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Julie Peters can’t help but smile when looking at photos of her late husband, Timothy Peters.
“He had the best smile,” Peters said.
On this day, she also has her computer open, and Peters' parents are listening in via a Zoom call. They wanted everyone to know how much they missed their son.
“Him and I talked every morning. He’d call me. We had a routine. We’d laughed. Started the day off just — I miss, I miss my boy. He did not deserve that,” said Tim Peters, Peters' father. The two share the same name.
The “that” his father is talking about is what happened inside the Hernando County Jail.
“I'm sorry,” Tim’s father said. “It angers me the way they did things, you know?”
The family said the 49-year-old had only been in trouble one other time.
“We have friends that are law enforcement officers. He respected the law,” Julie Peters said.
But in April 2022, Tim was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and battery on law enforcement. Deputies said he appeared intoxicated and was incoherent. His family says he had been on a drinking binge and was in the middle of a mental health crisis.
“That was not my Tim that was there,” Julie Peters said. His wife hoped he was being taken to a psychiatric hospital. Instead, he was taken to jail. After 48 hours in custody, she got a call from a hospital nurse.
“She kept saying, ‘You need to come now. You need to come now.’ What do you mean? I thought he was in the detention center waiting for me to bond him out. What do you mean he's in the ICU?” Julie Peters said.
At this point, all she wanted was answers.
MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/family-files-lawsuit-agianst-hernando-county-sheriff-inmate-death-spit-hoods/67-9864ac3b-dd34-42ef-bc40-dad618e037a2
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