Withheld from the Jury
Chow Hall riot photos (they are hard to see, but the best we could get)chowhallphotos
A riot along racial lines broke out in the chow hall immediately after Tyrone was defeated. While it has not be proven, it’s likely this riot was in response to the incidents in the B-2 Unit. Based on what Derrick said, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it,” there is a strong basis to suspect that Tyrone was set up for his part in the whole debacle by instigators who wanted an excuse for the riot, or at least to create as much havoc within the walls of Pollock USP as they could.
There are several references within the transcripts that Tyrone was an extremely violent person easily have been used by individuals who found it easy to control him. They knew from his record that he was a loose cannon – all it took was someone to light the fuse. Tyrone was pre-disposed to this. On the bus to Pollock he was overheard saying that he was going to get himself a “cracker – he had done it before and it was going to do it again.” Tyrone had stabbed a correctional officer at his previous facility. This comment was brought up in a sidebar conversation with the judge, and this witness was not permitted to tesify at the trial.
Tyrone had only been there for 17 days, not long enough to make either friends or enemies, but came in with his typical hostile predisposition. [See Tyrone’s Rap Sheet] Who else but his “friends” could have set him up with some emotional pretext of Derrick doing or saying something ill about him?
Remember that when word first got to the chow hall about the fight and the stabbings, Tyrone was still alive. So it was probably not his death that was reported. Stabbings are far too common in prison to result in riots. Yet this one did.
Not a single word regarding this riot was allowed into testimony in Eddie’s trial. We have since obtained officer statements from internal BOP memos regarding that day. Although the prosecution wanted the jury to believe these were separate incidents, they began as Sparks nad Johnson were placed on gurneys.. Lt. Garrow did a report on both incidents that morning. This report was not allowed in except as a “proffer,” a sealed document to be included in the court papers but used only if the issue of the riot were found to be relevant. We do not have a copy of that report to offer you. [Transcript Page 23: 17-20]
See the related article, COMPLICITY OF THE BUREAU OF PRISONS? for more discussion of the chow hall riot.
OFFICER STATEMENTS FROM INTERNAL BOP MEMOS
Per Officer James McCullough:
“…I reported to the dining facility to clear the remaining inmates out from the breakfast meal. At that time, I heard a lot of noise and saw a table flip in the dining hall….I observed several black inmates kicking and punching white inmates…I started clearing inmates off the wall and directing them to the outer door…a large group on inmates pushed through the door and into the corridor before I could secure it…several inmates rushed me because they knew I had the key to let them out…someone attempted to pull my keys off my belt…
Per Lieutenant Craig Lee:
“… As the ambulances were approaching, I heard a radio call for assistance in Food Service. I responded from the rear gate and assisted in securing a white inmate in the East Corridor who was refusing to submit to restraints. I then proceeded to B-Yard where several white inmates were on one side of the yard and several black inmates were on the other. Both groups were refusing to enter their housing units…At this time, there was a commotion on C-Yard and I observed a large group of inmates depart Food Service. I heard staff calling on the radio for assistance on C-Yard. I directed the 8-Tower Officer to discharge his Less Than Lethal Munitions onto C-Yard…several black inmates were vocal about problems with white inmates and refused to enter their housing units…vocal and encouraged other inmates to remain defiant and making comments about not racking in until they knew the status of inmate Johnson…
How did anyone know it was Inmate Johnson? He was still on the gurney.
Per Stephen Cope/Special Investigative Technician:
“…staff arrived and I secured the crime area until the FBI arrived…as I made my way across C-Yard, I heard a call for assistance in the Dining Facility. When I arrived in the Dining Facility, I observed numerous black and white inmates fighting…I then heard an additional call for more staff on B-Yard…when I arrived at B-Yard, there was a group of white inmates…refusing to enter their housing units…another call for assistance was made on C-Yard and I turned and noticed a large group of black inmates coming out of the Dining Facility entrance…I responded to the dining facility and observed a large disturbance between black and white inmates…when I arrived at B-2 Unit, staff and inmates had gone through and were going through the crime scene area at the B-2 entrance and was no longer secured. I was told this was due to the large scale disturbance and they had to secure the inmates as soon as possible to avoid further incidents…due to the numerous incidents and institutional emergency, a crime scene log was not done…”
Per Lieutenant J. Lemoine:
“…Lt. Pinmentel advised me to prepare of the emergency escort via ambulance. While at the rear gate assisting paramedics with placing the inmates in the ambulance, I hear another call for assistance in the dining hall…”
To what degree is the Bureau of Prisons responsible for the incidents of April 20, 2007? How did their actions and inactions contribute to the deadly events that day? Here are some other issues they failed miserably on:
Watch the video and look for these particular images:
On the PTZ Angle Moving Camera:
6:44:39 The guards shut the door, leaving Branch and Johnson on their own, no way out
COMPARE TO B-2 INNER SP CAMERA
6:44:41 Seven guards behind that door that just closed
6:44:50 Ten guards standing just a few feet away from this incident, watching through the
closed door
THINGS NOBODY WANTS TO ASK ABOUT
Why was Tyrone Johnson in general population? An internal memo from the BOP states that he
Had a CIM Assignment of Separation and Security Custody levels of High/MAX due to history
Armed bank robbery AND Assault with Intent to Kill and Possession of a Weapon?
Why did it take so long to transport these inmates to Rapides Regional? A hospital listed as
14.33 miles away, 23 minutes (and that is not by speeding ambulance)…the hospital did
an excellent job of trying to save both inmates…but one can’t help but wonder if Derrick would
have had a different outcome if he had arrived sooner? His injuries included a hemothorax,
a punctured lung with blood in it…could he have lived if this had been stabilized with
a chest tube? The ER did do a chest xray and did see this, but Derrick basically had no
vital signs upon arrival, and was not stable for any additional procedures. ERs treat
collapsed lungs all the time….if only Derrick had gotten there sooner…
Why doesn’t anyone get outraged over the fact that the three witnesses who testified for the
Government were not in proximity to hear the incident or were not even incarcerated at USP
Pollock at the time? Yet, one is a convicted sexual predator in the state of Florida, all were
sequestered together prior to testimony, and ALL received significant sentence reductions.
Who will step up when a child or innocent victim is assaulted by someone in this trio,
considering they will be out in the public much sooner than their original release dates?
Why doesn’t anybody care that Tyrone had to run quite a distance to get to Branch and finish his
attack?…Eddie wasn’t celebrating, he wasn’t happy to be in this position, he didn’t approach
Tyrone..yet the prosecution would have the public believe Eddie is a malicious animal. The
only malicious animal that day was Tyrone, and he destroyed many lives for NO reason.
Why Didn’t Eddie Leave
The Prosecution hammered away at this question. Cowboy simply walked out, they said. Eddie could just have easily left and Tyrone would be facing murder charges for what he did to Derrick.
Consider the following:
1. The guards were no defense. We have already seen, and Eddie already knew that they would not be there to help him. He had already been on the ground calling for help when a guard was present in the unit, and NO help arrived.
2. Eddie would have had to walk past a whole lot of cells and the 4 showers to get to the sally port. He had no idea what awaited him. He did not know if Tyrone were the only one involved in this attack or not.
3. Eddie would have had to walk past a whole lot of black inmates, the same ones who were the reason why he was unwilling to surrender his weapons until he was in the actual custody of the guards. Eddie knew that even though there were guards (11 of them) on the opposite side of the window, he was still vulnerable to attack and death by the very people who were witnessing this incident. The closed door would have allowed just enough time for his own death before the guards could get in with their “non-lethal weapons.”
4. He had no idea what was going on in the yard. He had no idea if there were others waiting for him there or not. Even while being escorted by an officer out of the unit, Eddie found it necessary to look over his left shoulder to see if someone were coming at him. Note the testimony of Lt. Craig Lee, “…we exited the unit. And inmate Branch turned over his left shoulder upon exiting the unit, and I also looked out on the compound at that time, to see if somebody wasn’t coming towards us….” Lt. Lee was no fool to prison life. He looked too. [Transcript Page 139: 16-20]
The above points are fairly logical, reasoned explanations of why he did not walk out of the unit. But we need to ask, how logical and reasonable would you be if you had just been stabbed 6 times while you were unarmed? Further, the last you heard from your attacker was “Go get your shit,” meaning that this was only a pause – he was still going to come after you. In that same kind of confined “alternate” reality of the prison, would you have been reviewing your options or would you have done what you had to stay alive?
We note too that Mike Henderson did not leave. He went to get his own weapon, however limited it was in the face of knives. Numerous other inmates did not leave either. You can watch the video to see just how few inmates actually left the B-2 unit. Obviously, while the prosecution sees leaving as a very reasonable, proportioned response to being attacked, it did not appear to be a viable choice to Eddie nor to very many others who were also familiar with the unknown and unexpected daily dangers of prison life.
During the trial Mr. Cowles, the lead prosecutor, kept insisting that Eddie could have walked out. In fact, he tried to hammer this home to the jury, time and again. What Mr. Cowles lacks is the ability or willingness to feel what another feels, to imagine what it’s like to have been stabbed numerous times and still know you must fight to save your own life.
The Politics
Pollock is a scant 22 miles from Jena, Louisiana. Jena is where the white students supposedly hung nooses on a “white” tree that some black students had begun to sit under. Most people will recall that this turned into a month-long demonstration at outraged people of all colors confronted the white District Attorney of LaSalle Parish who initially charged the black students with attempted murder, when what happened was an assault that sent a white student to the emergency room. The Parish DA later backed of that stance in light of nationwide attention.
The FBI came in to investigate. They in turn consulted the US Attorney Donald Washington as to whether or not the nooses constituted a hate crime. Washington became a highly visible figure in this whole matter that had begun as a Parish problem. Media from all over the US used Washington as a “go-to” person for the statements and answers they needed, instead of to the Parish authorities.
15,000 to 20,000 protestors marched on Jena on September 20, 2007, getting nationwide and worldwide TV coverage. Racial tensions were unreasonably high in this part of Louisiana. On November 29, 2007, the same Mr. Washington secured an indictment against Eddie Branch for the death of a black inmate at Pollock. While black students had assaulted a white student in Jena, a white inmate had killed a black inmate in nearby Pollock, and Mr. Washington needed the publicity that white on black crime would not go unpunished. What led to the death of Tyrone Johnson was not as important as the need to show the laws were being applied equally.
Jena may have had 15,000 to 20,000 people in the streets to protest an injustice, but in the Alexandria courtroom we had only 3 to silently witness a more profound injustice – the abrogation of its responsibilities by a willfully ignorant jury and the taking by the government of another 10 years from a man’s life.
The Government was desperate to prove Eddie guilty. Why?
According to the Town Talk, April 27, 2008, reporter Abbey Brown reported that Pollock had had 6 deaths in the prior 12 months.
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) replaced the warden in about November, 2007, and in the transition week when both he and the new warden were present, there were two more killings.
A shakedown of the whole prison following the Tyrone Johnson incident and the riot that broke out moments later in the mess hall revealed approximately 300 shanks or knives. Pollock was a prison out of control with a majority of the population being the (Washington) D.C. Gang. No wonder everyone had or tried to have their own protection.
The BOP had to find someone guilty of one of these murders, and Eddie was the only one that was “solved.” There was no doubt that he had killed Tyrone Johnson, and by having him found guilty they were able to send the message to other inmates that such crimes would be prosecuted.
Too bad they got their conviction on the back of the one inmate whose only crime was of self-defense.
To what degree is the Bureau of Prisons responsible for the incidents of April 20, 2007? How did their actions and inactions contribute to the deadly events that day?
THE DATE ITSELF
Ignored outside, but known within American prisons where there is a racial component, is that April 20 is the birthday of Adolph Hitler. It is clearly unfair to characterize all white inmates as being gang members. Many participate on this day to show solidarity in a world where whites are only 3.5% of the BOP population. But in some prisons where the white gangs have more power than at Pollock, they have been known to have small celebrations of this birthday.
Other prisons have had incidents on this date, but there was no particular alert at Pollock because of it. Another USP at Florence, Colorado (not the Super Max unit) had a riot in 2008 over some white inmates singing Happy Birthday in the yard, when they were attacked by black, racist gang members. Why does the BOP simply ignore this date instead of recognizing it as one that is potentially racially charged? This may be difficult because all race have their own racial holidays.
It is conceivable that at Pollock the black inmates who were members of the DC gang chose that inauspicious occasion to show their muscle, thereby pre-empting any holiday expression by white groups.
BOP VIOLENCE STATISTICS AND POLICIES ON INTERVENING IN INMATE ALTERCATIONS
Based on internal BOP documents (USP Pollock/SIS Department).The information is relayed to the reader as it appears on the reports – they are year to date.
FIGHTS
Updated 04/12/06 - 8
Updated12/28/06 – 51
Updated 01/06/07 – 3
STAFF ASSAULTS
Updated 04/12/06 – 6
Updated 12/28/06 – 45
Updated 05/17/07 – 9
INMATE ASSAULTS
Updated 04/12/06 – 11
Updated 12/28/06 – 91
Updated 01/06/07 – 3
Updated 05/17/07 – 28
WEAPONS RECOVERED
Updated 04/12/06 – 17
Updated 12/28/06 – 146
Updated 01/06/07 – 16
Updated 05/17/07 – 320
Per BOP policy:
“…the speed and effectiveness of staff response will directly affect the severity of the situations impact on staff and inmates. Additionally, a well coordinated first response can minimize the disruption to other vital security procedures that is caused by an emergency situation..”
IMBALANCE
With the demographics at Pollock reflecting something in the neighborhood of 83% black, with the remainder being white and Hispanic, how could the BOP have allowed this institution become so racially out of balance? Also, as we point out elsewhere, since the BOP acts as the jailer for the District of Columbia, criminals from Washington, D.C. become wards of the BOP. There is no District of Columbia Department of Corrections – that’s what the BOP is.
What Pollock ended up becoming, therefore, was a facility that was overwhelmingly black and overwhelmingly representing the D.C. gang. If balance is obtained in other prisons by having a mixture of races and gangs (a fact of prison life), then why was Pollock allowed to fall so dangerously out of balance?
This may not be a “politically correct” observation, but it is what it is. In fact, the higher the security designation of the facility (in this case, maximum security), so too should the diversity be the greatest. Or, by contrast, the higher the security designation, perhaps the units should be wholly segregated. Either solution would probably result in lessened crime and greater control within the prisons.
GUARD RESPONSIBILITIES
Something so basic as the guards’ responsibilities to protect the inmate, which is part and parcel of maintaining order within a penal institution, should not have to come into question. But it does, within the Bureau of Prisons. Here, guards are reduced to being spectators, or to only going in when they can do so as a military force (see news videos about guards forming marching lines for cell take-downs).
Interestingly, Lt. Anthony Garrow testifies that in the event of a knife fight like this, guards are supposed to keep themselves safe. “They’re not to jump in the middle of a knife fight. They’re not to try to pry inmates off each other if weapons are involved,” he states. “We will wait until we have sufficient staff to get in there to address the situation … or if we have the less lethal munitions which I spoke of earlier show up.” [Trial Page 46: 1-11]
The videos show clearly that guards kept coming into the sally port throughout the last minute of this fight. There were 11 of them by last count. How many guards does it take whose brute force could have ended the battle before it ever progressed into the shower?
Is there a county jail anywhere where the guards would not seize the combatants and stop the fight? Jail guards don’t wait for someone to deliver non-lethal weapons. They settle people down immediately. Cops in the streets are at greater risk from people with knives who have access to drugs like angel dust and meth that makes them immune to their own pain. These drugs must make their way into prisons too, but to a vastly small degree.
And what about a locked cabinet built into the wall in the sally port, just to carry pepper spray or some simple non-lethal weaponry? A few blasts of pepper spray could have stopped this fight, Tyrone would have been convicted of the murder of Derrick, and Eddie would be out fishing with his Dad. What if! One can of pepper spray!
In the fight between Eddie and Tyrone, there was a guard standing on the other side of Cowboy, even as Eddie was asking for and receiving the “steel” he needed to battle Tyrone. While that guard is presumably the one who “pushed the deuces,” that is, pressed the emergency button on his uniform to alert the Tower, [Trial Page 121: 22 through Page 122: 3], and may have been the one who was, according to Cowboy, telling everyone to get out of the unit [Trial Page 120: 4-17]. But despite being steps away from Eddie, he never approached him to stop what he was doing, or tried to help him leave.
To the extent that the BOP prevents guards from their duty to protect the inmates from each other, and does not make equipment available nearby like pepper spray, is the extent to which it is liable for the death of Tyrone Johnson.
CLASSIFICATION
Why were two non-violent people sent to Pollock which already had a reputation for violence? Eddie and Derrick had short sentences for non violent crimes and no write-ups while at Pollock before this incident. They should never have been sent to Pollock in the first place. It is considered to be a maximum security facility with people who have a long time to serve.
Please be sure to read the article we’re enclosing from Prison Legal News entitled Violence on the Rise in BOP Facilities, by Brandon Sample, included in this site with permission. The BOP is failing to protect those entrusted to their charge. Change at the top is long overdue.
Two of the murders at Pollock in 2007 occurred during the one-week overlap when the current Warden was being replaced by a replacement Warden. Two Wardens on duty and still there were murders. Yet another murder happened a couple of months later in January, 2008.
