WTF Is Going On At Vaughn?
I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist. But I have to wonder if we’ve got a major cover-up going on at the Vaughn Correctional Center.
Before I even get to that, can someone please explain to me how there are no security cameras in a correctional facility? Just whose interests does that policy serve? I may have missed it, but the guy from the Correctional Officers Union who is bleating about prosecutors needing to ‘up their game’ has never asked for security cameras. Why? I have a pretty good idea, and I bet that you do as well.
Oh, and there was no physical evidence from the prison uprising? Why? Did all the alleged perpetrators wear gloves and clean up after themselves? Maybe, but, um, I have my doubts.
But, according to the guy from the Correctional Officers Union, it’s the prosecutors who have to up their game.
So. Now we have two prisoners at the facility who were allegedly participants/prospective witnesses in the uprising turning up dead. ‘No foul play suspected’. Allegedly due to ‘natural causes’. One 30 year-old, one 49-year old, both involved in the litigation, and both dead allegedly of natural causes. And, no, DOC is not releasing the alleged causes of death.
According to the News-Journal article, ‘(Gibbs’) body was turned over to the Medical Examiner’s Office and state police to investigate the incident’.
Therein lies a problem. A HUGE problem. I’ve written about this before. Back in 2014, we found out that the Office of the Medical Examiner, which was under the auspices of DHSS, was a complete clusterbleep. Lost evidence, total disorganization, convictions overturned as a result. Within two months, the General Assembly passed legislation addressing this. This bill. Here was, and is, the problem. The office got a new name (Division of Forensic Science) and was placed within the Department Of Homeland Security. The home of the state police, who now oversee this new Division. To put it mildly, this is a ‘fox guarding the henhouse’ situation. Gee, what interest could the police possibly have in the production and manipulation of forensic evidence? They can now keep it in house and selectively keep information from prosecutors and the public. They could, if so inclined, manufacture evidence. And destroy evidence. There is no check and balance on this situation. Hey, they even found a spot for former legislator and cop groupie Rebecca Walker.
Yes, it’s possible that two prisoners involved in the riot died of natural causes in a prison with no security cameras. It’s also possible that they were murdered, either by prisoners or correctional officers. With the cops overseeing the evidence and the bodies of the dead prisoners, how will we ever know? They, and they alone, control all of the evidence. Nobody is policing the police.
Time for some lawsuits.
BTW, here’s what I wrote back in 2015, when Walker got her golden parachute:
“Here’s another thing. This Division is at the nexus where law enforcement and justice come together. Forensics, evidence. For justice to be truly just, the product from this division must be beyond reproach and w/o favor.
How can we possibly expect that when the people who run this division and the Department of Homeland Security conspired to give a gold-plated reward to someone who has consistently caved to police interests all along?
And how can you expect justice from people who are supposed to enforce the law, but, rather, blatantly ignored the law in order to place a political hack/police groupie in an important position? We can’t. They’ve already made clear that they consider themselves above the law by this very appointment. They certainly can’t be trusted to treat evidence in an impartial manner. It now appears that there is literally nobody with the capacity to police the police.”
Great points El. Unfortunately, the group that people in this country and state care the least about are prisoners.