Florida school shooting: Judge orders social service records for Nikolas Cruz released
FORT LAUDERDALE – A judge ordered the release of a state investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect in the home of Nikolas Cruz, accused of killing 17 people in last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“If there were shortcomings,” Broward Circuit Court Judge Charles Greene said Monday, “the public has the right to know.”
The report would normally be kept confidential, but Greene said Cruz by "his own actions” waived that right to privacy. The State Attorney’s Office did not object to the records’ release.
“This case has been publicized not just throughout the state or throughout the country,” Greene said of the massive public interest, "but throughout the world.”
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The records released Monday detail how social workers and mental health investigators evaluated Nikolas Cruz in late 2016, more than a year before the shooting that has since launched public outcry over gun laws and mental health treatment nationwide. Cruz, who was diagnosed with autism, depression and ADHD, legally bought the AR-15 he used in the shooting.
In the report the Florida Department of Children and Families noted that Cruz had admitted to cutting himself, felt depressed and planned to purchase a gun. But investigators determined that Cruz’s mother didn’t mistreat him, citing earlier decisions by counselors that he was not a threat to himself or others. Cruz was not hospitalized and DCF ultimately closed the file.
The DCF petitioned for the release, along with several media organizations, after news reports emerged on the substance of the investigation. The USA TODAY NETWORK obtained a copy of the investigation record and reported on this investigation in a story published Sunday, Feb. 18.
John Jackson, acting general counsel for the DCF, said the agency wants the records to go public to clear the department’s name and remove the “gag."
The DCF "is the only one at the table who looks like they’re hiding something,” Jackson said.
He categorized the agency’s involvement with Cruz as a single “run-of-the-mill” investigation following an allegation of abuse or neglect.
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The Broward County Sheriff's Department said it had received dozens of calls about Cruz over the years. And former neighbors said the home stood out for its turbulence on an otherwise-quiet street.
School records obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK show Cruz had a history of violence at school. More than a dozen school officials, teachers and administrators had cited Cruz in at least 41 disciplinary incidents from May 2012 to January 2017, often for fighting, minor assaults and profane insults.
At a separate brief hearing earlier Monday, Cruz appeared for what is likely one of few public appearances, according to his lawyers. The courtroom was full of dozens of sheriff’s deputies. It was not immediately clear what records were in question other than that they pertain to the public defender’s access to Cruz in jail, according to Broward Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Scherer.
Cruz looked down throughout the hearing while lawyers discussed record-filing procedures for the case ahead.
The public defender said his office will seek a guilty plea and life sentence to avoid the death penalty.
“A long, drawn-out, protracted trial is not in the best interest of the community,” Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes said.