The family of a 73-year-old disabled veteran of the Vietnam War with special needs, whose death in the custody of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was ruled a homicide, has sued the sheriff and multiple deputies, alleging they improperly used deadly force, pepper spray, and tasers before they left the injured man lying on a cell floor for two days.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit accusing Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods and deputies Jason Lester, Charles Cici, and Justin Douglas, of the wrongful death of Dennis J. Di Genova, Sr. The lawsuit was filed in the United States Middle District Court of Florida on Wednesday, April 2.
According to the complaint, Di Genova was 73 years of age at the time of his death. He was classified as “special needs” as defined by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office policy, in that he was “unable to perform normal activities of daily living or provide for his own care and had a long-term physical and mental disability.”
During the five and a half years preceding his death, Di Genova allegedly made a total of 16 calls to 911 for which MCSO was dispatched.
The complaint cites two different wellness checks conducted in February 2020 and a third incident in March 2020 wherein Di Genova reported a person trespassing on his property and requested a “medic for a broken wrist.”
On July 17, 2023, at approximately 10:54 p.m., Di Genova called 911 to report that someone had broken into his backyard and stolen things from him. At the time, he advised the 911 operator that he was armed with a shotgun.
According to the complaint, the individual in the backyard was later identified as Emanuel Lee Hamilton, who was Di Genova’s roommate.
Around eight minutes after the call, Deputy Douglas arrived at the scene to investigate. Shortly thereafter, multiple backup deputies arrived on the scene.
Upon arrival, Douglas encountered Di Genova in his “underwear and slippers.” The complaint alleges that Di Genova was “not permitted to leave” the deputy’s sight during the entire encounter, “not even to put on clothing.”
According to the complaint, Di Genova told Douglas multiple times that he was a “disabled veteran, that he had right knee and hip problems, and back and neck problems.” Additionally, a pacemaker was “observable, sticking out from underneath Di Genova’s chest.”
The complaint also indicates that Hamilton told responding deputies that Di Genova was a disabled veteran and that he served as Di Genova’s “caretaker” who lived at the residence.
According to Di Genova’s original arrest report, which was written by Deputy Douglas, Hamilton told deputies that Di Genova had approached him with a shotgun and asked him to leave the residence. When deputies arrived, Hamilton allegedly showed them that he lived at the residence by providing identification with the same address.
Hamilton, who was described as the victim in the report, told the deputy that he wanted to press charges, and Di Genova was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill for “retrieving the shotgun and ordering the victim, who is a resident of the address, out of the residence and threatening to shoot the victim if he did not leave.”
Di Genova was handcuffed and taken into custody. While walking to the deputy’s vehicle, Di Genova said he “could not walk to or sit” in the cruiser.
Upon intake, Di Genova was subjected to a full body scan that showed hardware in his right knee and a pacemaker in his chest.
According to the complaint, the use of force began during Di Genova’s intake process booking on July 18, 2023, in the 1010A change-out room.
“There is no video equipment in the change-out room; therefore, the use of force was not captured by video,” reads the complaint.
According to an investigation by the sheriff’s office, the three deputy defendants listed in the complaint were all present during the alleged use of force on Di Genova: Douglas, Lester, and Cici.
Several other deputies who were near the room where the alleged incident took place gave sworn audio recorded interviews as part of the investigation.
According to the complaint, one deputy said she could hear Di Genova yelling profanities towards staff and that he was “verbally non-compliant with staff’s orders.” The deputy said she looked into the change-out room when the decontamination shower began and saw Di Genova “sitting on the floor.”
A sergeant stated that she recalled a “lot of yelling” and could hear the discharge of pepper spray and the discharge of an Electronic Disabling Device (i.e., Taser). The sergeant recalled looking under the door to the room and observing Di Genova “prone on the floor,” refusing to “give his arms up from under his body.” The sergeant said she saw two of the deputies then place Di Genova in a three-point pin.
Deputy Douglas stated that he entered the room after Di Genova had “been exposed to pepper spray” and that he only witnessed a “portion of the use of force.”
The complaint claims that Douglas witnessed “Di Genova being tasered…being thrown to the ground…and being placed in a three-point pin.”
During the incident, Deputy Lester allegedly applied a burst of pepper spray to Di Genova’s facial area when he would not “submit to a strip search.” The complaint finds fault with the punishment.
“There was no penological purpose to conduct a strip search on Di Genova as he was only wearing his underwear and slippers when he was arrested and never left the sight of Defendant Douglas during his arrest and transport to Marion County Jail. In addition, he had already been scanned during the booking process,” reads the complaint.
The lawsuit goes on to suggest that Lester and Cici used a “straight arm bar technique” to take Di Genova to the floor, but that he resisted and was placed in hand restraints. Lester then “applied a drive stun to the hip” to gain control of Di Genova before discharging the EDD into Di Genova’s abdominal, buttock, and calf areas. At the same time, Cici placed Di Genova in a “three-point pin and secured his hands behind his back.”
The complaint alleges that Deputy Douglas was “standing by” and watching the other deputies “batter” Di Genova, “knowing that it was unjustified, but did nothing to intervene or discourage the beating despite knowing he had a legal obligation to do so.” Additionally, it alleges that Douglas failed to provide information to the other deputies about Di Genova’s “many physical ailments” of which he was aware.
Di Genova was examined by a nurse shortly after the “use of force” and was found with “two probe impact sites, signature marks from the Taser to Di Genova’s right buttock and lower right leg, a cut on his left elbow and a cut on his left wrist.” After the medical assessment, Di Genova was assisted “into a wheelchair by Cici and Lester” and was transported to a medical pod on “suicide precaution status” after he stated that he needed to be Baker Acted.
Di Genova was placed on the floor of the medical pod cell in an “all in one bed,” next to another inmate who had been charged with battery, domestic violence, and resisting an officer with violence.
A deputy assigned to conduct 15-minute checks on Di Genova noted that the veteran constantly yelled “y’all crippled me” throughout the day.
While Di Genova was on the floor, the ensuing MCSO investigation revealed that his cellmate allegedly kicked him while he was laying on the cell floor.
On July 19, 2023, in its “Marion Rundown” segment posted to social media, representatives of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office referred to Di Genova as a “violent person,” commending Deputy Douglas for “getting that violent person off the streets.”
Di Genova remained in the medical pod, on the floor of the cell, for over two days until July 20, 2023. He refused all meals until he was admitted into the jail infirmary, where he ate with the assistance of staff. At the time, it was noted that Di Genova “smelled like urine and body odor and had multiple injuries.”
During his entire two-day stay in the medical pod, Di Genova never stood up or supported his own weight, laying on the floor.
A nurse did not check on Di Genova until 1:30 p.m. on July 20, 2023, more than two days after the alleged incident. At 1:42 p.m., Di Genova was rolled to his left side by medical personnel so that they could conduct an assessment. Shortly after the assessment, the complaint indicates that there “appeared to be a heightened concern for Di Genova’s health and level of consciousness.”
As a result, Marion County Fire Rescue responded to the scene and transported Di Genova to AdventHealth Emergency Room due to “medical concerns for his health and not due to suspected injury.”
During his ambulance ride, Di Genova was allegedly “weak and unable to speak clearly.” When he arrived at the ER, it was noted that he had “several old-appearing contusions, and abrasions throughout his body including left shoulder, anterior chest, anterior lateral, and bilateral neck.” He also had bruising and swelling with abrasions on both of his knees.
When Di Genova was asked by medical staff if he had pain, he told them that he was “beaten by police.” He was placed in a cervical collar due to the bruising around his neck and back.
While at the hospital, Di Genova received a CT scan that showed a “complete transection of the cervical spinal cord at C7, acute closed fractures of multiple cervical vertebrae including an acute fracture of the lower cervical spine at the inferior margin of the anterior fusion hardware.”
Based on the severity of his injuries, Di Genova was trauma alerted to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital. The complaint goes on to allege that the sergeant who was transporting Di Genova told medical staff at the hospital that Di Genova had “fallen at the jail and refused medical treatment.”
On July 28, 2023, at 10:37 a.m., Di Genova was pronounced deceased at the hospital. His death came just over ten days after he was first arrested by MCSO deputies.
Di Genova was buried at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, as a veteran of the Vietnam War.
An autopsy conducted the following day found that Di Genova’s death was “due to complications of a cervical spine fracture sustained in altercations with others.” The Medical Examiner ruled Di Genova’s manner of death as “homicide.”
The complaint cites at least 29 other custody deaths at the Marion County Jail over a three-year period from 2021 to 2024. In 2019, there were allegedly 219 “use of force incidents at the Marion County Jail,” of which at least 185 were “physical encounters with inmates.”
In 2020, that number increased to 280. In 2021, it was 332; in 2022, it was 488; in 2023, it was 602; and in 2024, it was 599.
“The MCJ Detention Deputies need ongoing training and education in de-escalation techniques, crisis intervention, implicit bias recognition and in the care and custody of special needs inmates,” reads the complaint. “The Sheriff has a history of widespread abuse and wanton use of excessive force and punishment for non-penological purposes at the Marion County Jail and the Sheriff has been deliberately indifferent to this conduct.”
The complaint goes on to suggest that Sheriff Billy Woods had the “power to prevent the commission of wrongs committed during the unreasonable use of force exercised” at the expense of Di Genova, but “intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly failed to do so.”
“The Marion County Sheriff created and allowed a policy, custom or usage whereby detention deputies permit the use of excessive force on special needs inmates and pretrial detainees, is deliberately indifferent to inmates’ medical needs, permits inmate-on-inmate violence and does not require its detention deputies to supervise inmates housed at the Marion County Jail,” reads the complaint.
It cites at least 10 incidents dating back to 2017 in which detainment deputies used excessive force on inmates with impunity, including multiple incidents that led to the deaths of inmates.
In one such instance in November 2022, an inmate with special needs who was naked in his cell was assaulted by five deputies who deployed Tasers, pepper spray, and slammed him into a concrete floor. That inmate, Scott Whitley, died from multiple blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities and “deep tissue hemorrhaging.”
“No detention deputies received disciplinary action for using unnecessary, unreasonable, and excessive use of force on Scott Whitley,” reads the complaint.
The complaint seeks damages in excess of $75,000 to benefit Di Genova’s surviving son, Dennis J. Di Genova, Jr., and daughter, Ashley Whitehead.