TALLAHASSEE - A Florida juvenile justice lieutenant was fired and a lockup superintendent was suspended with pay Thursday after detention officials allegedly ignored reports of a juvenile sex offender raping a mentally retarded boy he was supposed to wash and diaper-change while in a state jail here.

The actions against Lt. Don Williams and Superintendent Linda Edwards-Ellis came at day's end, just hours after a heated meeting of a House Justice Appropriations Committee in which lawmakers interrogated the Department of Juvenile Justice chief, Anthony Schembri, over why he had neither fired nor suspended anyone in the 4-month-old Leon County case. The case was first reported in The Herald on Thursday.

Lawmakers were concerned with the DJJ's slow-footed response to the alleged rape of the 15-year-old with a 32 IQ, as well as with an audit of the agency detailing such sloppy record-keeping that even an independent analyst couldn't figure how much money the state lost in 1,160 cases of salary overpayment. Another eyebrow-raiser in the audit: Some DJJ officials have spending authority of $30,000 to $500,000 monthly, though the department failed to properly monitor purchases.

The alleged rape provoked passionate, angry and head-shaking responses from the lawmakers, especially Chairman Gus Barreiro, who nearly yelled at Schembri. Barreiro, a Miami Beach Republican, led an inquiry into the DJJ last year over the death of 17-year-old Omar Paisley, who perished from a ruptured appendix in a Miami lockup after writhing in pain for three days and pleading for help from uncaring guards questioning his manhood.

Following the death, a grand jury issued a stinging report, two lockup nurses were indicted and 25 DJJ officials were fired or resigned, including Schembri's predecessor.

''It's the Department of Déj Vu,'' Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and former federal prosecutor, said at the Thursday meeting.

Schembri agreed, to a point.

''I run this shop. This is my fault. Period. I take the blame,'' he said, referring to the financial audit, which found 10 areas of bad record-keeping and asset management. He agreed with seven of the 10 findings.

On the alleged rape case, Schembri said he knew little and could therefore take no disciplinary action while a just-begun internal investigation continued, but knew enough to declare it ''a very, very weak case.'' Schembri said the department held off on the inquiry while police investigated. The 17-year-old perpetrator, Lee Donton, is now charged with rape.

''The star witness in this case has lied -- fabricated . . . on four separate occasions,'' Schembri told the committee. ``So right now, we have a boy who has a 32 IQ, 300 pounds, wears Depends, and an allegation is made by a third party who has lied four times. So this is an allegation.''

`CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE'

Gelber suggested that Schembri was double-talking, and that, though the agency chief ''inherited a tough shop,'' such a statement ''does give a crisis of confidence right now'' because it recalls the Paisley case.

Schembri, a 41-year veteran New York police officer who was the inspiration for the TV show The Commish, got a little too dramatic for the committee's taste.

''I'm glad that you brought up Omar Paisley. Because I'll bet that each and every one of you don't know this -- do I have everybody's attention here for the moment, please? -- we have saved 11 Omar Paisleys with appendicitis,'' Schembri said.

Barreiro was outraged.

''I'm going to take offense to that,'' he said repeatedly, interrupting Schembri. ``You know who saved 11 lives? Omar Paisley. Omar Paisley's life saved 11 lives -- the one thing Omar Paisley left behind. For the department to take credit, to me, I take offense on behalf of that family, because this committee -- because Omar Paisley died the way he died. Dogs are treated better than Omar Paisley was treated. That's the reason the department is a watchdog over this.''

Said Schembri: ''I salute you for that.'' Barreiro stopped him again: ``Don't salute me. Don't salute me! But don't salute yourself, either.''

SPENDING QUESTIONED

Barreiro earlier suggested Schembri wasn't leading by example at the financially troubled agency, having spruced up a conference room for nearly $200,000 while equipping his car with $30,000 in police gear, from satellite-radio equipment to overhead blue lights. Schembri said the teleconference room has already saved travel money for the department and that the car was a mobile-command post needed to respond rapidly to disasters, including hurricanes.

Barreiro also read from an e-mail in which an alarmed guard said that a lieutenant, later identified as Williams, declined to do anything when the alleged rape was brought up, saying, ''We have bigger things to worry about.'' Superintendent Edwards-Ellis was included in the e-mail.

Neither Williams nor Edwards-Ellis could be reached for comment Thursday night. According to his personnel file, Williams consistently achieved high marks, except for an incident in 1996 when he was suspended for five days for leaving his post.

Herald staff writer Carol Marbin Miller contributed to this report.