Poor thing

There, there. It will be OK. You might get to announce a real lynching some day, and then just think how happy you'll be!

Ben Crump is probably disappointed too.

The demand for 'white hate crimes' far, FAR exceeds the supply.

It's a bad week for the race hustlers. I hear that Al Sharpton had to check himself into rehab.

Nolan Wells Accidental Death

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
It's a bad week for the race hustlers. I hear that Al Sharpton had to check himself into rehab.

Nolan Wells Accidental Death

Sometimes the police agency harms it's own case, while following protocols/advice staffed by attorneys that are more concerned with potential civil issues than the matter at hand. I experienced a case that's similar to this one, though less publicized.

Before I retired and while assigned as a homicide investigator, my officers from my police department arrested a young woman that was extremely intoxicated and causing a disturbance about the time the bars were closing. While certainly drunk enough to need to be taken off the street for her own safety, this subject didn't express any thoughts that she might have posed a danger to herself or others during the booking process and she was placed in a cell overnight, with the belief she'd be released in the morning after she'd sobered up. Nothing unusual about the matter and besides regular jail checks, everything seemed ok...until a few hours later she was found hanging from one of the bars on or near the cell door. Unsuccessful attempts were made to revive her and as per policy and procedure a couple of other homicide investigators from my unit were assigned to investigate this "In Custody Death."

Every jail, prison, or other correctional facility experiences these kinds of incidents, and though they're taken very seriously for obvious reasons including potential civil liability. While I wasn't initially directly involved in this case, the other two investigators sat nearby and at time I could see that much of what they did involved consultation with the City Attorney.

The two other detectives eventually retired and about a year after the incident I received a telephone call from the mother of the deceased woman. She was still distraught about the incident and having lost a member of my immediate family to suicide myself as well as having been responsible for investigating scores of such incidents during my career, I understood and felt a lot of empathy towards her. I told her that I was sorry for her loss, and said I'd do anything I could to help her from my end. The grieving mother told me that I was the only one that said he was sorry for her loss and told me she wanted to collect her daughter's belongings that were retained by my department. It was heartbreaking to talk with her, but I said I'd do what I could and also said that I related to what she must be going through as I'd lost a brother to suicide. She expressed sympathy for my situation and I checked into releasing the property with my supervisor.

My supervisor told me that I'd have to get approval from the city attorney's office first, because Al Sharpton had gotten involved (the decedent was African American) and was alleging that the young woman was a victim of foul play. I looked over the case file and saw nothing to indicate she'd died as a result of intentional or negligent conduct on the part of any employee and obtained approval to release the property to the mother.

When I told the woman that I'd release her daughter's property to her, she was extremely grateful and said trusted me, but Sharpton and others associated with him had caused her to believe her daughter's death was very possibly a homicide. I told her that was simply untrue and asked her if she knew that there was video evidence showing that she'd hung herself. The woman was shocked. She said she hadn't been told anything of the sort by any of the investigators or the lawyers that were associated with Sharpton. She then asked if she could see the video herself. The video depicted the decedent reaching through the bars to create the noose, but because of the angle of the camera, you couldn't see the act itself or the young woman until the jailers had found and tried to in vain to resuscitate her. I said I'd try and get approval for her to view the video and she was surprised and relieved to hear my offer.

I obtained approval for the mother to see the video and though I'd set up the opportunity for her, I wasn't there when she saw it as soon after my pending promotion to sergeant had come through and I was transferred out of Detectives and back to Patrol. A few months later, I received a call in the Watch Commander's Office and was surprised to learn it was from the mother. She'd just called to thank me for the help I'd provided, to tell me she'd seen the video, and say that she'd rejected the "assistance" from Sharpton and his associates. I said I'd just done what anyone else in my position should have done and after she again thanked me and acknowledged my own grief about my brother, we ended the conversation.

At the time and even now, I get kinda choked up just thinking about this. I can't help but notice the similarities between this incident and what occurred in the more recent case. I don't know why that neither the other two investigators or a deputy city attorney didn't mention the videotape directly to the mother. Maybe they provided the information to her "legal team" and they failed to pass it on for their own reasons, abut I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Ben Crump would withhold something like this (just my opinion), for his own benefit. IMHO, someone on our end should have just helped this poor woman out like I did, and even if the shitstorm hadn't occurred in the first place, it could have been resolved much more quickly.