• You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.

Nell

Unending melancholy
Bold Member!
Steven Zerbe was black and blue from head to toe, and his eyes were swollen shut. He was in respiratory failure, acute liver failure and had pneumonia when he died — six days after he was transported to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola from Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in June 2014.

Prior to his death, Zerbe, 37, who was legally deaf and blind, had alleged — to both his mother and prison officials — that he had been beaten, raped and knifed during his brief eight months in the Florida state prison system.

So how did Zerbe die? That’s a question that his mother, Bonnie Zerbe, has been trying to get answered for nearly two years. The medical examiner, who initially didn’t even want to conduct an autopsy, said he died of complications of lymphoma. But her son was never diagnosed with lymphoma, according to Zerbe.

His mother demanded the autopsy, his medical records and video from the prison in hopes they would explain how her son ended up so bruised and deathly ill. Prior to his death, she asked a nurse to take photographs of her son, showing what appeared to be large bruises all over his body.

His mother demanded the autopsy, his medical records and video from the prison in hopes they would explain how her son ended up so bruised and deathly ill. Prior to his death, she asked a nurse to take photographs of her son, showing what appeared to be large bruises all over his body.

But Zerbe, and many other families of inmates who died in Florida state prisons, have been routinely denied video and other documents by the Florida Department of Corrections, which cites medical privacy laws as well as legal exemptions related to security concerns, to prohibit their release. Often, the only way a family can obtain any information about an inmate’s death is to hire an attorney and hope to prevail in court.

The state maintains that releasing prison video, in particular, compromises the security of the prison system and, in Zerbe’s case, could reveal sensitive information that would endanger officers and other staff at Santa Rosa, one of the state’s toughest prisons.

But two years before Zerbe’s death, the state signed off on a reality TV show that spent eight weeks at Santa Rosa, filming many angles of the Panhandle prison, from the maximum confinement unit to gritty cells splattered with blood. Viewers could get an inside view of life behind bars, revealing where security cameras are located, when and how officers conduct searches, and even get a brief tutorial from an inmate on how to make a handcuff key out of a battery, then hide it in a roll-up deodorant container.

The result was a six-part series, Lock-up: Santa Rosa Extended Stay, which was part of MSNBC’s ongoing documentary series about prisons across the nation.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article60272121.html
 
He was in jail a little more than 1 month, to serve 15 years for aggravated assault.

aggravated? I would love an explanation as to how one gets "Aggravated" with another they can't see nor hear, I mean if this guy were aggravated at you, chances are you obviously did something to deserve it, and it's not like it wouldn't be hard to get away.
 
The state maintains that releasing prison video, in particular, compromises the security of the prison system

But two years before Zerbe’s death, the state signed off on a reality TV show that spent eight weeks at Santa Rosa, filming many angles of the Panhandle prison

I would think that right there would make the argument against showing the prison videos moot. What's not to see now that it's been shown all over TV in a series about prisons?
 
Lymphoma ... ???? Right because the symptoms of that disease always include head to toe large bruises and black eyes. How sad for this mother.
 
aggravated? I would love an explanation as to how one gets "Aggravated" with another they can't see nor hear, I mean if this guy were aggravated at you, chances are you obviously did something to deserve it, and it's not like it wouldn't be hard to get away.
Legally blind and deaf does not mean he was totally blind or deaf. If your vision and or hearing is so seriously impaired that you cannot work, that is legal enough. My father had glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration. He could see well enough to potter in the yard and cook and wash dishes, but he could not cross the street without assistance. His hearing loss was such that a hearing aid did not help. That is just an example of what made him legally deaf and blind.
Now if my father had happened to be an evil trouble making bastard, he had enough facilities left to do nasty things.
Mr. Zerbe may have had serious vision and hearing problems, but it did not prevent him from being a jerk. Maybe he took that bad attitude to jail where his jail mates had no patience.
 
aggravated? I would love an explanation as to how one gets "Aggravated" with another they can't see nor hear, I mean if this guy were aggravated at you, chances are you obviously did something to deserve it, and it's not like it wouldn't be hard to get away.


Hi there, you'd be surprised if you researched this guy a little. He was convicted of lewd and lascivious molestation or something to that degree as a karate instructor with 2 little girls less than 9 years old. Being a black belt, he threw his weight around and showed his ass in jail and was maced, causing his vision loss. He was not always blind. Sadly he probably brought this all on him with his behavior from the time he was first arrested. He was a monster! A sick monster!
 
Hi there, you'd be surprised if you researched this guy a little. He was convicted of lewd and lascivious molestation or something to that degree as a karate instructor with 2 little girls less than 9 years old. Being a black belt, he threw his weight around and showed his ass in jail and was maced, causing his vision loss. He was not always blind. Sadly he probably brought this all on him with his behavior from the time he was first arrested. He was a monster! A sick monster!

Got any news stories to link to support any of this?
 
I found this lovely article about him. I assume its the same guy, how many Steven Zerbes of Vero Beach can there be?

http://archive.tcpalm.com/news/vero...pithets-at-family-ep-382028201-343016052.html

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY ? A man who taunted a neighboring family of seven with racial epithets fought with deputies when he was taken into custody Thursday, the Indian River County Sheriff's Office said.

Steven Michael Zerbe, 35, of the 900 block of 35th Avenue, Vero Beach, was charged with resisting an officer with violence and two counts of misdemeanor stalking. He remained at the Indian River County Jail on Friday in lieu of $12,500 bail.

The family has been complaining to the Sheriff's Office about Zerbe's behavior for a month, the affidavit states. Zerbe shouted racial slurs daily at the couple and their five children, they told deputies. They said the harassment prompted them to move out of the neighborhood, the affidavit states.
 
Back
Top