lawsuit

By KEVIN TURNER
kevin.turner@mynassausun.com

FERNANDINA BEACH — After more than $50,000 in fines for neon signs in their front windows and years of complaints about noise from a bar next door, the owners of the historic Florida House Inn bed and breakfast have filed a lawsuit against the city, its code enforcement board and one of its code enforcement officers.

As of Wednesday, city officials had not been served with the suit, City Clerk Mary Mercer said.

The lawsuit, filed in the U. S. District Court in Jacksonville last week , says the city has harassed, intimidated and unfairly treated inn owners Joe and Diane Warwick and has violated their First Amendment constitutional rights with its sign code that restricts neon signs in the city’s historic district.

By WENDI ZONGKER

wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

YULEE - Nassau County, Sheriff Tommy Seagraves and one former and two current jail employees are accused in a lawsuit of "deliberate indifference" in the 2006 death of an inmate from Jacksonville.
The suit filed April 1 by the parents of Darren Magill says he should have been taken to the hospital after urine tests done at the jail showed he had cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana in his system.

Magill, 28, was found slumped over in his Nassau County Jail cell by an inmate at 4:45 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2006, according to the Sheriff's Office incident report. An autopsy confirmed Magill died of a drug overdose from methadone, the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam and cocaine.

Seagraves and his attorney, John Jolly, confirmed they had received the complaint but declined to comment.