WCOM NEWS

5-05-04

Ex-youth counselor from Miramar found guilty of sexual battery

MIRAMAR--A former counselor at a juvenile correction program was convicted Tuesday of sexual battery on one of the program's clients, a teenager with a marijuana conviction who was afraid no one would believe his story.

The client, now 18 and serving a six-year prison term for burglary, was on the stand in a Broward courtroom Tuesday, telling jurors and lawyers how Tomar Higgs, of Miramar, sexually assaulted him four times between late 2001 and early 2002.

Higgs was a counselor at the Cannon Point Youth Academy, a 32-bed center in Lauderhill that has since closed. Assistant State Attorney Kristin Kanner said Higgs was in a position to hand out rewards and punishments to the young men assigned to the program as part of their juvenile criminal sentences.

"[Higgs] put himself in a target-rich environment," she said. "The fox was in charge of the henhouse."

The client, whose name is being withheld because of the nature of the charges, said he was stunned the first time Higgs performed oral sex on him while other clients in the program were asleep. He also said he was afraid to call out for help.

"I was just a juvenile in a program," he said. "Nobody would have believed me, a client, over one of their own staff."

Defense lawyer Rodney Robinson, noting that the client was taller and more athletic than Higgs, tried to persuade jurors he could have overpowered Higgs at any point during the first encounter. But the client said Higgs threatened to file written reprimands that could have forced the client into serving a longer sentence, possibly at a less lenient corrections program.

The client could only remember four encounters, but when an investigator for the company that ran Cannon Point interviewed Higgs, the defendant admitted, on tape, to six encounters, including a final one that was interrupted by one of the client's roommates. Higgs was fired the next day, Feb. 19, 2002.

Jurors heard the tape of Higgs' admissions, then took less than 45 minutes to convict him on four counts of sexual battery by someone with familial or custodial authority. Higgs faces up to 30 years in prison on each count when he is sentenced June 11.

He also faces trial for two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a minor for charges stemming from the same time period, Kanner said. The trial on those charges, which involve different victims, is scheduled to begin June 7.

The family of the victim in Tuesday's case sued Cannon Point and received $75,000 in a settlement. The academy closed in 2003 because of budget problems.

(source) Sun Sentinel (Rafael Olmeda) 5-05-04