By Shira Moolten
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. The town of Pembroke Park is honoring a Broward Sheriff’s deputy who was shot in the head while conducting a traffic stop there over 18 years ago — a shooting that the Sheriff’s Office said never should have happened.
On Wednesday, the Town Commission elected to name Aug. 6 “Deputy Maury Hernandez Day.” Hernandez was presented with the town’s proclamation at the commission meeting on Wednesday night, standing alongside Chief of Police Daniel L. DeCoursey.
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It was on that day in 2007 when 28-year-old Hernandez saw David Maldonado run a stop sign on a motorcycle in Pembroke Park. Hernandez pulled him over, but 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 Hernandez in the head.
Maldonado was later sentenced to life in prison.
Hernandez and Maldonado never would have crossed paths had the state done its job overseeing Maldonado’s probation, according to a BSO investigation at the time. The investigation found that the Department of Corrections hadn’t notified the State Attorney’s Office of his repeated probation violations, including the fact that Maldonado was carrying a gun. Those violations would have put him in jail when Hernandez pulled him over that day.
Hernandez was lucky to survive the shooting, but suffered permanent brain damage and is partially paralyzed as a result.
“I was extremely surprised,” Hernandez told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Wednesday when asked about his reaction to the news the honor from the town. ” … I’ve never seen it like something that has to be honored. I’m flattered.”
For the past 18 years, he has been trying to improve movement on the left side of his body, attending regular physical therapy. He is unable to work because “there’s things I have to be able to do that I cannot do.”
“I have taken it upon myself to try to get stronger,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “Try to get left side stronger; see what movements I can regain. Try to get stronger and stronger and stronger.”
The shooting also left Hernandez struggling financially. He was unable to continue his job at the Sheriff’s Office. His insurance provider stopped paying for his medical treatments, and his workers’ compensation provider filed a $1 million lien against him. Hernandez filed a civil lawsuit against the Department of Corrections, but a judge dismissed the case, finding that the state agency was not negligent and owed “no duty of care” to him.
For years, Hernandez has sought to get a claims bill passed in the Florida Legislature to compensate him for what he has suffered, but each time, it has failed, including this past session. He had originally sought $10 million, but this past session, he sought $5 million.
Richard Pinsky, the lobbyist now representing Hernandez in pushing for the claims bill, said that many legislators viewed the bill as ineligible because claims bills typically require a finding of negligence from a judge. Because a trial court judge never ruled that the DOC was negligent, the bill never got a hearing in either chamber of the Legislature or by a special master, the first step for claims bills.
Over the last session, however, Pinsky said he sought to inform legislators that the current iteration of the bill, which is called an equitable claims bill, does not require a finding of negligence; it only requires legislators to determine that compensating Hernandez is the “fair and equitable” thing to do.
“He was just doing what he was trained to do,” Pinsky said. “Is it fair and equitable that now his lifestyle is ruined for the rest of his life?”
The lobbyist is hopeful that reframing the bill in this way will ultimately convince the Florida Legislature to pass it. Pembroke Park’s decision to honor Hernandez will help as well, he said: “Now we’re going to double our efforts.”
Hernandez told the Sun Sentinel that he tries to stay removed from the efforts unfolding in the Legislature.
“I have no control over this whatsoever,” he said. “I have control over waking up every day and trying to improve.”
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