When the families of four inmates who recently died after being booked in the Broward County jail shared their painful stories Thursday, there was one father watching who knew what they were feeling.
David Rugani’s son, Sonny, was only 17 years old when he died by suicide in his cell in the main jail in 2019.
“He was in Little League, a Little League all-star,” Rugani recounted of his son’s childhood, adding he had high hopes for Sonny, who was a strong athlete.
He was grateful to be adopted by David and Denise, but adolescence brought trouble.
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“He got into social media, got into drugs and there it went down pretty quickly,” Rugani said.
He said his son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“(He) got agitated very easily," Rugani said. "So he wasn’t perfect, not going to sit here and say he was a perfect kid. But we were dealing with it.”
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His run-ins with the law escalated until he was caught stealing a backpack from a car that happened to contain a gun. The Broward State Attorney charged the 17-year-old as an adult and the sheriff moved him to the main jail.
“We thought he was safe there. We thought, OK, he’s going to learn his lesson," Rugani said.
The Broward Sheriff was warned Sonny had suicidal tendencies but removed him from suicide watch in less than two days.
“He was very upset,” his father recalled. “All I could tell him was, ‘Sonny, you got to stick it out.’”
Two months in custody, Sonny had had enough.
“Denise gets a call from the (Broward) Sheriff’s Office, and I just heard her say, ‘Oh no. Oh no,'" his father said. "And she was crying, beside herself, and she said Sonny hung himself.”
That was September 2019, the first of what the Broward Public Defender Gordon Weekes says have been 21 in-custody deaths of Broward inmates — some natural, some overdoses, and many, like Sonny’s, suicide.
Attorney Jay Cohen filed a lawsuit for the Ruganis against the sheriff and the jail medical provider, reaching a confidential settlement last summer.
“Who failed him is the Broward County jail and its system,” Cohen said. “They failed in the protocols. They failed in the standards. They failed in the surveillance and monitoring.”
David Rugani said he hoped the sheriff’s office would have learned its lesson.
But then he saw the news Thursday of how four Broward inmates have died over just a six-week period.
“The only thing I can tell these people is I feel for them. Pursue this. Try to make changes to the system as best we can,” he said. “I don’t want any father having to go see your son like that …You should never bury your son.”
Sheriff Gregory Tony has declined our repeated requests to be interviewed about the recent deaths of those in his custody.
