FALSE STATEMENTS MADE IN THE DADE COUNTY FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY’S 3/17/17 WRITTEN DECISION TO NOT PROSECUTE DARREN RAINEY’S KILLERS

Katherine Fernandez Rundle

In this blog I’m going to address numerous statements made by the Dade County Florida State Attorney in her 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Darren Rainey’s killers.  The Dade County State Attorney’s statements that I’m about to address are somewhat trivial, but I feel I should give them some attention.  Why?  Because they add up to more attempts to cover up Darren Rainey’s murder.  

All the page references herein are to the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers.

1. The last sentence on page 30 says I asked “inmate (Daniel) Medbury if he would talk with reporters.”  Rainey was killed on 6/23/12.  The possibly hundreds of pages of grievances and letters I wrote between July 2012 and February 2014 on the Rainey murder and the events that happened at Dade C.I., will show not one reference to the media.  My writings after March 2014  show hundreds, if not thousands of references to the media.  What does this show?  It shows I never thought about contacting the media between July 2012 and February 2014.  To further prove that I never thought about contacting the media prior to February 2014, not one media outlet in the World will say I contacted them prior to February 2014.  The first media outlet I contacted was in February 2014 and it was through another person.  That media outlet was the Miami Herald newspaper, the Dade County Florida State Attorney could easily verify through Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) Housing Logs and Records that I haven’t been incarcerated with or communicated with Daniel Medberry since prior to December 2012.  Since I never thought about contacting the media in 2012, I would’ve never asked Medberry if he’d talk to reporters.  Again, I never thought about communicating with media / reporters prior to February, 2014.  I did give the Miami Herald in 2014 Daniel Medberry’s name, but since I never spoke with Medberry from December 2012 till the day I’m writing this blog, I never had a chance to bring up the media to Medberry.  I could be wrong, but I don’t believe Medberry made this claim.
2. In the first paragraph on page 43, it says Gregory Shevlin didn’t “have any direct knowledge of the death of inmate Rainey.”  I explained in detail in a blog I wrote just on Shevlin how I believe Shevlin was in fear of his life when the police questioned Shevlin about Rainey’s murder while he was still housed in the Dade C.I. TCU and how Shcvlin was one of the orderlies working on the night Rainey was killed.  
3. In the first sentence, second paragraph, on page 59 it says “inmate-interviews taken later were likely tainted or influenced by the statements made by inmate Hempstead as several of those interviewed mentioned they had spoken with inmate Hempstead.”  I underlined ‘likely’ because this is just the State Attorney’s bias opinion.  The State Attorney presents contradictive positions in her own document.  The Dade County State Attorney throughout her 3/17/17 written decision contends the testimony of other inmates and I were inconsistent.  In the above cited sentence on page 59 the State Attorney contends other inmate’s interviews were likely tainted or influenced by statements I made to the other inmate-witnesses.  If I allegedly “tainted or influenced” their testimony, then that would mean the statements of other inmates had to be consistent with mine.  I’m sure she wouldn’t allege I “tainted or influenced” their statements to be inconsistent with mine.  Because the Dade County State Attorney is attempting to twist the truth, her writings are full of obvious contradictions like this one.  
4. In the last two sentences of the third paragraph on page 61 it states “in addition, Hempstead asserted that Rainey began to scream as if in pain as well as kicked the shower door because the water in the shower was too hot.  Therefore, it is Hempstead’s position that Rainey was deliberately scalded in the shower by the excessively hot water.”  This is another lie and twisting of the facts by the Dade County State Attorney.  I’ve consistently stated from June 2012 in my diary, FDC Grievances, letters and interviews that inmates placed in the shower for punishment could avoid getting the hot water on their bodies, and that the primary punishment with the shower was the extreme heat and steam in the shower caused by the hot water.  I really don’t know what to say about this far-fetched lie and twisting of the facts by the Dade County State Attorney.
5. In the last paragraph of page 61 it states that I encouraged/solicited some of the inmates I spoke with to file complaints and contact the media.  It is a well-known fact that I did ask Daniel Medberry and Mark Joiner to file complaints on the Rainey case.  I didn’t ask any other inmates to do such because the majority of other inmate-witnesses were mentally unstable or very fearful.  If I could’ve spoke with Medberry or Joiner after I started talking with the media in 2014 I would’ve asked them to speak with the media, but to this day I haven’t got a chance to speak with them.  The last time I spoke with Medberry was prior to December 2012 and the last time I spoke with Joiner was January 2013.  Since I haven’t got a chance to speak with these inmates since the foregoing times, when I started talking with the media in 2014, I gave the media these inmates’ names.  This might just be a trivial lie by the Dade County State Attorney, but it’s still a lie.  
6. On page 64 the Dade County Florida State Attorney says I was incorrect in saying Ofc. Thompson found Rainey dead in the shower and that Ofc. Clarke actually found Rainey dead.  Since 2012 I stated in my diary, FDC grievances, letters and interviews, that Ofc. Thompson found Rainey dead, left Rainey dead on the shower floor for approximately eight minutes while Ofc. Thompson told Ofc. Clarke and his co-workers that Rainey was dead, and that Ofc. Clarke came back to the shower and acted like he found Rainey dead.  A review of the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers shows that the Dade County Florida State Attorney just chose to believe what the Dade C.I. staff said who killed Rainey (and have a reason to lie), over what I said (even though I have/had nothing to gain by speaking out in this case.)

These are some of the small lies and twisting of facts in the Dade County State Attorney’s written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers I wanted to address.  Please share this blog with your friends and with anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Harold Hempstead, ‘Caged Crusader’

Darren Rainey

A BLOG ON HOW DADE C.I. TCU STAFF DENIED MENTALLY DISABLED INMATES FOOD AS A FORM OF PUNISHMENT

Over the approximately two years I worked in the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit (TCU) I discovered that one of the most common forms of unlawful punishment Dade C.I. staff subjected mentally disabled inmates to was denying the patients food.  It was very  common on all the shifts to deny inmates one to three of their meals a day.  Dozens of security staff used to commonly do the foregoing.   There were times I seen twenty to twenty-five inmates denied a meal in one day.  This caused a lot of inmate-patients to lose large quantities of weight in the TCU in short periods of time.  In two of my other blogs, I explained how Oscar Davis and Darrell Richardson, I believed, died from medical problems associated with being denied large quantities of food/starved over long periods of time.  The Miami Herald newspaper referenced Dade C.I. TCU mentally disabled inmates being denied large quantities of food as punishment in several of the articles they published.  In April, 2016 The New Yorker magazine published an article entitled ‘Madness’ which also mentions the foregoing.  George Mallinckrodt who was a counsellor in the Dade C.I. TCU spoke about inmate-patients being denied large quantities of food in his book ‘Getting Away With Murder.’  This long-term abuse/torturing by denying mentally disabled inmates large quantities of food/starvation was happening in the same Dade C.I. TCU Darren Rainey was murdered in.  

Will you please share this blog with your friends and with anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please also sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

OSCAR L. DAVIS – A DEAD INMATE WHO I WITNESSED BE DENIED DOZENS OF MEALS OVER A SEVERAL-MONTH PERIOD

In 2011 when I arrived at the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit (TCU) there was a blind, mentally disabled inmate there named Oscar Davis.  Oscar Davis was highly disliked by all of the staff and most of the inmates because of the charges he was incarcerated on and because he was very loud and disrespectful.  It was alleged that he was in prison for raping a senior citizen and that he also dug out his own eyes.  When I was an orderly in the Dade C.I. TCU I was the inmate who held the trays of food and gave the trays to the inmates during meal times.  The inmate-patients were locked in their cells during meal times.  The only way I could give the inmate-patients a tray was if security opened the food flaps for me to give the inmates their trays of food.  If security didn’t want to feed an inmate-patient, they wouldn’t open the inmate’s food flap.  This was done so much that it was common sense that the inmate-patients in the cells that didn’t have the food flaps opened, weren’t being fed.  In 2011, one of the inmates that I witnessed be denied the most food was Oscar L. Davis.  He was denied one to two meals a day (and sometimes three meals a day) for the months I knew him between April and December 2011.  I watched his physical health get worse.  I remember the day mental health specialist Dr Cesar told me Oscar Davis was taken to an outside doctor and that doctor said Davis was missing the type of vitamin in his body that allowed the doctor to know he was being denied large quantities of food.  Dr Cesar then asked me if Oscar Davis was being fed.  I told Dr Cesar to listen to what the outside doctor said.  I also remember when security told me Oscar Davis was dying on the day he left the Dade C.I. TCU.  Finally, I remember about two weeks after Davis left the Dade C.I. TCU, security telling me that Oscar Davis died.  

Since 2011 I’ve believed that Oscar Davis being denied so much food contributed to his death.  Am I wrong to believe that if the extreme lack of food caused Davis to have a medical condition that killed him, then those who denied Davis so much food killed him?  Please tell me what you think.  I’ve shared this issue with the Department of Justice and others.  Oscar Davis was the first inmate that I knew, while at Dade C.I. TCU, who I believe staff killed.  I admit I don’t have as much evidence on Oscar Davis as I do Darren Rainey, but I still think the extreme denial of food led to Davis dying.  What happened to Oscar Davis was swept under the rug by the Florida Department of Corrections and covered up by the MDPD, Dade County Medical Examiner and Dade County State Attorney.  How they seen it, Oscar Davis was a poor, black, mentally disabled inmate in prison for raping a senior citizen.  I believe what is important is not who Oscar Davis was but that right is right and wrong is wrong.  Nobody has the right to starve or kill somebody just because they don’t like them.  We have to have an objective standard on the value of life and not a subjective standard.  We must say the lives of all people matter, no matter their nationality, race, religion, creed, or position in this World.  Anything less is an attack on the value of life.  Oscar Davis was denied large quantities of food as punishment in the same Dade C.I. TCU Darren Rainey was killed in.  Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please sign our petition on Change.org called THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

WHAT HAPPENED TO HAROLD HEMPSTEAD (ME) ON THE DAY THE DADE COUNTY FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY RELEASED THEIR DECISION TO NOT PROSECUTE DARREN RAINEY’S KILLERS

At 3:30am on 3/17/17 I was waken in my prison cell at Hardee C.I. by Cpt. Schrank, Sgt. Hamilton, and Ofc. Cabrara.  After being told all my property was going to be thrown in the trash, I was taken to the front of Hardee C.I.  While in the front of Hardee C.I., Cpt. Schrank told Sgt. Hamilton “Serg. it’s on you.”  Sgt. Hamilton then slapped me with an open hand.  Ofc. Cabrara helped me get back up, as he was saying “get up Hempstead,” Ofc. Cabrara then held me from behind by both arms as Sgt. Hamilton grabbed my throat and said “you could’ve had a serious accident, but instead you’re being spared.  Don’t forget that.  You hear me?”

When the Sgt. let go of my throat, Cpt. Schrank said “you really pissed off the wrong person.  Think about what he said and think hard!”  When Ofc. Cabrara let me go he punched me in my lower back.

After the foregoing I was placed on a van with none of my law-work, Bible, property, pain medicine and wrist-support for my broken right wrist, pain medicine and back-brace for my hurt back, vision glasses and ADA equipment for my eyes, and without a urinal to urinate in on the four hour trip to Regional Medical Centre (RMC).

After we arrived at RMC, I was placed on another van and driven to an institution in Tennessee that is part of the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC).

I have no criminal charges in Tennessee.  Interstate Compact is when an inmate is sent from one state prison to do his prison time in a state he wasn’t convicted in.  The majority of time inmates request to be Interstate Compacted from one state to another state to be closer to their family or to have better living conditions in a different state.  I didn’t request to be Interstate Compacted.  I never knew I was going to be subject to involuntary Interstate Compact.

Why was I involuntary Interstate Compacted?  I was recently told that the Florida Department of Corrections told Tennessee that the reason why Florida involuntary Interstate Compacted me was for my protection.  In other words, Florida has alleged that I had a serious protection issue in Florida that made it where I wouldn’t be safe at any institution in Florida.  It is obvious that the only protection problems I’d have in Florida is with Florida prison staff because of my activism concerning the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.  Accordingly, the Florida prison system has tacitly stated they can’t trust their own prison staff in sending me to Tennessee for protection from Florida Prison Staff.  If the Florida prison system could trust their own staff I wouldn’t have been involuntarily Interstate Compacted to the Tennessee prison system.  I believe this should show the Department of Justice and everybody that the fact that the Florida prison system don’t trust their own staff to not physically harm me shows how bad the conditions are in the Florida prison system.

Now even though the Florida prison system contends I was involuntary Interstate Compacted for my protection, I believe I was subjected to the foregoing as punishment for my Civil Rights activism concerning the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.

I also believe that another primary reason I was subjected to the punishment of involuntary Interstate Compact and the events that happened on 3/17/17 was as a way of hindering my communications with the media and etc. on the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s decision to not prosecute Darren Rainey’s killers.  Obviously it is harder to communicate with Florida media from Tennessee than from Florida.  I believe I was battered and the other things happened to me on 3/17/17 as punishment for my Civil Rights activism on the Rainey case and Florida prison system and as a way of Florida prison staff trying to give me something to think about if I continue my activism in the Rainey case and against the unconstitutional conditions of the Florida prison system.

Please share this blog with your friends.  Also, please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

 

 

THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF INTENT TO HARM DARREN RAINEY

Question:  Was there any evidence of intent to harm Darren Rainey?

Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle says “No.”

What does the evidence show?

1)  Several inmates said the water in the shower Rainey was murdered in got very, very hot.  Some said the water temperature in the shower exceeded 180°.  Several inmates said Dade C.I. staff placed inmates in the shower as punishment, and staff use to turn the water on full hot with no cold while the inmates were in it.  Several inmates also said they were placed in the shower as punishment.  This was the same shower Rainey was killed in.

2)  The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) has a procedure called ‘Forced Hygiene Compliance Procedure.’  If Rainey wiped feces on himself and was refusing to shower, Dade C.I. staff were required to follow this procedure.  They didn’t follow this procedure because their intent was to harm Rainey and not to help him, because he was being a headache to them.  This procedure required them to get approval from the Duty Warden and Psychiatrist before placing Rainey in the shower, staff would’ve had to use a hand-held video camera to record all their actions and Rainey’s actions while doing Forced Hygiene Compliance and the Duty Warden and a nurse would’ve had to been present through the whole process.  These things would’ve prevented Dade C.I. staff from placing Rainey in the shower they placed him in to punish him and that eventually killed him.

3)  Rainey wasn’t placed in any of the 6 operating showers in Wing J1 where he was housed.  He was placed in a shower in another wing that he wasn’t housed in, on a night inmates in the TCU weren’t supposed to be in any showers.  He was placed in the only operating shower in the TCU that was in a blind-spot, that mounted security cameras in Wing J3 couldn’t view.

4)  Dade C.I. staff who tested the water in the shower Rainey was killed in said the water temperature exceed 180° which was approximately 55 to 60° hotter than what FDC’s Environmental Health and Safety Manual mandated it could be.  There was no lawful or logical reason for the water temperature in the shower Rainey was murdered in to be so hot.  The only possible reason it was so hot was to punish mentally disabled inmates that refused to follow staffs’ orders.

5)  Rainey was unsupervised and in the shower for approximately 2 hours as a form of punishment.

6)  If staff were trying to shower Rainey, how come they placed him in the only shower in the TCU that he could avoid the water in?  Rainey wouldn’t have been able to avoid the water in any of the ten other working showers in the TCU.  The obvious and only possible reason Rainey was placed in the only shower in the TCU that he could avoid the water in was because he wasn’t placed in that shower to shower.  Rainey was placed in that shower as punishment and that is why he was placed in the only shower in the TCU that reached temperatures in excess of 180°.

7)  Officer Roland Clarke or any of the other Dade C.I. staff didn’t take Rainey out of the shower even though he continued to yell and kick the shower door asking to get out (because of how hot it was in the shower.)  If they weren’t trying to harm him they would’ve took him out of the shower when he was pleading to get out of the shower.

8)  In the state’s own report that I have, Dade C.I. staff and medical staff that were working on the night Rainey was murdered said his skin was burned.

9)  Dade C.I. Captain Dixon who tested the water temperature in the shower (according to the State Attorney) said the water was tested at 160 degrees.

How many times have the people of America heard obvious lies and twisting of facts by those who don’t want to prosecute when a black man is killed by a law enforcement official?  It is a sad thing that Dade State Attorney Ms Rundle has chose to not uphold justice but instead let Rainey’s killer (Roland Clarke) go free.

Please share this blog with your friends.  If you know anybody that can aid in getting justice for Rainey, please share this blog with them.  Please sign our petition on Change.org

THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER

Caged Crusader

2 OFFICERS, 3 NURSES AND A FIRE RESCUE LIEUTENANT SAY RAINEY’S BODY HAD SKIN SLIPPAGE, WITH REDNESS, FELT HOT AND APPEARED TO BE BURNED, ON NIGHT RAINEY WAS KILLED

Here are some of the many important facts that appear in the Dade County State Attorney’s 3/17/17 inter-office memorandum stating they’re not going to prosecute anybody for murdering Darren Rainey:

Pg.9:  Ofc.s Clarke and Thompson, Nurse Patino and Lt. Lopez (Miami Dade Fire Rescue) all said that Rainey’s body had red areas and skin slippage or coming off and some further advised that, in their opinion, he had possibly sustained burns while in the shower.

Pg.18  Dade C.I. Nurse Patino said when the shower was off the night Rainey was murdered, steam was in the shower, Rainey’s skin was peeling off and his body felt hot.

Pg.19  Dade C.I. Nurse Robinson said that she went to the shower when Darren Rainey was dead in it and the shower room felt warm and steamy.  She also said Rainey had skin slippage.

Pg.20  Dade C.I. Nurse Wilson said that she seen Rainey’s body directly after he was killed and it appeared red and wrinkled.  She told the 911 operator on the night Rainey was murdered that Rainey’s body appeared to be burned.  Nurse Wilson noticed skin slippage on Rainey also.

Pg.21  Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Lieutenant Alexander Lopez who seen Rainey’s body on the night he was killed said he appeared to have burns and skin slippage on certain parts of his body.

Pg.49  Dade C.I. Dixon stated she tested the water temperature in the shower Darren Rainey was killed in 2 days after Rainey was killed and the thermometer read 160°F.

According to the Dade County State Attorney’s memorandum, the officer who placed Rainey in the shower (and Ofc.Thompson) on the night Rainey was killed said Rainey’s skin was slipping off, he had red areas on his body, and he possibly sustained burns.  Why would they say this unless they knew the water Rainey was in was very hot?  If any staff tested the water before putting Rainey in it there would’ve been no reason to think Rainey’s body was burned.  The only logical reason why Ofc.s Clarke and Thompson said Rainey’s body appeared to be burned was because they just had Rainey in a very hot shower for a long time and they knew that’s what made his skin look burned.

Other than what these 2 officers said, nurses Patino, Robinson, Wilson who all seen Rainey’s body on the night he was killed said his body appeared to be burned, his skin was slipping off him, his skin was red and wrinkled, his body felt hot, and steam was in the shower he was killed in.  These 3 nurses are trained medical providers that have specialized training and experience with the human body.  They all seen Rainey’s body directly after he was killed.  Did they all lie about what they seen?  Of course not.  They told the truth.

The same applies to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Lieutenant Lopez who seen Rainey’s body on the night he was killed.  He said Rainey appeared to have burns and skin slippage on certain parts of his body.  Did he lie?  Of course not.  He told the truth.

Why was Rainey’s skin in the condition these state officials said it was in on the night Rainey was killed?  Dade C.I. Captain Dixon tells us why:  Because the shower water in the shower Rainey was killed in was tested at 160°F.

Did I or somebody else convince these state officials named herein to make these statements?  Of course not.  The state doesn’t try to twist these state officials’ statements and say somebody manipulated them to make these statements (like they did with the inmate witnesses.)  Instead the state uses the Dade County Medical Examiners statement to try and refute these state officials’ statements.  In other words, to say they were mistaken.  Were these 2 Officers, 3 Nurses, and Fire Rescue Lieutenant all wrong about what they seen or were they all right?  I believe it is only logical to say they were all right.  I believe that the reason why it took so long for the Medical Examiner to come back with her far-fetched findings was because she had to search long and hard to refute what these state officials seen and what Darren Rainey’s body proved.  These state officials gave stronger statements than what I did about Rainey dying in a hot torturing-devise shower.

There is corruption in this case at the highest level. Why?  Because Dade County doesn’t want to spend the money it’d cost to prosecute Rainey’s killers.  Rainey wasn’t worth that amount of money to them.  Why wasn’t he?  Because he was a poor, black, mentally disabled Muslim prisoner and Black Lives Don’t Matter In Dade County.

Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you think could help with getting justice for Rainey.  Please sign our petition on Change.org – THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER

Caged Crusader

DADE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER SAID SHE DID NOT KNOW WHY RAINEY’S BODY WAS HOT WHEN TAKEN OUT OF SHOWER AND HOURS LATER

On 3/17/17 the Dade County State Attorney issued an inter-office memorandum stating they weren’t going to prosecute anybody for killing Darren Rainey.  I have this document in my possession and I’d like to share what it says starting in the last paragraph of pg.54.  The last paragraph of pg.54 reads:

“Dr Lew noted that Rainey had an elevated body temperature (as taken by a nurse) after he was taken out of the shower and his temperature was still elevated hours later when it was taken as part of the autopsy protocol.  Without knowing what Rainey’s temperature was before he was placed in  the shower, it is hard for Dr Lew to asses this fact.   The only comment she could make was that, along with knowledge of the time of death, elevated temperature contributed to decomposition and most likely to his skin slippage.”

Did Dr Lew really say she couldn’t say why Rainey’s body was hot when he was taken out of the shower, and was still hot hours later?  Let’s see what the most logical reason would be.  On pg.49 of this same report, Dade C.I. Cpt. Dixon said she tested the water in the shower Rainey was killed in, 2 days after Rainey’s murder, at 160°F.  Rainey’s killer Ofc. Clarke on pg.14 of this State Attorney’s report said, when he seen Rainey’s body on the shower floor, his body was covering the drain and there was water pooled around him.  Throughout this State Attorney report several inmates say the shower had excessively hot water in it that Rainey was killed in.  In the State’s Memorandum/Report that Dr Lew is cited as saying she didn’t know why Rainey’s body was hot when taken out of the shower and hours later, it clearly states that Rainey’s body was laying on the shower floor in 160°F water.  This is what happens when people twist facts.  Their own words can be used against them on major relevant facts.  Not something that is trivial.  It is very hard to believe that Dr Lew would state she didn’t know why his body was hot.  Wait a minute!  I guess it’s not.  If she said that the reason why his body was hot was because he was just taken out of an excessively hot shower, then that would mean a murder prosecution had to happen.  A murder prosecution could not happen.  Why?  Because Darren Rainey was a poor, black, mentally disabled Muslim prisoner and his life does not matter to Dr Lew and the Dade County State Attorney.

Please share this blog with your friends.  Please share this blog with anybody who you believe can help with getting justice for Rainey!  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER

Caged Crusader

WHY DID DADE COUNTY STATE ATTORNEY KATHERINE FERNANDEZ RUNDLE FOCUS ON SMALL IRRELEVANT FACTS WHEN SHE DECIDED TO NOT PROSECUTE IN THE DARREN RAINEY MURDER?

If you go to the Pinellas County, Florida Clerk of Court records for the case I’m in prison on (Case No.: CRC 99-05695 FANO) it’ll show that my State Attorney used the following in Voir Dire as a way to tell the jury to not focus on small irrelevant facts that have no bearing on the trial.  The State Attorney said “Ladies and gentlemen, imagine if you would, you were at the Superbowl with fifty thousand people watching it in the stadium with you.  A man jumps out of the sitting area on to the field and kills a player.  Everybody watched the killing, you were all eyewitnesses, but none of your statements will be identical.  All the eyewitnesses will say the man who went on the field killed the player, but outside of that, to some degree or another, all the statements will be different.  Some might say it was sunny, others might say it was cloudy, many will say the killer was wearing clothing that he wasn’t wearing;  and so on and so forth.  The important thing about their statements is not the irrelevant facts, but that they all agreed that the man who went on the field killed the player”

Now the foregoing to some degree was improper in my trial because I wasn’t on trial for murder.  I was on trial for burglaries and dealing in stolen property.  However, what the State Attorney was in essence telling the jurors in my trial was to not focus on the small irrelevant facts but focus on the relevant facts.

From my 18 years of reading case law I have learned that it is a common thing for State Attorneys to tell jurors to not focus on the small, irrelevant facts but only on relevant facts.  As a certified paralegal I also learned the reasoning behind this in my college studies.  Small irrelevant facts have no bearing on a case.

Now please keep these things in mind as I explain something important the Dade County State Attorney stated in their 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute anybody for murdering Darren Rainey.

Multiple inmates that the State Attorney can verify were in the wing on the night Rainey was murdered gave statements during the investigation.  All of these inmates agreed on the following relevant facts:

(1)  Officer Roland Clark placed Rainey in the shower.

(2)  The shower had very hot water in it.

(3)  Rainey screamed while in the shower trying to get out of the shower.

(4)  Rainey died in the shower.

These are the important relevant facts.  The State stresses in their written decision that the witnesses didn’t agree on the actual time Rainey was placed in the shower and when he started to yell.  The witnesses agreed he died at night on 6/23/12 and that he yelled while in the shower, but the State Attorney nit-picks and blames witnesses to a brutal murder that happened months shy of 5 years ago for not keeping accurate time of when everything happened.  The majority of people in this world don’t think about documenting the time of when they are witnessing a brutal murder and the details that lead to that murder.  They are usually in shock and try to block out what they witnessed.

The inmate witnesses all agreed on the important facts:

(1)  Officer Roland Clark placed Rainey in the shower.

(2)  The shower had very hot water in it.

(3)  Rainey screamed in the shower trying to get out of the shower.

(4)  Rainey died in the shower.

I’m sure most (if not all) would agree with me that these are the important facts.

Why did the Dade County State Attorney focus on irrelevant facts and not these important facts?  Because to Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Darren Rainey was a poor, black, mentally disabled, Muslim prisoner, and his life did not matter.  If Ms Rundle would have filed charges against Officer Clarke

(1)  She would have been prosecuting an officer who is a member of the PBA – a group strong enough to get her out of office.

(2)  The State Attorney would’ve had to pay a large quantity of money to prosecute the case and Rainey’s life to Ms Rundle wasn’t worth what it cost.

(3)  She would’ve broke the pattern her office has had for a very very long time of not prosecuting law enforcement officials who unlawfully murder African Americans.

These are the reasons why Ms Rundle in her 3/17/17 decision decided to focus on small irrelevant facts and not relevant facts.

Please share this blog with your friends and whoever you think could help with obtaining justice for the murder of Darren Rainey.  Please contact Revs. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the founders of Black Lives Matter and ask them for help in getting justice for Darren Rainey.  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER. 

Caged Crusader

HAROLD HEMPSTEAD TRANSFERRED TO TDOC ON 3/17/17 TO HINDER HIS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEDIA ON THE DARREN RAINEY MURDER CASE.

I believe that one of the reasons I was transferred from the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) on 3/17/17 to the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) was to hinder my communications with the media on the Darren Rainey murder case.  Why else would I have been sent outside of Florida 2 states away from Florida on the same day the Dade County State Attorney released their decision to not prosecute in the Darren Rainey case?

The Dade County State Attorney and FDC knew this would extremely hinder my ability to communicate with the media about the Dade County State Attorney’s decision and about their extreme twisting of the facts.  They knew that I would challenge their statements and twisting the most, so they decided to send me to another state on the same day they released their decisions.  By doing what they did it has made it where the State Attorney can tell their twisted facts on why they aren’t going to prosecute and the person who knows this case the best (me) (other than the media) is extremely hindered in challenging their statements.  Because I was deposited into another state prison system with none of my property on the day the State Attorney released their decision.

The things that FDC will do to cover up their evils and try to discredit their witnesses.

Please share this blog with your friends.  Please share this blog with anybody you know that can help with getting justice for Darren Rainey.  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Caged Crusader

If Black Lives Matter Then The People Of Dade County Should Make Sure Katherine Fernandez Rundle Is Not Re-Elected As The Dade County State Attorney

“I believe Ms Rundle has again shown the people of Dade County that Black lives don’t matter in Dade County.  How has she done this?  By again not prosecuting a law enforcement official that killed an African American in Dade County.

The Medical Examiner Representative that was called to get Rainey’s body on the night he was killed, in his initial report talked about the damage to Darren Rainey’s skin when he seen his body within hours of the murder.  Now they say Rainey’s skin showed no damage.

A nurse working on the night Rainey was murdered told the Miami Herald in a May 18^th or 19^th, 2014 article how hot Rainey’s body was after being cooked in water that exceeded 180 degrees.  Now they say his body wasn’t hot.

Mark Joiner talked about how he was forced to clean up Rainey’s skin.

An inmate wrote a letter to the FDC Inspector General’s Office the day after Rainey was murdered saying Dade C.I. staff killed Darren Rainey.

Several other inmates said Dade C.I. staff killed Darren Rainey.

Two Dade C.I. mental health staff in Miami Herald articles and in the New Yorker magazine article called ‘Madness,’ spoke about the torturing and abuse in the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit (TCU).

The Miami Federal  District Court in Case # 1 : 14 – cv – 23323 allowed a federal lawsuit to be settled in favor of Disability Rights Florida because Julie Jones and FDC agreed that the conditions of the Dade C.I. TCU were unconstitutional.  The lawsuit in this case mentions in detail the shower treatment that 4 inmates other than Rainey received and how Rainey was killed in said shower.  This doesn’t include what I witnessed and dozens of other pieces of evidence.

Now after having to push the Miami Dade Police Department and Dade County State Attorney’s Office to investigate the brutal murder of Poor, Black, Mentally Disabled, Muslim Prisoner Darren Rainey, how has the Dade County State Attorney responded?  They responded by saying you should’ve seen that we didn’t want to investigate this case.  You should’ve known we will not prosecute our own when they kill African Americans.  You should’ve known that Darren Rainey was a Poor, Black,  Mentally Disabled, Muslim Prisoner and his life did not matter.

Ms Rundle – Darren Rainey’s life did matter.”

Harold Hempstead, March 27^th, 2017

T.D.O.C #577366, 21B cell 206A, Bledsoe County Correctional Complex, 1045 Horsehead Rd., Pikeville, Tennessee 37367, USA.

———————————————————————–

Notes

FDC is Florida Department of Corrections.

C.I. means Correctional Institution

TCU means Transitional Care Unit.  It’s the mental hospital unit at Dade C.I. where suffering inmate/patients are ‘treated.’

When asked what to do with the pieces of Darren Rainey’s skin that he’d collected from the ‘special’ shower, Mark Joiner was told to “throw it in the trash.”  This was, apart from being a man’s skin, vital physical evidence that the police failed to collect, let alone respect.   

The fact that inmates wrote letters of complaint over this killing is highly significant.  This is portrayed negatively by the authorities in media reports as convicts trying to gain some advantage by making such statements.  The reality is that these inmates are risking their very lives at the hands of the guards by testifying.  Last year FDC staff were involved in 366 ‘inmate-fatalities’ in Florida prisons.

When previously taken to court in Miami over the events concerning the ‘special shower’ at Dade C.I., Julie Jones’s FDC admitted that conditions there were unconstitutional.

Madness by Eyal Press, The New Yorker

Also by Eyal Press – A Death In A Florida Prison Goes Unpunished

Huffington Post – Vital reading on the Darren Rainey case

10 minute video interview with Harold by Miami Herald’s Julie Brown