Nov 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 11

Deputy Maury Hernandez, Broward County Sheriff
Hernandez filed a lawsuit against
the Department of Corrections
after a BSO investigation found
that the department was at fault,
a judge decided that he could
not receive the compensation
he requested due to sovereign
immunity.
“It feels like you’re being betrayed,”
Hernandez said in an interview
with the Orlando Sentinel
last April. “Other government
agencies are supposed to be in
your corner, not against you.”
Hernandez’ past attempts to
get a claim bill through the legislature
failed because of a legal
technicality, Cowart said. Last
session, he tried to file a regular
claim bill, but that kind of bill
requires a previous legal judgment
or settlement to go before
a special master, who then
passes it on to committee.
A spokesperson for Senate
President Kathleen Passidomo
said at the time that the bill
“does not meet the requirements
for evaluation by a special master
because there was no legal
finding of negligence for the
special master to evaluate, nor a
settlement or proposed settlement
to consider.”
This year, Hernandez is filing an
equitable claim bill, which seeks
to receive “legislative grace.”
Cowart described it as compensation
that originates more out
of a moral, rather than legal,
obligation.
These types of claim bills are
rare, but Hernandez’s supporters
are optimistic. Cowart and Hernandez
have met with legislators
across Broward and the rest of
the state, from both sides of the
aisle. They just returned from
spending three days in Tallahassee.
State Rep. Alex Rizo, the bill’s
sponsor in the House, said that
the union, IUPA, has “brought
this issue, I believe, before every
single member of the House.”
The bill hinges on the argument
that Hernandez should
never have been shot, had the
state Department of Corrections
done its job. Hernandez, 28 at the
time, was on his way to investigate
a robbery when he saw the
shooter, David Maldonado, run
a stop sign on a motorcycle in
Pembroke Park.
When Hernandez pulled him
over, Maldonado falsely identified
himself as a police officer, then
pushed him and ran away. During
a foot chase, he turned around
and shot at Hernandez twice.
One of the bullets struck him in
the head.
Maldonado was on probation
at this time and told his rookie
probation officer that he was
allowed to carry a gun because
he was an armed security guard,
Cowart said. He was not.
The Miramar man was later
found guilty of attempted murder.
The BSO investigation found
that the Department of Corrections
had notified the state
attorney’s office of repeated violations
of Maldonado’s probation
that should have put him in jail
when Hernandez pulled him over
that day.
“If the DOC, if that person
who’s a parole officer made that
mistake and this is a result of
that mistake, then it should be an
act of legislative grace that we
say, ‘that’s fine,’” Rizzo said.
Added to the fact that Maldonado
should have been in jail
is the fact that he should not
have had a gun when Hernandez
pulled him over.
Lance Block, Hernandez’s attorney
of the last 16 years, said
he would have rather gone the
regular claim bill route, but
“equitable remedies have passed
in Florida before. And this is one
that really calls out for justice.”
“The wrongful act by DOC here
is so egregious that it really can’t
be ignored,” he added. “This is
more than just simple negligence.”
Hernandez was in a coma for
three weeks after the shooting.
Now, the entire left side of his
body has muscle weakness and
The BLUES 51