PICTURED - Coward in cuffs: Parkland school sheriff's deputy stands forlorn with his wrists shackled after being charged with neglect for doing NOTHING as gunman slaughtered students and teachers
- Scot Peterson, 56, appeared in court via a video link from jail on Wednesday
- He has been charged with 11 criminal counts including neglect
- Peterson did nothing as Nikolas Cruz slaughtered 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018
- He claimed he did not know where the shots were coming from
- Audio from the day itself undermined his version of events
- Now, he faces nearly 100 years behind bars in an unprecedented criminal case
- He is being held on a $102,000 bond which his lawyers are trying to reduce
- Peterson's attorney is trying to claim that the charges do not apply to him because he was not a 'caregiver' to the children
- The families of some of those killed have welcomed the prosecution and say he could have saved lives
The Parkland school resource officer who did nothing as a teenage gunman murdered students and teachers appeared in court on Wednesday after being charged with neglect.
Scot Peterson was stony-faced as he appeared via video link to a court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the Broward County Jail.
He was charged on Tuesday with failing to protect the 17 students and teachers who were killed by Nikolas Cruz on Valentine's Day 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On Wednesday, Peterson's lawyer tried to have the charges dismissed and also asked for his bond to be reduced. The judge denied both requests.
Peterson, 56, was arrested on Tuesday on 11 charges including child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury. If convicted, he faces a potential prison sentence of nearly 100 years.
He is being held on a $102,000 bond which his attorneys sought to have reduced.
They say the charges do not apply because they are designed for 'caregivers' of children - ie children and teachers - which they say he is not.
His case is the first in which someone else has been charged other than the gunman in a school shooting.
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Scot Peterson was stony-faced as he appeared via video link to a court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the Broward County Jail
On February 14, 2018, Peterson was outside the building when Cruz opened fire.
Peterson was arrested on Tuesday. He is shown in his mugshot
He eventually took up his position, gun drawn, but did not go inside. In court papers, prosecutors said five people were killed and four others wounded after he did that.
His lawyers' defense, it seems, will be to try to argue out of the allegations on the technicality that he was employed by the police and not by the school.
'Mr. Peterson cannot reasonably be prosecuted because he was not a "caregiver," which is defined as a parent, adult household member or other person responsible for a child's welfare.
'Mr. Peterson was not criminally negligent in his actions, as no police officer has ever been prosecuted for his or her actions in responding to an active shooter incident.
'There has only ever been one person to blame - Nikolas Cruz,' his attorney Joseph DiRuzzo said.
The judge did not allow them to lay out any form of argument.
'I'm not going to entertain any motions today,' Broward Judge Jackie Powell said.
After his appearance in court, Peterson's lawyer told reporters they would try again to get bond lowered.
'We are waiting for the case to be assigned to a circuit criminal judge.
'We intend to file a motion to reduce bond and a motion to modify the terms of pretrial release.
'We expect Mr. Peterson to be treated fairly, just like every other person,' one said afterwards.
They then went to visit him in the jail where he appeared via video-link.
It is not clear if any of the parents of the children murdered were in court on Wednesday.
They welcomed news of his arrest on Tuesday.
'Rot in hell Scott Petersen. You could have saved some of the 17.
'You could have saved my daughter.
'You did not and then you lied about it and you deserve the misery coming your way,' Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed, said.
Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died in the shooting, said families wanted justice to be done.
'We are happy to see some accountability for this tragedy that took the life of my daughter Gina and 16 other wonderful individuals as well as terribly injured 17 others,' he said.
Peterson is shown talking into his radio on the day of the shooting. He advised that shots had been fired and said where they were coming from but later claimed he did not know the shooter was inside the building he was terrorizing
After telling other officers not to enter the school on February 14, Peterson hid 75ft away with his gun drawn for 45 minutes (shown)
Peterson's attorneys Joseph DiRuzzo and David Sobel arrive at the jail where he is being held on Wednesday after the hearing
Scot Peterson is shown in a June 2018 interview on Today where he insisted that he did not know the gunman was inside the school
'He could have and would have saved lives.
'So he has to deal with that for the rest of his life, ' added Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed.
Peterson has said in the past that his lack of action on the day of the shooting would 'haunt him' for the rest of his life but he has always maintained that he did not know the shots were being fired inside.
Gunman Nikolas Cruz, now 20, is facing execution
He claims he thought the gunfire was happening outside the school and that is why he did not enter the building when he was the only armed guard there.
'It haunts me that I didn't know at that moment, you know, that — those are my kids in there.
'I never would have sat there and let my kids get slaughtered,' he said in June last year.
'When I heard those shots outside, I didn't even think that someone was inside the building.
'I never even thought that. I thought, "There's shooting outside here. I don't know where it is."
'It's easy to sit there for people to go, "Oh, he should have known that that person was up there."
'It wasn't that easy,' he said.
But audio from the day clearly shows him telling other cops: 'We're looking at the 1200 building, it's going to be the 300 building, it's right off Holmberg Road, by the senior lot.'
Later, he told them: 'We also heard it's by, inside the 1200 building.' Legal experts have questioned whether or not the charges against him are fair.
He is already facing numerous lawsuits from the families of some of the victims. After the massacre, Peterson moved from Florida to North Carolina.
An investigation into his failings and others took 14 months.
It also revealed the signs in place that Cruz was a danger to himself and to other students.
He had been asked to leave school and was not allowed to carry a backpack because he was considered to be dangerous. The gunman was expelled before the massacre.