On Saturday 6/23/12 when Darren Rainey was murdered, I was housed in Wing J3-101. On Tuesday 6/26/12 I was moved from Wing J3-101 to Wing J1-117. On Wednesday 6/27/12 Dade C.I. Major McCarter called me out to speak in one of the offices in Wing J1. Several security staff were present to watch the Major question me.
How I deemed the foregoing was the major was trying to intimidate me to not say anything that could hurt staff. This caused me to do my best to get out of the office with him as quick as possible. The longer I was in the office with the Major, the more security staff would think the chance existed that I slipped and said something I wasn’t supposed to say about the Darren Rainey murder or something else in the Dade C.I. TCU. I was in and out of the office in approximately four minutes.
From approximately thirteen years of incarceration and legal studies, I knew the Major to some degree shared liability and my experience told me to not tell FDC (the Major) that FDC (the Major’s staff) killed an inmate and I was a witness that was going to talk and tell everything, until I first told people in society what happened. That way, if I was killed or mysteriously found dead, my family and people in society would know why. I thought I did good with my answers to the Major. The last question the Major asked me was if I had anything I wanted to say on anything. I told him “yes, isn’t the only important thing that they did their thirty-minute security checks?”
The Major responded, “yes – did they do their security checks?”
I responded, “yes. Officer Thompson found Rainey dead approximately twenty or twenty-five minutes after the last officers were in the wing.”
The Major said “ok Hempstead.”
When shift changed at 4:00pm, I knew it was in my best interest to tell Ofcs. Clarke and Thompson as quick as possible about the Major questioning me. By doing such, they’d think I didn’t have anything to hide. The 4:00 pm till 12:00 am shift started with officers Clarke and Thompson counting. Ofc. Clarke went by my cell too quick. I wasn’t able to stop him. I was able to stop Ofc. Thompson. When I told Ofc. Thompson the questions Major McCarter asked me and my answers etc. to the Major, he said “you told the Major I found Rainey dead?” I responded “yes. Why?”
Ofc. Thompson then yelled over to Ofc. Clarke and asked him to come over to where we were. When Ofc. Clarke got to where we were at, Ofc. Thompson asked me to tell Ofc. Clarke everything I just told him (Ofc. Thompson.) When I got done repeating everything, Ofc. Thompson said “you shouldn’t have told the Major I found Rainey. If anybody else ask, tell them Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead.” Ofc. Clarke then said “yea. Tell them I found him.”
I responded, “why would you want me to say that? The cameras can prove that didn’t happen. There wasn’t a thirty-minute period between the time Ofc. Thompson found him and the time you came to the shower after Ofc. Thompson, and Rainey was reported dead. Security Checks are every thirty minutes. You won’t be able to say your check on Rainey was a Security Check.”
Ofc. Clarke then stated again, “if anybody else ask tell them I found Rainey dead.”
I responded, “I understand.”
To me. it was clear I was being told to lie and that there was a strong possibility these Ofcs. put on their Incident Reports that Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead and not the truth which was that Ofc. Thompson actually found Rainey dead. In 2012 and 2013, I mailed the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s Office, Miami-Dade Police Department and Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office several letters wherein I explained the foregoing to them. From January 2013 till around the middle of 2015 I filed several Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) Inmate Grievances explaining how these Ofcs. were directing me to lie if anybody else questioned me on who found Darren Rainey dead in the shower.
In my letters and grievances I explained how Ofc. Thompson actually found Rainey dead, that he left Rainey dead on the shower floor for approximately eight minutes to return to the officer station and tell his co-workers Rainey was dead, and then Ofc. Clarke came back and acted like he just found Rainey dead. Despite me consistently stating in my letters and grievances this issue since 2012, the Dade County State Attorney in her 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers, decided to believe the lies of these two Ofcs. instead of the truth which the mounted security cameras in Wing J3 supported.
In the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers, the State Attorney has her timeline of several things she alleged happened in Wing J3 on the night Rainey was killed. This timeline contends that at 9:13:32 Ofc. Thompson left from checking on Rainey in the shower and walked downstairs past my cell, and at 9:25:41 Ofc. Clarke entered Wing J3 to check on Rainey in the shower. By this timeline there was a time period of twelve minutes nine seconds between Ofc. Thompson’s visit to the shower when he found Rainey dead, and when Ofc. Clarke came back to the shower to act like he found Rainey dead. Ofc. Clarke said he found Rainey dead while doing a security check. Security checks are done in FDC every thirty minutes, not every twelve to fifteen minutes. Ofc. Clarke by FDC Rules had no reason to allegedly do a security check twelve minutes, nine seconds after Ofc. Thompson. The only reason he had to go back to the shower Rainey was in, twelve minutes after Ofc. Thompson checked on Rainey in the shower, was because Ofc. Thompson told Ofc. Clark and his other co-workers Rainey was dead in the shower.
The Dade County State Attorney in her 3/17/17 decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers chose to believe the lies of these Ofcs. and say that what I said was incorrect because these Ofcs. said something different from what I said. She said this even though:
(1) she knew since 2012 that these Ofcs. tried to get me to lie and say Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead and not Ofc. Thompson;
(2) She knew that security checks in FDC were done every thirty minutes;
(3) The Wing J3 cameras showed Ofc. Clarke returning to the shower twelve minutes after Ofc. Thompson, which means it wasn’t a security check that caused him to return to the shower Rainey was already dead in.
Just like I refused to lie for Ofcs. Clarke and Thompson in 2012 (and since), I will not switch from the truth and tell a lie now. Those who killed Rainey will have to answer to God for killing Rainey, and their lies. The Dade County State Attorney and Medical Examiner and MDPD detectives assigned to the Rainey case will have to answer to God for not prosecuting Rainey’s killers and trying to cover up Rainey’s murder. Life is short. We’re born, we live, we die. As long as I’m living by the Grace of God, I’ll strive to manifest my love to the Lord by keeping his commandments (John 14:15).
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 entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.
Caged Crusader
Harold Hempstead - Caged Crusader 