A CRIME IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE STATE, AND JUSTICE:
FLORIDA GUARDS ONCE AGAIN GO UNPUNISHED
by
Kay Lee
"I'll let them do whatever they're going to do...I'm expecting them to beat me up up there (FSP). Not that it will happen, but I just expect it. Because it's a Griffis. They have families that control the prisons up there.The victim in the case is a Griffis and one of the families up there that are controlling in the prisons is the Griffis family. You have the Whiteheads, you have the Crewes[sp], and you have the Griffis. And that's a Griffis."
Frank Valdes
Palm Beach County Jail
May 1999It's an old story with an all too familiar twist.
On July 17, 1999, a skinny little prisoner named Frank Valdes was viciously murdered - handcuffed, stomped, kicked and beaten to death by nine guards at Florida State Prison.
Immediately the guards claimed in unison to the press that Valdes had done it to himself by throwing himself off his concrete bunk onto the cell's concrete floor.
As I read the morning paper in an apartment in Key West, their words stirred something unbidden, unrecognised, but urgently powerful . What is going on in there, I thought, that they believe they can get away with an explanation like that?" And that was the moment 'Making The Walls Transparent' was born. Hours later I was on a grayhound bus to Starke to stand my first ever prison vigil outside FSP.
The thing that caught my immediate attention upon entering the town was a promonent sign outside the local church that read, "Correctional Officers, look up. God loves you." Seems they conveniently forgot that God loves the prisoners too, I mused as I pulled out a camera and snapped the picture. [http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/prison/pictures.html]
I spent the next year writing to prisoners, meeting the families, and sharing what I found out about the conditions, the guards, the administrators. And I kept my eye on the Valdes situation, because I learned that it is almost impossible to make people wearing the uniform of the Florida DOC pay for their crimes and somebody really needed to own this one.
More than a year later, in October, 2001, a - by then - former prison guard named Montrez Lucas made it to trial on charges that he beat Valdes the day before the second and fatal beating. When he was acquitted in a court of 'law' by neighbors and friends, Montrez looked to the sky and cried, "Thank God".
I wish I could tell you that Montrez Lucas was so grateful for 'God's' intervention that he turned over a new leaf, but I've heard nothing about where he is now nor what he is doing.
Finally, one year, 7 months and two days after the murder, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of the guards who, under color of law, killed Mr. Valdes and then, under pretense of justice, were protected from punishment by representatives of the laws that really should - but don't - apply to uniforms of authority.
On February 15th, 2002, in a travisty of justice bigger than anything we've seen in these parts, a jury found Capt. Timothy "Big Red" Thornton, Sgt. Charles Brown and "Little" Jason Griffis innocent and sent them home.
The guard, Raymon C. Hanson, who testified against his colleagues, was moved to a secret location months before the trial to keep him safe from retaliation. Although he broke down on the stand, weeping for his part in the sordid affair, the jury never heard his testimony.
The prisoners, who knew they were facing untold horrors of retaliation, testified anyway against Thornton, Brown and Griffis. They, like Hanson, were moved before the trial to jails around the state to keep them safe. Now they must return to a system that has been abusing them ever since Valdes' murder. Steve Porkolab, Willie C. Mathews, Charles A. Jerry and others are as sure as Valdes was that they will suffer greatly at the hands of smirking guards.
I've heard horror stories about repeat offenders, Capt. Timothy "Big Red" Thornton and "Little" Jason Griffis over and over, stories that would make you sick. Many prisoners have written of their fear of these two men and now, as if Frank Valdes had never existed, Thornton and Griffis are free to return home to their undaunted family and friends and the welcoming arms of the DOC.
Well, what did we expect? The Griffis practically own the area, and they have a long history in Florida 'Corrections'. Nobody with power wanted to see them go down... Not Michael Moore who says errant guards don't exist, nor Jeb Bush, who continually tells us this is an 'isolated incidence'. Nor politicians who won't pass the laws that would make the DOC adhere to the minimum standards of care. Nor the wardens who refuse to say to their guards, and mean it, "I will not tolerate abuse in my prison!"
With the pronouncement of innocence, an evil and chilling message went out to all the other guards in Florida, "If you wear the uniform of the DOC, you can do whatever you want and you will never have to own responsibility."
Families are terrified, prisoners are in despair, and advocates are sickened.
fjoann: Hi Kay, its me. I just tried to call you. I'm just sick over all this and just needed to talk.
Kay Lee: About the Valdes verdict? I know. The first blow of pain was a bit easier since I half-way expected it, but the anger is something else: How dare our governor and representatives, our courts and our DOC employees fail to make these men own their crimes? Florida justice is the laughing stock of the country. I feel the same feeling that made me get on that bus to Starke back when I read their original statement, "He did it to himself."
fjoann: I'm scared for all the guys. A post was put on the site that said "all we have to do is let the blood flow. and that is what I think is going to happen now. That's what scares me, that they are free to do this all over again. What's going to happen to the guys (Inmates) that went to court and told their stories?
Kay Lee: We are going to keep our eye on them. Believe me, this verdict now becomes the foundation for victory. This is the paper trail that leads to a cleanup in the DOC.
This case is a perfect depiction of Florida's lack of proper leadership: The system is corrupt at the worse and broken at best. They had a case anybody should have been able to win and they lost. The walls are now transparent! Everyone in the nation knows that the authorities in Florida simply cannot be trusted to police themselves.
I am going to tell you something very few people know. We have discovered a fresh murder by a gang of repeatedly violent guards. No one has said a word about it in the weeks since it happened, not the DOC, not the press. We are not ready to release the names of the prisoner, the guards, nor the prison yet, but the wheels are in motion.
The young man who died was, like Frank Valdes, accused of 'doing it to himself'. But we have acounts of his last 10 days, while his body was marked and scarred by pepperspray, starvation, and beatings, and when the mother has all the records she needs, she will exhume the body, get an independent autopsy, and when this explodes, no one will be able to call this death an isolated incidence. Not right on top of the Valdes fiasco.
Then the Justice Department will come and do what they do to a state system that obviously cannot be trusted to govern itself.
I heard a phrase that is apt at this time: "Everything will be okay in the end. If it isn't okay, it's just not the end."
The story isn't over yet...The end of the unmitigated power IS coming for the DOC.
Stay strong, stay persistant and remain motivated.
Kay Lee, MTWT In Florida
Pacific Institute of Criminal Justice
1868 San Juan Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-528-4603
kaylee1@charter.net or kaylee@idiom.com
THINGS FREE PEOPLE CAN DO TO CLEAN UP THE MESS THIS TRIAL HAS LEFT:We should make a list of the prisoners who testified and stay in contact with them and their neighbors - lots of contact...
At this point the DOC website lists them all as "OUT OF DEPT. CUSTODY BY COURT ORDER".
I will update you with addresses as soon as the witnesses are returned to the scene of the crime.Steve Porkolab 104437
Willie C. Mathews 798495
Charles A. Jerry 137319We write to these prisoners. We must call the wardens of the prisons they are kept in to let them know we are still here.
We find out where and when the errant guards go back to work and monitor them closely. We keep our eye on Capt. Timothy Thornton and Sgts. Charles Brown and Jason Griffis if they return to the DOC. We publicize each and every complaint we get on them. We do FOIAs to ask for their personel records AND their internal affair files.
Now would be the perfect time for a Vigil in Black at FSP, Mourning the loss of even the pretense of justice in Florida. We've laid the groundwork for the last one year, seven months and a day and know they can't run you off the right-of-way near the gates. That land is public property and neither the prison officials nor law enforcement officers can legally stop a vigil there.
It hurts my heart more than you'll ever know not to physically be in Starke at this sorrowful time.
But my spirit stands with you as our efforts continue.
MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke