Guard resigns after teen is beaten at juvenile detention center

Clearwater, Florida -- 10 Connects has learned about violence in the Pinellas Juvenile Detention Center. The state says a guard violated the rules after a scuffle broke out.

It ended up with a 16-year-old bleeding from his head and being taken to the hospital.

Renee Williams, who is the teenager's mother, says she is a parent who believes in CDC: choices, decisions and consequences. That's how Williams' son ended up the JDC. She says she requested he be put there after he was caught stealing, because she thought the 16-year-old need to be taught a lesson about freedom.

However, Williams says she didn't think he would be a punching bag while in the facility.

According to a letter from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, that is what happened on November 15. Officer Jorge Pejot was observed pinning the youth down. The teenager was moved up and down from the force Pejot gave, and another officer yelled to stop, but the teenager was thrown down. The letter says bedsheets were soaked in blood, there was blood on the wall and a large gash on his head.

The 16-year-old, who asked us to call him John, says the guard went into an all-out rage. John says he knew he was bleeding when he hit the wall.

John was taken to Meese Hospital, where he had nine staples put in head.

Williams says no child has the right to be abused, assaulted or mistreated, just because they are in JDC. Not only is Renee Williams upset about the fact her son was brutally attacked by a guard at JDC, but also she is angry, because of the way she says the agency handled the situation.

Williams says she thinks it is a cover up, and something that is going to continue to go on if nobody says anything.

Pejot was initially dismissed from the agency, but he was able to resign and JDC agreed to seal the termination letter and all related records in exchange for the resignation.

No one answered at Pejot's home or his phone when we tried to contact him for this story.