A Kansas sheriff’s deputy who is charged with murdering a handcuffed jail inmate held his knee against the prone man’s back for 1 minute 26 seconds, court records say.
Richard Fatherley, a deputy sheriff in Wyandotte County, Kan., was charged in September with second-degree murder or an alternative of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Charles Adair on July 5 at the county jail in Kansas City, Kan.
Mr. Adair, who had several medical conditions and was using a wheelchair, had been arrested the day before based on misdemeanor warrants concerning traffic tickets, according to an affidavit filed in the case. The affidavit was released last week at the request of news organizations.
When he was arrested, Mr. Adair was taken to a medical center because of an infected wound on his left leg and then was cleared for incarceration and transported to the jail. Records cited in the affidavit said complications with the leg wound stemmed from untreated diabetes. Mr. Adair said during the medical screening that he had a pacemaker and was schizophrenic, the affidavit said.
At the jail on the evening of July 5, Mr. Adair was being wheeled back to his cell after getting the dressing on his leg re-wrapped when he got into a fight with the deputy and threw himself out of his wheelchair, according to the affidavit. He was handcuffed, put back in the chair and wheeled to his cell, where deputies placed him on the bottom bunk, lying face down.
He was heard yelling “help,” the affidavit said, and at 8:36 p.m., Mr. Fatherley approached Mr. Adair and put his left knee on Mr. Adair’s lower back, while other deputies held down Mr. Adair’s arm, shoulder and legs.
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The post Deputy Charged With Murder Knelt on Inmate’s Back, Affidavit Says appeared first on New York Times.
