Paula Diaz is reunited with family
The woman, who had been at the county jail since Jan. 4, on July 3 was deemed not competent to defend herself against criminal charges.
Paula Diaz, right, is reunited with her family, from left, Khelva Ruiz-Rodriguez, her sister; Khoraima Rodriguez, 6, her niece; Mariluz Mateo, her mother; and Eduardo Rodriguez, 7, her nephew; as they leave SMA Healthcare in Ocala, Fla. on Sunday, July 6, 2025. Diaz, who has been diagnosed as being mentally ill, was released from the Marion County Jail on July 3 after six months. She was sent to SMA Healthcare to be evaluated for 72 hours. [Photo courtesy Khelva Ruiz-Rodriguez] 2025.
Paula Diaz, a 44-year-old mentally challenged woman who was held in the Marion County Jail for six months, has been reunited with her family after a judge found she was not competent to defend herself against the criminal charges.
Circuit Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky on July 3 dismissed the two counts of battery on a law enforcement office and a misdemeanor count of battery against Diaz. Diaz was not released immediately but instead was taken to SMA Healthcare by law enforcement for evaluation that she could safely be released.
After her four-day stay at SMA, she was released to her family on July 7. Confused upon her release, Diaz told her family that staff at the facility were concerned about “drugs” in her system. Medical records have been requested to get clarification on what Diaz’ treatment was at the Marion County jail and SMA.
Diaz’ mother, Mariluz Mateo, said her daughter was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2004.
The family had called the MCSO for help a year earlier, after moving to Marion County from Orange County. The impact of that call for help has resulted in a year-and-a-half ordeal they wish no other family has to endure.
Paula Diaz, right, is reunited with her mother, Mariluz Mateo, left, as they leave SMA Healthcare in Ocala on July 6, 2025. [Photo courtesy Khelva Ruiz-Rodriguez]
Diaz’s mother and her sister Kehlva Ruiz-Rodriguez cried as the judge granted the motion to dismiss without prejudice, allowing the state to refile charges in the event that Diaz is ever determined to have regained mental competency.
Diaz has been found incompetent numerous times, according to records provided by the family, most recently in a report by Dr. Harry Krop, a Gainesville clinical psychologist, dated April 7, 2025.
That determination reiterated the findings from a report by Tampa psychologist Dr. Scot Machlus a year earlier. Machlus noted, “Ms. Diaz was incompetent to proceed” and recommended “that she receive competency training and continue her psychiatric treatment in the community, as she did not present as a danger to herself or others.”
At the June 9 status conference, Assistant State Attorney Barbara Harris said she did not have a release plan from the court’s health care provider, Meridian Healthcare, Inc., and would need to do more research before agreeing to release Diaz.
A representative from Meridian Healthcare, Inc. told the family just before the July 3 hearing that they would not advocate for Diaz’ release to her family. Meridian filed a letter days before both status hearings reaffirming their position that Diaz continued to be incompetent to proceed in her legal case.
The family describes Diaz as childlike in her demeanor when she’s not in “crisis,” the word they use to describe episodes when she can’t communicate and turns to destructive behavior like tearing up her mattress or spitting or throwing things.
At the July 3 hearing, Diaz appeared by video from the jail and told the judge she wanted to leave the jail and go back to living with her mother.
According to Mateo, despite her best efforts to protect her, Diaz has been in and out of mental hospital facilities and has been sexually assaulted and beaten by people who didn’t understand how to react to her.
The family said they were hurt when MCSO chose to go to social media two days after the incident and described Diaz as violent without providing any context about her being mentally ill.
“They aren’t criminals. They didn’t choose to be sick,” Ruiz-Rodriguez said. “Marion County needs more mental health resources and officers need more training. Not just for the sake of the ill person but the families who can’t sleep at night because they are trying to do the best they can.”
CUSTODY OR CARE?
Mateo, 66, cares for Diaz and her grandson. On Jan. 3, 2024, the family had just moved to Ocala and they were all living in one house temporarily while Mateo’s house was being renovated for her, Diaz and Diaz’s son.
Diaz became aggressive toward her brother-in-law, spitting on him, throwing a plastic dish on the ground and shaking the back of his chair. Ruiz-Rodriguez called for an ambulance so Diaz could be taken into custody under the state’s Baker Act, which protects people who are a danger to themselves and others. The family hoped Diaz could get help regaining control of herself at a medical facility.
In bodycam footage from MCSO deputies, Ruiz-Rodriguez is seen greeting responding deputies and asking for their help to take her sister to the hospital. About 10 minutes later, the deputies spoke to the family and with Diaz, who was in the living room holding a ball. The deputies grabbed Diaz’s hands and she began to panic. Three deputies wrestled her to the floor while another started deploying a Taser on her in front of her mother, Diaz’s son, sister and brother-in-law.
The bodycam footage shows deputies holding Diaz around her neck and kneeling on her back while she is being struck by the Taser. Diaz’s family can be heard in the background yelling prayers for her.
The family has provided consent for the “Gazette” to share the video because they feel the deputies did not use proper precautions in handling Diaz.
Ruiz-Rodriguez lamented, “Maybe I should have been more specific with them about her fear of being touched and hit, particularly by law enforcement.”
The bodycam footage shows an MCSO supervisor arriving at the scene after Diaz had been loaded into an ambulance and telling Marion County Fire Rescue paramedics to take Diaz to the county jail. The paramedics pushed back, stating that the state Diaz was in required them to take her to a medical facility.
A deputy argued with the medics that Diaz was under arrest, that this was not a Baker Act case and that the deputies were refusing care for Diaz since she was unable to do so for herself. A deputy told the paramedics that Diaz would be checked out at the jail by a nurse.
The paramedics insisted on delivering Diaz to AdventHealth Ocala hospital, but she was quickly released to the MCSO jail. It would take two days and Mateo spending $13,000 to get Diaz out on bond. Because of the third-degree felony charges, Diaz was not entitled to entry into the county’s Mental Health Diversion Court.
Ruiz-Rodriguez said neither she nor her mother saw Diaz scratch or bite deputies during the altercation.
“It all happened so fast,” she said. “How do we know one deputy didn’t scratch the other? The video doesn’t reflect what they said happened.”
CONDITIONAL RELEASE – REARREST
Ruiz-Rodriguez said Diaz was conditionally released following the 2024 incident, but she missed a hearing scheduled for Nov. 4, 2024. Under her conditional release for the January charges, the family knew they could not persuade her to go. They reached out to the public defender and asked if she could appear by video for the hearing and said they got no help.
When Diaz didn’t appear for the Nov. 4 hearing, Circuit Judge Lisa Herndon issued a warrant for her arrest. Mateo said she felt she needed to hire a private attorney to negotiate on behalf of her daughter to have her sent to a medical facility instead of the Marion County jail. She hired Gainesville attorney Evan Gardiner of the Smith & Eulo Law Firm on Dec. 23 and paid him $5,000.
However, deputies showed up at Mateo’s house on Jan. 4, a year after the incident, and took Paula to jail, where she was held with no bond. The family said the deputies executing the warrant were sympathetic to the family’s concerns and transported Diaz carefully to the jail without incident.
Mateo said she paid $5,000 to Gardiner to use all the evidence they had that Diaz was incompetent to get her released from jail. Gardiner made a motion on Jan. 15 asking that Diaz be released under her prior conditional release plan because “the defendant’s condition has deteriorated to the point that inpatient care is required, or that the release conditions should be modified.”
The motion was denied and over the next months Diaz received additional psychological evaluations that all determined she was incompetent and not likely to be restored to competency.
In addition to a psychological disability, Diaz has numerous physical disabilities and medical conditions that can worsen if not treated, according to her family.
Jail records indicate that Diaz had at least two altercations with another inmate during her six-month stay.
FAMILY ANGUISH
Several months ago, Whitley traveled to Tallahassee to share the story of her brother and her family’s struggle to care for him and his eventual death in the Marion County Jail.
“I don’t want my brother to have died in vain,’’ she said. “I want to use my voice like I know my parents and my brother would want me to bring awareness to the inhumane treatment and suffering of people at the Marion County Jail.”
Scott Whitley, like Diaz, did not have a criminal history, only one of mental illness.
As previously reported by the “Gazette,” the new leader of the jail, Maj. Charles McIntosh, has ceased compliance reporting for medical care provided by the Heart of Florida Health Center at the jail despite growing concerns about questionable medical care that has led to an unusually high number of deaths at the facility.
Aaron Victoria, a senior advocate-investigator for Disability Rights Florida, has confirmed that the MCSO jail is being investigated by their agency, which is likely the only agency with the authority to assert access to the jail, other than the governor.
Ruiz-Rodriguez wrote the “Gazette” following Diaz’s release, “Our family is very happy to have Paula back home where she should’ve been and belongs. We’re pleased with Judge Kissner-Kwatkosky’s verdict and decision to release Paula with no prejudice. Not only is Paula innocent, but also a victim of the system in Marion County. We appreciate the prayers from family, friends, other mentally disabled victims, their relatives along with all the people that were involved in solving’s Paula’s case. We thank Disability Rights Florida for stepping in to investigate this matter as well.”
“We’re going to continuously support Paula with her mental health treatments and will continue advocating for her and for all the mentally disabled victims in the state of Florida,” she continued. “It happened to us, and it can happen to anybody. Be brave, be vocal and speak up knowing and defending your rights.”
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