MAN SHOT DURING DRUG RAID FILES $1M FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST DEPUTIES

A Golden Gate man shot by a Collier County deputy last month has filed
a $1 million federal lawsuit against the two deputies involved in a
drug raid at his home.

But the attorney for the man shot, Edwin Mesadieu, said Friday he
filed the lawsuit in federal court in Fort Myers as a tactic to try to
get his client to a surgeon.

"We're going to try to get him out of the jail. He still has the
bullet in him, and it's become very infected," Naples attorney James
J. Zonas said. "They can even bring him back to the jail afterward,
just as long as he gets the surgery."

Edwin Mesadieu Mesadieu, 30, of 1830 Sunshine Blvd., Apt. 4, is
charged with cocaine possession. He was shot Sept. 18 after deputies
went to his home on a warrant allowing them to search for drugs, which
had been sold from Mesadieu's home, deputies say.

According to the Sheriff's Office, he was shot in the shoulder after
he didn't obey an order given to him by the two deputies named in the
suit, Carlo Llorca and Laura Nelson. But deputies still won't say
whether there was a weapon found in the house or whether Mesadieu drew
a weapon on the officers.

Zonas said his client told him deputies broke through the door and
shot him as he was trying to get dressed. The lawsuit says Mesadieu
"answered the bedroom door while nude and was improperly and/or
negligently shot" by Llorca, who was under Nelson's
supervision.

Deputies said Mesadieu was taken to the hospital afterward but refused
treatment and left. Zonas said that's untrue, and Mesadieu had a
follow-up appointment to have the surgery when he was arrested six
days after the shooting.

Drug investigators searching the home say they found 5 grams of powder
cocaine and 10 pieces of crack cocaine valued at $450, plus a scale.
But Zonas said the drugs weren't in his client's bedroom but were
found in a different part of the home, which he shares with his
girlfriend, Marie Danielle LaRoche.

"Usually they arrest someone immediately when they find drugs," Zonas
said.

Sheriff's officials say the crack cocaine was found on a dresser in a
bedroom shared by Mesadieu and LaRoche, while the powder cocaine was
discovered inside a refrigerator in another bedroom.

The $10,000 bond on the drug charge is reasonable, Zonas said. But
although Mesadieu is a legal resident, the Sheriff's Office notified
the federal Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which
placed a hold on Mesadieu, who was born in the Bahamas.

A hold means there's no bond.

"Even if you have a green card, if you commit a crime they can deport
you," Zonas said.

Zonas said the jail has only an internal medicine doctor, not a
surgeon. His client's arm is completely immobilized by infection. The
bullet fragmented into three parts.

The federal suit is one part of a two-part legal process, Zonas said.
He'll file court papers next week asking for an emergency hearing to
ask a federal judge to drop the immigration hold.

"We have to get him out of the jail, and all we could think of was
filing a federal lawsuit. It's a civil rights claim, similar to a
Rodney King-type of claim," Zonas said.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Tina Osceola said Friday she couldn't comment on
the lawsuit or Mesadieu's medical condition, even to say whether he
has received treatment.

But generally speaking, often inmates need outside medical care. If
they prove to the medical staff, which is contracted by the jail to a
company based in Fort Lauderdale, the treatment is necessary, the
procedure is referred to whatever provider can do the job, Osceola
said.

"It doesn't matter if there's an INS hold or if there are extradition
papers, medical care comes first," Osceola said.

Although the sheriff has stood by Llorca's use of force, Osceola said
she still won't comment on many of the particulars. It's still under
investigation by the State Attorney's Office, as all officer-involved
shootings are.

Mesadieu has a criminal record in Florida dating back to 1993, when he
was arrested on a weapons charge in Fort Lauderdale. He also was
arrested in 1994 in Wilton Manors on aggravated assault, extortion and
battery charges. He was arrested again in 1994 in Fort Lauderdale on
an aggravated battery charge.