{"id":7312,"date":"2025-10-16T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7312\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:57:12","slug":"demi-busatta-revives-28m-claims-bill-after-dcf-neglect-nearly-turns-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7312\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Busatta revives $28M claims bill after DCF neglect nearly turns deadly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coral Gables Republican Rep. Demi Busatta is bringing back a claims bill seeking to compensate a child who was brutally stabbed by her mother in 2015.<\/p>\n

The measure (HB 6503<\/a>) seeks $28 million in compensation for a child known as \u201cL.P.\u201d after a court found that state authorities ignored several warnings about the mental well-being of her mother, resulting in the attempted murder of the child.<\/p>\n

Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters<\/a> filed a similar measure (SB 12<\/a>) in 2025, but the bill died.<\/p>\n

In June 2015, when L.P. was 6 years old, a family member notified the Sarasota Police Department, requesting a welfare check of her mother after she sent a suicide video to several family members.<\/p>\n

Sarasota Police then contacted the Department of Children and Families (DCF<\/a>) to report possible child abuse. However, DCF caseworkers failed to identify L.P.\u2019s mother, as well as the warnings around her mental health status, and did not implement a safety plan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

L.P. was then left in the care of her biological mother, instead of her grandmother who had gained custody of L.P. and became her adopted mother.<\/p>\n

As a result of DCF\u2019s decision, L.P. was stabbed by her mother approximately 14 times, including an attempted disembowelment that required lifesaving surgery and multiple follow-up surgeries and treatments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, L.P. has suffered significant pain, disability, disfigurement, loss of capacity, psychological anguish and medical costs, and faces future surgeries.<\/p>\n

The child\u2019s mother, Ashley Parker<\/a>, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 after using insanity as a defense.<\/p>\n

In March 2022, a jury verdict found DCF was negligent, and the jury awarded L.P. $28 million in compensation. An appeal to the Second District Court of Appeal further affirmed the findings and judgment of the trial.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since sustaining her injuries, L.P.\u2019s surgeries and various treatments have incurred a cost of $14 million, and a loss of earning capacity of $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

The total costs associated with prosecuting the claims on behalf of L.P. have exceeded $208,000, with more than $8,000 still outstanding. DCF has contributed $200,000 toward the overall claim amount.<\/p>\n

The $28 million would be appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to DCF for the relief of L.P. <\/p>\n

The Chief Financial Officer would issue a warrant for that amount to a special needs trust established solely for L.P.\u2019s benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The payment, along with the $200,000 previously paid by DCF, would constitute full compensation for all current and future claims related to L.P.\u2019s injuries. Fees for attorneys, lobbyists and related expenses may not exceed 25%.<\/p>\n

If passed, the bill would take effect upon becoming law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coral Gables Republican Rep. Demi Busatta is bringing back a claims bill seeking to compensate a child who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7773,7774,7775,7776,613,7777,2508,7778,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-7312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-ashley-parker","tag-attempted-murder","tag-compensation","tag-demi-busatta","tag-department-of-children-and-families","tag-hb-6503","tag-joe-gruters","tag-sb-12","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}