INTRODUCTION TO EVERGLADES CI Representative Case No. 6 by Kay Lee
Robert Jackson (Currently at Bartow)
365424
Bartow Main
970 East Main Street
Bartow, Florida 33830-4905
Robert Jackson describes the ultimate in retaliation on whistleblowers, even if they haven't yet blown the whistle. The Everglades' guards retaliated on Robert because they thought he might tell about the beating they had just administered another inmate.
On November 4, 1998, while housed at Everglades CI in a suicide cell, Robert heard "banging noises and screaming coming from the cell adjacent to his. He could actually see Sgt. Rucker and Sgt. Spalder beating an inmate, Jeff Terry. Sgt Rucker came to Robert Jackson's cell and asked if he had seen anything. Robert told him no, but knew they had spotted him. The Sgt left. A short time later Officers Hafids and Booden came to Robert's cell and told him to get dressed in the orange jumpsuit they tossed on the floor of his cell.
Because it was 3AM, because Robert knew there were no doctors around, knew that he wasn't supposed to be out of his cell, knew the reputations of the officers involved and had just witnessed them beating someone else, and knew they were coming back for him, he became terrified. So terrified in fact that he rubbed his own feces on himself "to prevent the officers from touching me, ", he quickly tore the jumpsuit into shreds and began frantically to try to hang himself. As he tossed and climbed and stumbled trying to suspend the strips of jumpsuit from an anchor over the window, officers and sergeants gathered outside his cell, laughing and encouraging him on.
When Sgts Rucker, Spalder, and Berch and Officers Hafidh and Booden entered his cell, Robert was kneeling down, wrapped in a wet blanket. Sgt Rucker smashed Robert with a shield, screaming at him to get down, and kicked him in the head. When all the officers had finished punching and kicking him, they shackled him and, grasping the chains on his hands and feet, threw him across the cell and out the door. They picked him up and while carrying him to a normal "confinement quad", dropped him on his head several times saying, "Oops, did I do that?" They then dropped him in a confinement cell, ripped his wrists taking off the bloody cuffs, and left him, bleeding, in pain, and too frightened to even sleep for fear they might come back.
Any employee of the department who, with malicious intent, commits a battery or inflicts cruel or inhuman treatment by neglect or otherwise, ..................commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.Florida Statute 944.35(3)(a)2
Robert never saw medical, although he begged. He was seen by a psychiatrist, who assured Robert he'd get him out of confinement. At 4:00 on that same day, Robert was transferred to SFRC (CSU). Now he lives Under "COMMUNITY CONTROL - PROB." at Bartow.
Mr. Richard Musto
Ex-Inmate #069131
Released: 4-30-00
On Dec. 1999, Mr. Musto witnessed an excessive use of force by Officer Bell, when Officer Bell began repeatedly banging on an inmate's hands and arms with a food tray. The following day, while cuffed, the same prisoner was struck with fists until he was on the floor and then he was kicked by at least 7 to 9 guards. Mr. Musto states, "Most inmates within this facility are maintained by mental health medications, and the staff (officers) seem under trained for such a position (just my observation). This matter and other similar acts of assault which I have observed here since my arrival, are plentiful, unlawful, and need immediate attention of authorities."
"There is no iron curtain drawn between the Constitution and the prisons of this country."
Wolff vs. McDonnell, 418 US 539, 579, 41 Led2d
935; 94 SCt 2963, 2986 (1974)
The Supreme Court of the United States of America ~
FBI Citizen's Complaint Summary
