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00:05Get out of the vehicle now!
00:07Get out of the vehicle!
00:09When she was on the half-speed chase,
00:11oh, she was all on the news.
00:13Oh, she was everywhere.
00:15I'm not going to say my daughter was right for running,
00:17because she was not.
00:19But I had to put myself in her shoes.
00:22You run up to my car with a gun,
00:23I'm going to take off too.
00:25I just didn't want to get shot.
00:32But when she died, nobody wanted to say anything, did they?
00:36Everybody tried to keep that hush-hush.
00:39They didn't want nobody to know about that.
00:55We are in the thick of cornfields, the heartland of America.
01:02We're in southern Indiana.
01:05The heartland, to me, means apple pie.
01:09It means home.
01:11John Mellencamp was born and raised here,
01:14and that's where the small-town song came from.
01:18People here are very conservative.
01:20Most of our community attends church regularly,
01:23and like you said, has your down-to-earth good values.
01:27When I started coming here, I didn't see anybody like me.
01:30Here is pretty much all white.
01:32Not that that was a bad thing, but that's just kind of how it is.
01:37We are in Brownstown now,
01:40which is the county seat of Jackson County.
01:43And the first thing that greets you past the sign is the county jail.
01:53In 2021, a young 23-year-old mother, Tanisha Chappelle,
01:58is a detainee here in the Jackson County Jail.
02:02Tanisha was not from this community.
02:04She was actually arrested on the highway,
02:06headed back to her home in Louisville, Kentucky.
02:09She's awaiting trial, and she's been here less than two months,
02:13when she dies very suddenly under mysterious circumstances.
02:18And her death raised so many questions.
02:22How could this happen while she's in the custody of the county jail?
02:26Unfortunately, most of those questions have gone unanswered,
02:30and her family is continuing to pursue the truth.
02:37I had been feeling funny, but I didn't know why I was feeling funny, you know.
02:42And I got a phone call, and it was my sister.
02:46And she was like, Jackson County Jail is trying to get in touch with you.
02:49And she said, I'm going to click you in on three-way.
02:52And there was a guy, but he was like,
02:54I'm just calling to tell you your daughter's dead.
02:57And they said she was found unresponsive in her cell.
03:02And they said it was due to breathing complications.
03:05And I'm like, she don't have any breathing problems.
03:08There's nothing wrong with Tanisha's breathing.
03:11I received a call while driving.
03:14My auntie called me, and she told me.
03:17And I just remember screaming and hollering.
03:19My name is Ronisha Merle.
03:21I am Tanisha's older sister.
03:23I didn't know how she passed.
03:25I didn't know.
03:26But I just knew something wasn't right.
03:28I knew that my sister just didn't fall ill.
03:33Sheriff Rick Meyer did tell us that Indiana State would be conducting the investigation.
03:40We just wanted answers.
03:41We wanted our answers.
03:43I wanted to know what happened to my daughter.
03:47We are leaving the state of Indiana and heading into Kentucky.
03:52We're going to Louisville where we're going to meet with Tanisha's mother.
03:56She's been searching for answers as to what happened to her daughter for over three years now.
04:01Which as a mother is a nightmare.
04:07Hi, LaVita.
04:08How are you?
04:13I appreciate y'all coming.
04:15Yeah, I'm really happy to meet you.
04:17You don't know how much this means to me.
04:19When they told me y'all called, I was just running through the house crying, thanking God.
04:27I want to hear about your girl.
04:29Ready?
04:30Yeah.
04:31You're welcome.
04:35This was our little scrapbook.
04:36And that's all of us.
04:38That's Tanisha right there in the middle.
04:40Oh.
04:41She was a momma's girl until she was like 13.
04:43Did she crawl into your bed and cuddle you?
04:45Mm-hmm.
04:45Isn't that the best?
04:46Yes.
04:46Yeah.
04:47Yes, she did.
04:49This is her favorite teacher.
04:51She put her teachers in here?
04:52Mm-hmm.
04:53Yeah.
04:54And then this is her with her ultrasound.
04:57That's when she was pregnant.
04:58Yeah.
04:58When she was young.
04:59She was nothing but 13 when she got pregnant.
05:02Was she scared or was she excited?
05:04She was scared until she realized mommy was going to help.
05:08When I first met Tanisha, I said, you ready to be a momma?
05:12And she's like, yeah, I ain't got no choice.
05:15So we both like the joke.
05:18My name is C. Johnson.
05:19And then Tanisha is my best friend.
05:22As soon as I met her, it was just like a yin-yang thing.
05:25Like, I'm way back, cool.
05:28And then she's just outgoing, fun.
05:31And Tanisha, she was a great mother.
05:34If her baby needs something, she's going to go get it.
05:36She never took a day off with her child.
05:39That's her when she went to TAP.
05:41That's her school for mothers with kids.
05:43Was she excited about going there?
05:45Oh, yeah, she was.
05:47This is her when I think she started hanging with the wrong crowd,
05:51which led her down the wrong, you know, wrong path.
05:56She definitely struggled and just had to learn things on her own,
06:00which honestly can sometimes, you know, cause you to bump your head,
06:04stump your toe, and have you in sticky situations.
06:08She would be out till like three, four in the morning,
06:11and I'm looking for her, and I'm calling her phone.
06:14And sometimes she didn't respond.
06:16She used to always say,
06:18Mama, I just want to be like everybody else.
06:20Mama, I don't like doing what I'm doing.
06:23You know, she used to tell me, but it was like she was fighting with it.
06:26What were her goals?
06:28Did she start to put the pieces together for herself?
06:30Actually, I had got her a job with me.
06:33We worked together at Taco Bell.
06:35She had posted on Facebook and like tagged everybody.
06:38I got a nine to five, and I feel good about it.
06:41I'm trying to change my life for the good.
06:44Tell me about what happened that day, the day she was arrested.
06:48Tanisha called me at like nine o'clock in the morning.
06:51She said, Mom, they didn't give me my check,
06:54and she's trying to get me to track down her check.
06:56I called Taco Bell.
06:58They'll try to figure out where her check is.
07:00And she was like, my electric bill is almost $1,000.
07:03It was like she was agitated.
07:06Why was she so stressed about this energy bill?
07:09Because she was trying to get her daughter back.
07:11Her daughter lived with the dad because he went to court.
07:15So she was trying to do the proper things to get her daughter back.
07:18She knew that she needed to show them that she can hold her own apartment.
07:22Did you get a sense when you hung up with her
07:24that she was overwhelmed by the situation?
07:27Yes, I knew, but I didn't know what to do.
07:29My sister called, and she told me, she said, Tanisha just got locked up.
07:33And she said, it's on the news. She's in Jackson County jail.
07:36And I'm like, what?
07:39Police say a Louisville shoplifting suspect leads troopers on a 50-mile chase,
07:43hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour before crashing in a ditch.
07:47The story that we got based on the arrest reports was that Tanisha had stolen several thousand dollars' worth of
07:56clothes from the outlet mall.
07:59I'm Natalia Martinez, and I'm an investigative reporter who takes cases from the Kentucky and southern Indiana areas.
08:06One of those cases was what happened to Tanisha Chappelle.
08:11This mall is kind of outside of Louisville.
08:16And that's where, according to the police report, Tanisha had gone and stolen thousands of dollars' worth of clothes
08:22and then got back on the highway heading back towards Louisville.
08:28Put your hands out the window!
08:32Put your hands out the window!
08:36Anybody else in the car with you?
08:40If your vehicle matches your description, just use a skill.
08:43Go and take your keys out of the car.
08:50Get out of the car. Get out of the car.
08:52I am! I am! I am!
08:54Get out of the car!
08:54I'm getting out!
08:56Why are you doing all the way? Why are you doing all the way?
08:59Get out of the car!
09:01Get out of the car now!
09:03Get out of the car!
09:06For sale, she took off!
09:08This girl who went into a store and stole $3,000 worth of clothes is now leading a 20-car
09:15chase,
09:17trying to get back to Louisville as fast as she can.
09:25She hit the back of a semi.
09:27Tanisha is panicked. She stops once.
09:31Get out of the vehicle now! Get out of the vehicle!
09:35Gets spooked. Takes off again.
09:37The chase doesn't end until she crashes into a ditch.
09:43When I first heard that she did it, I wanted to know why. Why did she run?
09:47Yeah.
09:48But when I watched the video, I had tears in my eyes, because I understood why she ran.
09:54And why was that?
09:56The officer asked her, he said...
09:59He said, put your hands up. Wait for backup to get her.
10:03So she got her hands up.
10:05And then in the same breath, he tells her to throw the keys out the window.
10:09And then he reaches in there and starts snatching them.
10:12And then you see her car take off down the street.
10:15So then she thinks about it, and she pulls over again.
10:19By the time she pulls over again, he's got his hand like, oh, it's good.
10:23So she took off again.
10:24So then that's when I understood why she took off.
10:28This girl, she didn't play about guns.
10:33One day, Tanisha and her ex-boyfriend, they was riding a car, and somebody shot at his car.
10:40And she got shot in her back.
10:43Tanisha, she got shot in her back like five times.
10:46When I first asked her how her boyfriend didn't get no bullets, she would just say, I don't know.
10:51And then she finally told me, Mama, I laid over top of them, and she was protecting them.
10:56But after she got shot, she was very afraid of guns.
11:02After her arrest, we spoke on the phone, and she was just like, she messed up.
11:07She take accountability, and she was like, you know, more than anything, I'm mad at myself.
11:13When you do something you have no business doing, you go to jail, and you do your time, and hopefully
11:18you learn from it.
11:20Because trust me, I've been to jail.
11:23I did my time, and I learned from it.
11:26You know, sometimes jail wakes people up, and I felt like in my heart that this was going to wake
11:32her up.
11:33She had called, and she was like, get me out of here.
11:36But her bond was like $4,000.
11:39And I was just hurt, you know, because I couldn't come up with that money.
11:45Tanisha is innocent until proven guilty.
11:47But because she doesn't have the money to pay the bond, she will sit in jail as if she were
11:53already guilty of the crime she's accused of committing.
11:57The section of the jail that Tanisha was placed in, she was the only African American female.
12:03And Tanisha told her family she was terrified.
12:08Tanisha would tell me the things that were happening to her inside the jail.
12:12She told me that they were calling her the N-word, told her she couldn't sit and eat at certain
12:19places.
12:21Someone had put a noose on her bed, and I could just tell her voice.
12:26She was scared to go into details.
12:29And she said if we don't get her out of there, they were going to kill her.
12:34When Tanisha passed away, me and my daughter went to Jackson County to get her belongings.
12:41Sheriff Rick Meyer told us to come into his office and talk to him.
12:44It was like, I got a pretty good idea of what happened to her.
12:47She died by poisoning. Poisoning.
12:53I told them not to touch. I wanted to do my own autopsy.
12:57They told me that they can't do that. They have to do the autopsy.
13:01I felt like I needed to get a lawyer quick before they start covering up.
13:06That's where my mind was.
13:08Two days after Tanisha had died, I had a lengthy call with Tanisha's mother and her sister.
13:12And immediately it became clear that there were a lot of things that didn't add up.
13:20My name is Sam Aguiar. I'm a plaintiff's attorney here in Kentucky.
13:24I know the playbook that happens after these situations.
13:27Some sort of authority figure says, we are going to do everything to figure out what happened.
13:33And they do a piss poor, half-assed investigation that leaves you with more questions than answers.
13:39When I met with Sam, my daughter was like, so what do you think?
13:43I said, let's go ahead and go with them.
13:45I said, nobody else is listening to us anyway.
13:53I hate that families like Levita's, you know, they're experiencing the biggest tragedy of their lives.
14:01And instead of being supported, they're met with this kind of frigid front by law enforcement.
14:08But Levita's a fighter and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
14:13We hear Sam Aguiar right here, who is known nationally for his representation in the Breonna Taylor case.
14:20We're going to Sam's office right now to meet with him and his colleague Sarah Collins.
14:25Sam wasted no time getting involved in Tanisha's case.
14:29Hi, how are you guys? Sarah?
14:31Yes. I'm Hillary.
14:32Nice to meet you.
14:34Hi, Hillary. I'm Sam. Nice to meet you.
14:35Hi, Sam. I'm very grateful for your time.
14:37How do you guys go about piecing together the narrative of what happened between when Tanisha got arrested and when
14:45she died?
14:46The family had very little information.
14:50They were not given answers by the Jackson County Sheriff.
14:55Did you put out a media release that you were involved in this case?
14:59We did.
15:02And quickly, we had over 60 messages from different individuals that had been incarcerated or had a loved one that
15:08was incarcerated up in Jackson County.
15:10And that was where we heard early on, word on the street up here in the jail is that she
15:15was poisoned.
15:17We'd had a few people that said, hey, you need to look into these inmates right here.
15:21Rumor has it that they hoarded cleaner in their cell and they wanted Tanisha to get sick, but they wanted
15:28her out of their pod, not off this planet.
15:34Within the Jackson County Jail, we have what's known as a pod system.
15:38J-Pod is Tanisha's pod.
15:39The inmates that were in there, they're developing friendships.
15:42They're sharing food with each other.
15:45They're going in and out of each other's cells.
15:47And then you got Tanisha.
15:48And Tanisha is black, she is lonely, and she is on an island in that pod.
15:56I spoke to several other inmates that corroborated what was going on inside of the jail at the time that
16:03Tanisha Chappelle died.
16:05One inmate described her as having so much light around her, but the taunting had become such that at one
16:12point Tanisha shut down.
16:14Were you hearing about Tanisha being targeted in the jail over and over and over?
16:21Her first bunkie, she and Tanisha almost get in a fight.
16:25She calls Tanisha the N-word over 50 times.
16:29At that point, the entire pod was turned against Tanisha.
16:34Well, it seems like it put a target on her back, like she's the problem.
16:37Definitely.
16:38I remember getting the medical report from the hospital where it specifically says,
16:44check for antifreeze in her system when you do the autopsy because there are clear signs of poisoning.
16:51The story then became, was this girl murdered?
16:55The medical examiner had concluded that it was toxicity due to an unknown source that had resulted in death,
17:03and specifically noted within the autopsy that in examining the internal organs that there was actually a green fluid that
17:10was visible.
17:10And at this point, state police and this lab did not perform thorough tests on that substance and had not
17:19tested for ethylene glycol in the blood antifreeze.
17:22They are not doing the tests that would verify this story.
17:27For two days, this investigation after Tanisha died was in-house.
17:32So you had two different sheriff's deputies up there in Jackson County who were investigating it.
17:37You had one detective who was taking photographs of all the cleaning agents.
17:41He's making all these notes about her potentially being poisoned with cleaner.
17:44So that seems like good.
17:46It does, yeah.
17:47He's doing some interviews that look like they're designed to elicit whatever it can be to see what she poisoned
17:53and how.
17:53Then the investigation gets turned over to the Indiana State Police.
17:57I think the sheriff didn't want there to be an appearance of impropriety.
18:00Okay.
18:01But then we ended up finding out that he specifically called one of his buddies in the Indiana State Police
18:05and said,
18:05hey, can you take this over for us?
18:07Well, so what about these poison theories?
18:11That original detective from Jackson County Sheriff's Department hand-delivered the Indiana State Police a Mountain Dew bottle and said,
18:19these inmates say this is the one right here.
18:22It's got something toxic in it.
18:24This is what she was poisoned with.
18:25It's the smoking gun.
18:26So do they send that off to be tested?
18:28No.
18:29What?
18:30No.
18:31I don't understand why they would want to stonewall the investigation.
18:36The only reason I could plausibly think of is that it starts opening up the door to questioning
18:41about who was getting access to what and how and why.
18:43But that's crazy.
18:45I mean, that I don't want to investigate that death because it could make us look bad.
18:49It's even crazier.
18:50So this was in August.
18:52The Indiana State Police, and they're telling us, hey, we've got this jail footage,
18:55and we're going to give you a generalized outline sequence of what happened.
19:00They're essentially feeding us this line of there were all kinds of people in that jail that were checking on
19:04her.
19:04Mm-hmm.
19:05And they all had her well-being and her best interest in mind.
19:08And something happened.
19:10We don't know what.
19:11But when she got really, really sick, we sent her to the hospital.
19:13And unfortunately, she didn't make it.
19:15I remember one of the first documents that I got was the EMS report.
19:19The initial report said that she was yellow.
19:21And so they immediately suspected that she was jaundiced.
19:25Someone just doesn't turn yellow and get that weak in a matter of minutes.
19:31That told me this girl had been feeling sick for a very, very long time and that no one had
19:37come to help her.
19:40So you're just having to trust the narrative that law enforcement is presenting to you without letting you see the
19:46material for yourself.
19:47There's a lot of people that will whisper in government, give it time, it'll blow over.
19:52Mm-hmm.
19:52And it seems like that's the playbook of delay the inevitable because it's going to sting less the more that
19:58time passes.
19:59When she first passed, they didn't want to give me any information, none.
20:03They didn't want to tell me anything.
20:05They didn't want to give us the videos.
20:06And I know that there's cameras in every jail.
20:10I asked Rick Myers.
20:12We called the jail, telling them to release the footage.
20:14They would never do it.
20:16So, me and my daughter, we tried to get a lot of people to go with us to Jackson County
20:20jail.
20:30We would demand for the videos.
20:36Just let us see the video, because maybe the videos is the answers to the questions we have.
20:52It's no secret that law enforcement agencies do not want to give information until they have to.
20:58I knew that something had gone terribly wrong, and I am calling the sheriff's office at first in good faith
21:04to find out what happened to her.
21:06And you're not even answering my calls?
21:09That tells me that you don't want to talk to me for a reason.
21:12And that tells me to go after you even harder.
21:15The feeling that I felt from them is like they can't be touched.
21:22Because the investigation was still ongoing, none of the news agencies or the public could get access to jail video
21:27or calls, investigative materials.
21:30But with civil litigation, we have the ability to do that.
21:40So, as you guys have been collecting information for the civil suit, the Indiana State Police have been collecting information
21:46for their investigation.
21:47Who makes the decision whether or not they're going to prosecute somebody?
21:51So, this information would have been provided from Indiana State Police to their local prosecutor.
21:59And allegedly, he reviewed the information and declined to go forward with charges against anyone at the jail, any inmates.
22:08No charges were brought.
22:10I mean...
22:12Wife's hands clean.
22:16It always surprises me how jails think that video isn't going to come out.
22:22News flash.
22:23What you do inside of that jail is going to come out.
22:27When the court had ordered them to produce discovery, they turned everything over to us.
22:32And at this point, I've got video, I've got audio.
22:36We start watching this footage, and it was way worse than I would have ever expected.
22:50You're throwing up blood?
22:52Yes.
22:52This is my second time.
22:54I overlooked it today.
22:55The first time.
22:56But it's happening again.
22:58Okay.
22:59I'll have somebody come back there and look at you, okay?
23:01Okay.
23:02This is the first time that Tanisha reports over the intercom that she's throwing up blood.
23:09Isaac Harden, officer there, very young, goes and checks on her.
23:14And he ultimately concludes that she doesn't need to go to the hospital.
23:18But there are certain medical conditions that there's no discretion allowed.
23:24It is a mandate.
23:25If you see this present, they go to a hospital.
23:29Throwing up blood is one of them.
23:35Tanisha actually exits her cell into the main pod.
23:38You can see her condition visibly deteriorating on the video.
23:43Nobody's paying any attention to her, and she doesn't look good.
23:48Fast forward to 2.30.
24:04This officer responds in a very condescending manner, and then he hangs up on her.
24:09She calls back.
24:11No, I'm dehydrated.
24:13My whole bucket is full with vomit.
24:16I'm throwing up blood.
24:18He says, I got to talk to the supervisor, Scott Ferguson.
24:22I spoke to the sergeant.
24:24He said that the nurse will see you in the morning.
24:27Our issue here is individuals who are incarcerated, they are the only segment of the population that
24:34actually have a constitutional right to medical care.
24:38If I'm in jail, I can't go and call 9-1-1 on my own and go see a doctor.
24:45That is the responsibility of those within the jail.
24:53Nurse Rutan.
24:55He's arrived at the jail, goes into the cell.
24:57Good morning.
25:01You're not feeling so good, huh?
25:05You'd hope to God that the only medical professional at the jail would actually take her seriously,
25:11do what he was required to do as well, and send her to the hospital.
25:15He doesn't.
25:16He leaves her in the cell, tells her that he's going to come back and check on her later.
25:25Let me help.
25:28Let me help.
25:30Let me help.
25:31Let me help.
25:33Tanisha again makes an intercom call, and for over a minute, Tanisha repeatedly says,
25:39I need help.
25:45Tanisha exits her cell, no clothes on, other than her underwear.
25:50She eventually loses all of her strength, goes down to the ground, collapses.
25:59One inmate goes up on dispatch.
26:02Raya Smith answers.
26:04What's up?
26:05Do you not see this?
26:06We got a naked lady on the floor here.
26:08Give me just a second.
26:11Several minutes pass.
26:13Introduce Officer Clayton Bannister.
26:16He arrives, stands over Tanisha for five minutes, looking down at her and doing absolutely nothing to help Tanisha.
26:33Officer Reynolds, Officer Davison put her in an individual holding cell up front.
26:39The video of Tanisha in the individual holding cell, it's going to be the last footage of Tanisha alive.
26:46We're talking about a culture inside of this jail.
26:51It wasn't just one person who ignored Tanisha's requests for help.
26:56It was several people.
26:58Tanisha's only been in the single holding cell for about 20 minutes.
27:01And already, we see that she's stumbling around, smacks her head, and falls into a steel bunk.
27:11Reynolds and Davison both then can be seen on camera opening up the cell door.
27:18Tanisha's on the ground.
27:19She can barely speak.
27:23They both go back to work.
27:27Fast forward to 2.30.
27:29Ed Rutan, for the first time since the morning, comes to allegedly check on Tanisha.
27:35Hi.
27:37You want to get dressed, so you can step out here and I'll...
27:41We'll see about getting you some medication, okay?
27:44Yes.
27:47He comes back a couple of minutes later.
27:49Last day, I'll see you get up and get dressed and come on up and talk to me, or I'm
27:53just going to go back and do my thing.
27:56I don't care who you are.
27:57If you watch this sequence of events, you know that she is rapidly declining.
28:02You know, or your gut tells you, that she may be dying.
28:07Fast forward to 3.08 p.m.
28:12Sergeant Tammy Baxter and Officer Wendy Boshiers show up at Tanisha's cell.
28:17They are tasked, at this point, with getting her dressed to take Tanisha to Ed Rutan's cell, so he could
28:24do an assessment.
28:25Say, Ken, get you any help until you're dressed.
28:30This is just making the sense that you're facing it.
28:32So, if you're not going to be going to be a nurse, then you're going to wait a while.
28:36You're going to be facing it.
28:38So, they don't help her get dressed.
28:48I watched it on that TV right there.
28:50And when I seen that video, it's like I just wanted to jump in there and be like, I'm her.
28:57I'm her. Mommy's her. Mommy's her.
28:59You know, I couldn't do it.
29:02I don't understand how they can, I just don't understand how they can treat somebody like that.
29:12I don't understand how they can treat somebody like that.
29:15I don't understand it.
29:17I don't understand.
29:19I don't understand a human being.
29:22But I sit there and I watch.
29:24They be on the news all the time.
29:26Oh, we just saved this dog.
29:29Oh, we just saved this cat.
29:31But y'all had a human life.
29:34Y'all didn't save a human life.
29:35Didn't even try.
29:45An hour and 42 minutes after Tanisha's been at the hospital, she's dead.
29:51Tanisha had not one person to stand for her.
29:53Not one.
29:54They just did not care.
29:56It wasn't none of their family members.
29:57See, they get to still see their kids around Christmas.
30:02They still get to go to their kids' softball games, volleyball games, Thanksgiving dinners with their kids.
30:09They get to do all that, but I don't have mine.
30:12Because of the neglect of them.
30:14Because they chose to neglect my daughter.
30:17I feel like y'all murdered her.
30:20I feel like y'all murdered her.
30:20And I feel like she knew y'all was gonna murder her.
30:23She knew it.
30:26What we see in the video, it's horrible.
30:29Any rational person would immediately call 911, get an ambulance over here.
30:33It's a tragedy of errors.
30:35And these are people who are in charge of the lives of these inmates.
30:39Like you said, they can't call 911 for themselves.
30:41All it would have taken was one.
30:43One of these people.
30:44All she needed was to get to a hospital.
30:55When that report came over, it was just a gut punch.
30:59It appears to adopt the opinion that because we can't determine exactly what happened to her,
31:05we just have to treat it like it's an unexplained medical crisis.
31:10It was infuriating.
31:12So we let the media show the rest of the world what happened to Tanisha.
31:17There's nobody that in good conscience could look at this and listen to this and say that it is remotely
31:24okay.
31:25She was definitely denied medical care.
31:27And to say that no one did anything to her is insane.
31:32They had a duty.
31:33They sworn in on an oath that did not fulfill any of that.
31:38In these cases involving law enforcement agencies, a lot of times folks are lawyered up quickly.
31:44So the deposition is the only time where I get to sit them down and say,
31:48we're going to talk about this.
31:49And oh, by the way, we're going to do it under oath, so you better not lie.
31:53Could you raise your right hand, please?
31:55Do you swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
32:00the truth?
32:00I do. Yes, I do.
32:03What shakes out during the depositions?
32:06Who do you speak to?
32:07Depositions started out with guards.
32:09Okay.
32:10Seth Boyd was the first guard deposed.
32:13We're now on the record. Today is March 23rd, 2022.
32:17He is testifying point blank.
32:20She was throwing up blood.
32:21She was very sick.
32:22She needed to go to the hospital.
32:24I saw all of this.
32:25I went and told my sergeant, Scott Ferguson.
32:28At this point you could actually see that there was blood in there too, right?
32:32Yes, sir.
32:33And you went and told that to Scott, right?
32:36Yes, sir.
32:36And what did, what did Scott say?
32:43He said that he had talked to the nurse.
32:48I don't remember exactly after that.
32:52Then we go and get testimony from the sergeant, Scott Ferguson, who essentially says,
32:57I knew she was sick, but I didn't know she was throwing up blood.
33:00The nurse said we needed evidence of the blood.
33:02So I gave him a bedside pan just so she didn't have to keep getting up from her bed to
33:07keep going to the toilet to throw up.
33:09We've got the nurse testifying, hey, you know, I went and saw her and she didn't look like she needed
33:15to go to the hospital at all.
33:17I assessed her when I got there early, the first thing that morning.
33:21Nothing that she, nothing that presented itself as a medical emergency.
33:26We've got Officer Clayton Bannister, who stood over her while she was naked on the floor and then forces her
33:35back to her cell.
33:36When you got to J-Pod, Tanisha was on the ground, correct?
33:40What information did you have at that point about what was going on with her?
33:46I don't believe I had any information.
33:48But then we've got Raya Smith, who cleared her conscience in deposition, who was right there with Clayton Bannister saying,
33:55yeah, she was going through a medical crisis and she needed to go to the hospital.
33:59Given her condition and what you observed at that time, did you believe that she needed to get to a
34:03hospital?
34:05Yes.
34:07Talk to me about the sheriff.
34:09How does he explain himself?
34:10He does not recognize a problem.
34:13He doesn't think there's a problem?
34:15Not one that he admits to.
34:18I'm watching the video, I didn't see that she was mistreated, no.
34:21Would you agree, based upon what we saw in that video, that Tanisha was showing signs of a serious medical
34:26emergency?
34:27I'm not a doctor, I don't...
34:33I guess, as this civil trial moves forward, because the prosecutor decided not to press charges, is there any feasible
34:44future where charges are brought by a different prosecutor?
34:49At any time, the state prosecution could say, we're reopening this matter, we're reconsidering this matter.
34:57What is the deciding factor in whether or not a case is going to be ignored, or is going to
35:03be brought to the forefront and actually handled?
35:05I think you have to have public outcry, and in this case, we have less public outcry than we would
35:13like.
35:14People go to the same churches, you know, they shop at the same grocery stores, they live in the same
35:19neighborhoods.
35:19And so, speaking out against the actions of your local sheriff, that is a lot easier when that sheriff doesn't
35:29know who you are and who your parents are, and they aren't responsible for employing your first cousin or your
35:36brother.
35:37Any criminal accountability right now would have to come by way of the feds.
35:43I feel like that if the FBI gets involved and start investigating, they could be able to figure out what
35:52happened to my daughter.
35:54I just wish that everybody would just take the time to watch the videos and see that it's not adding
36:03up, it doesn't make sense.
36:04Because we see it, and a lot of people see it, but they don't say nothing.
36:10They turn their head like, it ain't my loved one, it ain't my family member.
36:14You know, a lot of people feel like it's not theirs until it knocks at their door.
36:25Unfortunately, circumstances of jail deaths are par for the course in jails across America.
36:31If we're not asking these questions about what happens behind those doors, we're never going to know.
36:39And it's going to continue happening.
36:41As a result of Tanisha's death, do you know if there were any changes made to policies, procedures, or practices?
36:48I'm not aware.
37:00They had tried to keep it real quiet that a second inmate died.
37:05The first time the public became aware of this is when I released it.
37:09Really?
37:09Yes.
37:10I mean, if you know that people keep dying in this one facility, at what point is it like we
37:18need to replace the people who are in charge?
37:20That's common sense.
37:22That's it.
37:23But Jackson County decided to not get rid of the manager when they re-elected Rick Meyer in the following
37:27election.
37:29As far as deaths in Jackson County Jail, I've heard stories. I don't know any of the details of it.
37:36I really don't know any details about any deaths in the jail, just what I've read in the newspapers.
37:42It seems like there is a mystery happening and something going on there that we don't know about.
37:52Do you guys know the Tanisha Chappelle case, what happened here?
37:57Just what's been on the news, you know, it's kind of hush-hush.
38:00Was there an outcry from locals when that happened? I mean, people dying in jail custody is...
38:05Yeah, absolutely. And there really wasn't locally.
38:10Has it come up in any of the elections?
38:13No.
38:14Well, tell your friends to talk about it, because our elected officials should make sure that doesn't happen, and it's
38:20happened multiple times.
38:21It breaks my heart.
38:28Anything can happen at a jury trial, but I would try this case 100 out of 100 days, because it's
38:34a strong case.
38:35What I've seen over the years is that the number one thing that motivates change within these government organizations is
38:43to hit them in the damn wallet.
38:45It sucks that that's what it takes, but if you show them that it is going to be incredibly expensive
38:50for them to f*** up, they tend to f*** up less.
38:54Then you should be here today.
38:55And if a jury comes back and finds these folks liable, no, it's not criminal accountability, but it's some sense
39:03of justice.
39:04Family deserves it.
39:07Levita, these are your other children, and I'm so glad you guys could join us.
39:12Once the prosecutor says, we're not going to do anything, had you prepared yourselves for them to say, we see
39:18no criminality here?
39:20Yeah, after watching the videos, it caught me off guard.
39:23Justice is different depending on who you are, but that doesn't mean that you stop.
39:28For anybody out there, what do you guys want people to do right now?
39:32I want y'all to push for the FBI to step in, to investigate.
39:40I would like for y'all to stand with us, keep saying her name, fight for justice.
39:45And she had a spotlight on Brownstown, Indiana, and everything that's going on.
39:50I ask you to put yourself in Tanisha's shoes and understand that this could happen to you.
39:55This could happen to your loved ones.
39:57You are not immune to it.
39:59Don't sit back and say, oh, my child doesn't get any trouble.
40:03Or, oh, my kid doesn't get any trouble.
40:05Oh, it couldn't happen to me, because it could.
40:08Your child could get mistaken identity.
40:11Your child could get a ticket, anything, and your child may not make it back home.
40:24The thing that's very frustrating to me is that Tanisha was willing to take accountability for her actions.
40:29She admitted, yes, I did this. She says to her mother, I'm willing to do the time.
40:34And yet, the administration here, the staff of this facility, the elected officials in this town, up on their high
40:42horse, take no accountability for their actions.
40:46There's only two options here that the community doesn't know, or that they do know, and they don't care.
40:55And I don't know which one's worse.
40:58But it is exactly why her family continues to come up here, and they continue to demand that we say
41:07her name, Tanisha Chappelle.
41:11Thank you very much.
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