MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Final charges have been filed in the hazing incident involving four Marion County fire and rescue employees accused of hazing a recruit back in November.
According to investigators, Kaylee Bradley, Edward Kenny, Seth Day, and Tate Trouthwein beat, dragged, and waterboarded 19-year-old Kayne Stuart three times while they were all supposed to be working at Station 21. All four were fired, arrested, and charged.
The state attorney announced on Friday that they dropped all charges against Bradley. Kenny, Day, and Trouthwein are charged with false imprisonment and battery. The state dropped the kidnapping and robbery charges against them.
Ch. 9 spoke to Stuart’s attorney, Geoff Bichler, back in January. He told us, then, that he put the county on notice for a lawsuit, starting a six-month clock for the county to investigate and potentially reach a settlement.
According to Bichler, Stuart had always wanted to be a firefighter and had been employed for less than a year as a probationary employee.
He was traveling between stations when he reported to work for a shift at Station 21 on November 16th.
“Being a probationary employee, I think, he had some expectation that there might be some kidding and joking and, you know, good-natured kind of horseplay, but never expecting something like this,” said Bichler.
Six others were ousted, including all of the station 21 leadership present that day.
Bichler told Channel 9 that, over his 30 years representing first responders, he’s learned that hazing is not uncommon.
The attorney told Channel 9 that before Stuart’s shift on the 16th, he had experienced some hazing that was “good-natured” and often took the form of practical jokes, but it was never aggressive.
“The problem here is obviously, it just went way too far, to the point that he actually was waterboarded and beaten with his own belt, and feared for his own life,” said Bichler.
According to Bichler, Stuart did not report the incident on the 16th to law enforcement but instead told a friend, who then escalated the issue up the chain of command.
“It’s a cultural issue that I believe needs to be addressed. It is being addressed. And maybe this is the thing or the case that will ultimately bring this to a head regarding what is acceptable in these types of situations,” said Bichler.
Text messages obtained by Channel 9 sent from Fire Chief James Banta show that just one day after the arrests were announced, he “had a conversation with the Coral Springs Fire Chief” to discuss how they handled a similar incident.
The text messages show Banta later met with his deputy chiefs, writing, “Probably be good for us all to be on the same page. We are going to start planning our way out of this mess.”
Channel 9 has repeatedly asked what that planning entailed, whether a culture of hazing exists at Marion County Fire Rescue, and about additional steps they’ve taken to prevent future hazing incidents.
However, the department has failed to respond to our repeated requests for comment.
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