detention center in Jacksonville, where he’d been held for the past six months.

The transfer took place on Aug. 22, the day of Depa’s 18th birthday, after he spent a few days in a Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Daytona Beach. The Flagler County jail does not have a wing for underage individuals. Depa, who is severely autistic, was charged as an adult. He will remain there as long as the case remains active. He is being held on $1 million bond.




Depa had been held mostly in solitary confinement at the 95-bed Jacksonville jail, a drab, one-floor structure off U.S. 1 near 8th Street, not far from downtown Jacksonville, where the youngest inmate is 10 and where–officially, anyway–juveniles aren’t supposed to be held longer than 21 days. Many are there for months because of backlogs. Depa’s case was different since he was charged as an adult, and the Duval jail was housing him as a courtesy to Flagler.

Depa was last in court before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in June, when Perkins found him competent to stand trial. An order was supposed to be forthcoming from that hearing. It has not been published. Depa waived his net pre-trial appearance in July. He is due in court again next week, on Sept. 9, for another pre-trial hearing. There has been little substantial movement in the case, other than intimations by his attorney, Kurt Teifke, that there would be negotiations with the prosecution on a possible resolution before trial.

Neither aside is eager to see the case go to trial: not only has the case drawn disproportionate attention (the video of the attack on the paraprofessional, Joan Naydich, circled global media after the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office released it), but there are some doubts, including from a psychologist who evaluated Depa, that he could sit through a trial uneventfully–or that either side, to say nothing of Matanzas High School and the school district, would have much to gain from a public trial.

Assistant State Attorney Tara Libby is prosecuting the case.



Click On:


  • Despite Severe Autism, Judge Finds Depa, Ex-Matanzas High Student, Competent to Be Tried for Assault on Aide
  • Court Roundup: Plea Possible in Ex-Matanzas Student Case; Murder Trials Pushed Back
  • Matanzas Aide Attacked by 17 Year Old Had Reported His Threats As Far Back as August
  • Judge Orders Mental Evaluation for Matanzas Student Who Assaulted Aide
  • Matanzas Assault Case: A Miscarriage of Justice Hardens Before Our Eyes
  • Matanzas Student Who Attacked Aide Was Arrested 3 Times for Battery Before; Other Cases Examined
  • Matanzas Student Charged as Adult with 1st-Degree Felony in Assault on Teacher Aide
  • Matanzas High School Special Education Student Arrested in Attack of Teacher Aide
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. JC says

    August 31, 2023 at 5:12 pm

    Autism shouldn’t be an excuse. I don’t want it use as a get out of jail free card. If you do the crime, you do the time period.

    Reply
    • Eugene Lopes says

      August 31, 2023 at 6:22 pm

      JC, there is nothing I can say that will open this closed and angry mind of yours, so I won’t try.

      Reply
      • JC says

        August 31, 2023 at 9:15 pm

        I know waaaay too many people who are Autistic in real life who keep using it as an excuse to commit crimes and not improving their lives in their 30s. You can be autistic and be a productive member of society. In my experience, every single person that I met who is on the spectrum at least knew what was right and what was wrong.

        Reply
        • Geezer says

          September 3, 2023 at 1:28 pm

          I have a bridge to sell you, it’s one of John Roebling’s designs.

          Reply
    • SM says

      August 31, 2023 at 10:23 pm

      Autism is not an excuse. It is however an explanation as to why this child had an IEP that was not followed, resulting in a known trigger. Should Brendan be held accountable and placed in a safe place for both him and the public at large…yes. Are prison and solitary confinement going to aid in protecting society from having to face the failures of our systems that are supposed to protect the para and this student? Probably. Will it keep this from happening again or rehabilitate Brendan? Not likely. Until we are ready to acknowledge the special needs that some of us are born with and support them in their unique abilities we will continue to fill our courtrooms and jails and cost ourselves more than if we just provided adequate care in the first place. Go read the article by Brendan’s mom. If you don’t have experience with special needs…volunteer somewhere and experience just what living with autism means.

      Reply
  2. Fran says

    September 3, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    Why is there a 10 yr old in that jail?…. That’s the story I want to know

    Reply

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