18-year-old charged as adult after allegedly breaking fingers of juvenile detention officer
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Lagarius Joseph Johnson, 18, has been charged as an adult with battery on a juvenile detention officer and moved to the Alachua County Jail.
A Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officer wrote the report after viewing surveillance video from the Juvenile Detention Center, taken around 12:30 p.m. yesterday. A sergeant at the detention center was returning a juvenile to his cell, and Johnson was reportedly in the same cell. The GPD officer wrote that Johnson could be seen on the video trying to get out of the cell “in order to get to another juvenile to fight.” The detention officer reportedly tried to trap Johnson in the cell with his body, but Johnson was able to escape. The officer managed to pin Johnson against the wall, but Johnson allegedly continued to resist. During the struggle, Johnson reportedly backed into the cell door, which is now cracked, and closed the door on the officer’s hand. The officer suffered two broken fingers in the incident.
Johnson has a juvenile history from 2019 to 2022 and has a pending juvenile case for grand theft of a firearm. He is also on juvenile probation. His First Appearance Order states that he is eligible to be released on his own recognizance for supervision with a GPS monitor.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.Â
Juvenile? Huh? So, now you can vote at 18, but you are still a juvenile? I hope he finds a nice “big boy” for a mentor in the Big Boy Jail.
Sure, let him out so he can terrorize the county!
When will we protect the officers that are on the front line with these “people”? His slap on the wrist is not going to convert him to be a positive person in society. He will be back!
Yes Enough is Enough!! Officers should receive combat pay, for the things that they have to endure to do their job!!!
Sounds like he should’ve been moved over a while ago. Now, he gets to play with the big boys, congratulations dumb*ss.
He was just ‘Missing the rains down in Africa.’ So many claim the US is such a bad place to live, wonder if he would happier there? Probably not.
Wonder who’s going to be blamed for this one.
This man clearly needs a jail sentence. He has been handled ‘gently’ hoping he would change as an Adult. That clearly has not happened. Now, he needs to see what happens when he assaults another person AND an officer! People are being made to suffer because of liberal policies!