ESTELLE RICHARDSON

THE TENNESSEAN

PROSECUTORS DROP CHARGES IN
WOMAN'S PRISON DEATH

THEY SAY MEDICAL TESTIMONY DOESN'T PROVE 4 GUARDS GUILTY

By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF, Staff Writer

Friday, 05/25/07

Prosecutors on Thursday dropped all criminal charges against four prison guards accused of killing a 34-year-old Nashville inmate in 2004 while she was in a solitary confinement cell.

Medical experts agree that there is no definitive proof that the four guards caused Estelle Richardson's death, prosecutors said.

"Given that evidence, we could not in good conscience go forward with these charges," Davidson County District Attorney General Torry Johnson said in a statement.

The prosecutors' decision increases the chances that no one will be held criminally responsible for Richardson's beating death, which remains classified as a homicide. There is no investigation to find out who killed her, said Rob McGuire, the assistant Davidson County district attorney who handled the case.

"I'm a believer in that somebody needs to be responsible for her death," McGuire said. "I can't tell you who it is, but I have to have some proof of that person's responsibility before I can take it before a jury."

Decision relieves guards

Attorneys representing the Corrections Corporation of America guards, William Wood, Keith Andre Hendricks, Jeremy Neese and Joshua D. Schockman, said the men were relieved to find out that they no longer have to go to trial.

All had pleaded not guilty after their indictments by a Nashville grand jury. Corrections Corporation of America manages the Metro Detention Facility.

Hendricks' attorney, Vince Wehby, said his client feels that a burden has been lifted.

"Whether he will return as an employee, or pursue another career, I don't know at this stage," Wehby said. "It's not my call."

"We've waited this out, and this is the result that we've hoped for. All I know is that he'll go back to work, wherever he works, with a clean record, which is what he had before this incident occurred." Prosecutors said in a statement yesterday that Richardson's surviving family members were "handling this situation well and with dignity, and they accept the decision." Prosecutors reached Richardson's mother and sister to explain the decision to drop the case, they said.

But Richardson's brother, 38-year-old Tyrone Gibson, of Michigan, said he was outraged when he learned that prosecutors were no longer pursuing the criminal cases.

"My obvious reaction is that it's absolutely ridiculous," Gibson said. "If my sister was from a more affluent background, she had more means to access what we call normal society in her background, or a husband, or even a formal education, this would not have been taken so lightly."

"If she would have been white, she had some type of education, there is no way they would be dropping charges. But they're saying now it ran its course — and be done with it. Well, how did the injuries happen?"

Levy stands by ruling

On July 4, 2004, Richardson refused instructions to clean up her cell, causing the four guards to respond. Richardson was removed by force to a recreation yard so that food and soiled sanitary napkins could be removed.

She was uncooperative and the guards used pepper spray to subdue her. But Wood, in a 2004 interview, denied that she was struck or that a physical fight occurred. Richardson appeared fine after the incident and refused medical treatment, Wood said.

The next day, Richardson was found "unresponsive" in her cell and rushed to Southern Hills Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy found that Richardson died from blunt-force trauma to the head. Her skull was cracked, four ribs were broken and her liver was damaged.

Nashville Medical Examiner Bruce Levy ruled the death a homicide, saying that the injuries could not have been self-inflicted or the result of an accident. He also found that the injuries could have occurred "many hours" or even days before she died.

In an interview yesterday, Levy said he hasn't changed his view on what caused Richardson's death.

"My report hasn't changed at all in that regard," Levy said. "What the experts raised were some questions regarding the timing of some of the injuries."

Stories were conflicting

Private medical experts hired by the prison management firm and Richardson's family agreed there was evidence that some of her injuries could have occurred days or even weeks before her death.

McGuire, the assistant district attorney, said that prosecutors must now consider other theories in explaining Richardson's death, such as that she was fatally injured during a fight with another inmate or that another prison guard killed her.

The case becomes complicated because inmates who were housed around Richardson at the time have given conflicting stories about what took place inside the cell, McGuire said.

"The problem is not that we have an alternate suspect, it's that we can't say beyond a reasonable doubt that these guys are guilty," McGuire said. "We have an ethical duty to dismiss the charge."

A $60 million civil lawsuit filed by Richardson's family against Corrections Corporation of America was settled in February 2006. Details of the settlement were kept confidential.

"We are particularly grateful for the integrity and professionalism of the Office of the District Attorney General in pursuing the truth about this tragedy," Corrections Corporation of America said in a statement.

"We now hope that these four men can set about living their lives and reclaiming their good names in our Nashville community."

ANTHONY RAY DIETZ

THE TENNESSEAN

INMATE FOUND HANGED IN CLARKSVILLE JAIL

Copyright © 2005, tennessean.com. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, 03/29/05
By CHANTAL ESCOTO
The (Clarksville) Leaf-Chronicle

CLARKSVILLE — A 26-year-old man who hanged himself in his jail cell Sunday showed no signs of being suicidal, Montgomery County sheriff's officials said.

Anthony Ray Dietz, who gave a Meadowbrook Drive address, was found dead with a sheet around his neck, hanging from a bunk ladder, according to a police report. Dietz had been in the jail four days and was to be transferred to the Tennessee Department of Correction to serve a four-year sentence for aggravated burglary and felony escape convictions, sheriff's spokesman Ted Denny said.

Dietz had charges pending of felony theft of property, criminal impersonation, aggravated domestic assault and felony escape, Denny said. He was alone in a two-man cell Sunday, Denny said.

''He must have been terribly depressed to have done that, but there was no indication that he would take his own life,'' said Denny, who is also the sheriff's senior chaplain. ''It's just a tragic incident for this young man and his family.''

It was the first suicide of an inmate in five years, he said.

An investigation report by Investigator John Stone said Dietz was transferred to Gateway Medical Center after Deputy Paul Collins found him unresponsive in his cell about 1:30 p.m. Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Stone noted that the sheet was found to have a loop and a knot. Dietz's death will remain an open investigation until autopsy results are received, Denny said.

Denny said deputies are trained to notice signs that an inmate might be suicidal, such as being overly aggressive, severely depressed or talking about suicide. Jail personnel also are required to check on inmates at least twice an hour.

Denny said proper procedures had been followed.

CHARLES "EDDIE" HARTMAN

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, 05/27/07

CONVICTED KILLER OF 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL DIES IN PRISON

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A convicted killer serving a life sentence for the murder of a 16-year-old girl has died of natural causes, according to authorities.

Charles "Eddie" Hartman, 49, died Thursday at the Nashville General Hospital of apparent natural causes, said Dorinda Carter, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Hartman was being held at the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville, Carter said.

Hartman was twice sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Kathy Nishiyama on Nov. 16, 1981. But his sentences were overturned and he was given a life sentence in 2003.

The body of the Montgomery County teenager was found in neighboring Houston County in September of 1982. She had been raped, killed and then raped again.

Hartman was a trusty at the Dickson County Jail in the fall of 1981 and had been helping a deputy sheriff on an assignment away from the jail when he was ordered to drive a patrol car back to the jail.

Another inmate, Raven Frazier, testified in 1983 that Hartman told him he posed as a sheriff's deputy and pulled over Nishiyama.

His first death sentence was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court because one of the three aggravating factors used to justify it has since been ruled unacceptable -- that the murder was committed during another felony, kidnapping.

The high court again ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2001 because the trial court should have allowed evidence that could have cast doubt on Frazier's testimony -- the only non-circumstancial evidence against Hartman.

In 2003, Hartman was sentenced to life in prison as part of a settlement that prevented Hartman from appealing the judgment and presenting newly discovered evidence that could possibly overturn the convictions.

FACTOR 8: THE ARKANSAS PRISON BLOOD SCANDAL

Kelly Duda and Concrete Films have produced a documentary which details the corruption and greed that led the Arkansas Department of Correction to spread death from Arkansas prisons to the entire world. Hear the story from the mouths of those responsible for the harvesting of infected human blood plasma, and its sale to be made into medicines.

Duda's award-winning film unflinchingly documents the whole story the U.S. government and the state of Arkansas have tried to keep hidden from the world.

Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to order your own copy of
"Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal"

Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to visit the
Factor 8 Documentary website

Please help spread the word about this important film,
along with the urls to the linked pages.

This PRUP (Prison Reform Unity Project) site owned by

Linda Tant Miller
[Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]

Read my Dreambook! Sign my Dreambook!