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Former inmate says Carlock mistreated by jailers

Posted December 03, 2007 10:00 pm

Sarah Antonacci

A man who was in the Sangamon County Jail when A. Paul Carlock was subdued by jailers said one 200-pound-plus corrections officer was sitting on Carlock's back when Carlock began to suffer apparent circulatory distress.

Carlock, 57, a former police officer and clown performer who was being held on federal child sex charges, died Nov. 16 after being Tasered during a struggle with jailers.

James McLemore, 31, said Monday he was being held in a jail cell on charges of domestic battery, unlawful restraint and a weapons offense about 10 feet away from where officers were attempting to get Carlock to cooperate.

"I didn't like the way it happened," McLemore said. "If it happened to me, I would want someone to stick up for me."

He said that Carlock was not fighting but was acting like "dead weight."

McLemore said he saw a corrections officer sit on the back of Carlock, who was chest down on the floor outside his jail cell, while a woman out of uniform and carrying a walkie-talkie joked that all Carlock had to do was go unconscious and the corrections officers would leave him alone. He then saw Carlock's feet turn purple.

McLemore said no one from any law enforcement agency has interviewed him about the events that led up to Carlock's death. The sheriff's office has completed its investigation, and both the U.S. marshal's office and FBI also are looking into the incident.

McLemore said only he and one other inmate, if there was one in the cell directly next to Carlock's, would have been able to see what was happening in the hallway that day.

Tony Sacco, chief deputy for the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office, said McLemore's description differs from what is in the corrections officers' reports.

"We conducted our investigation and talked to all the correctional people working at that time and all the staff," Sacco said.

However, he said, "As far as interviewing inmates, I don't believe we did that.

"If someone would come forward and say something, obviously we would take heed as to what they said and either give it credibility or discredit it. He would have to come forward.

"My suggestion would be for him to call the FBI. I encourage that. The Sangamon County Sheriff's Office doesn't have anything to hide in this deal."

Carlock, a former Springfield and Grandview police officer who also entertained children as "Klutzo the Clown," died at St. John's Hospital, where he was taken by ambulance after the confrontation with jailers.

Sacco said someone from the U.S. marshal's office was present at Carlock's Nov. 17 autopsy, after which Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone attributed Carlock's death to pre-existing heart disease, but that neither the FBI nor the marshal's office had asked for any further information until Monday morning.

"They have begun to conduct interviews in their investigation and I don't know what they're going to get out of it, because we're not part of it," he said. "We have provided both the marshal's service and the FBI with all the reports and incidents that came from that day and any other prior incidents with Carlock. I don't know that they've requested the names of inmates, but if they ask, yeah, we'll give them everything we've got."

Marshall Stone, spokesman for Springfield's FBI office, said the investigation is ongoing.

"(The agent) has done several interviews but has several more to go. He's still in the middle of taking care of that. There are several more scheduled in the next week or so."

There are video cameras throughout the jail. However, no camera was trained on the cell where Carlock was being held, even though it's where high-risk prisoners are kept.

"First of all, the building design didn't put a camera in there," Sacco said. " I'm not sure we had much to do with that.

"The fact is, they can be observed visually 24 hours a day, and our guys have to check them every 15 minutes and log their condition. Would it be good to have a camera in there? You bet. But we don't."

The two high-risk cells are directly behind the booking officer's desk. There is a window into each cell, so people at the booking desk can observe the inmates 24 hours a day.

According to information released the day of Carlock's death, he died of undetermined medical problems. Six hours later, after the report from the jail arrived at the sheriff's office, it became clear that Carlock died after a struggle with corrections officers during which he had been stunned with a Taser.

The original report indicated Carlock was shot with the Taser from a distance. However information downloaded from the Taser showed the device was actually held against Carlock's leg and fired.

The report also says that Carlock was fighting with officers and was wrestled to the ground but continued to fight them.

McLemore said that wasn't the case at all. He said Carlock was unresponsive, perhaps nearly catatonic, that day.

Sacco noted that inmates may have a different version of the way things unfold in the jail.

"Generally, an inmate's perspective of what correctional officers do is not always accurate because of they way they feel about being in the system. But it will not be overlooked," he said.

McLemore ended up pleading guilty to the domestic battery charge. In return, the other two charges were dropped. He's serving a year's probation and was sentenced to 14 days in jail with credit for the time he already served.

According to Springfield police, McLemore held a female at knifepoint in her apartment in the 400 block of West Edwards Street at 6:38 a.m. on July 22 after the two were arguing. He also allegedly battered her.

Sarah Antonacci can be reached at (217) 788-1529 or sarah.antonacci@sj-r.com.

The following is former Sangamon County Jail inmate James McLemore's version of what happened leading up to the death of A. Paul Carlock:

--On Nov. 15, jail personnel found Carlock in his cell smeared with his own feces (after a family member expressed concern that he wasn't taking his medication). They hosed him down in his cell before "dragging" him out "like a piece of old meat" and around a corner, McLemore said. There, McLemore assumes Carlock was given a shower, but he said that area was outside his vantage point.

--On Nov. 16, he said, jail personnel came to ask Carlock whether he was going to take his medication, and he was "unresponsive. Not belligerent. He wasn't doing nothing that entitled them to treat him that way.

McLemore said the jail employees noticed that Carlock again had defecated and started laughing about it. He said several corrections personnel gathered around.

"They were laughing like it was some big old joke," McLemore said. "That's gross,' they said, and everyone snickered and giggled. He wasn't doing anything. He was like, going limp, like: 'Whatever you're gonna do, you're gonna do.' He didn't' participate. They forcibly put him in cuffs and carried him out. They tried to get him to start participating, and when he wouldn't (they Tasered him)."

--Then, McLemore said, they put him on his chest while he was still shaking from being stunned with the Taser. So one corrections officer, who McLemore described as having "a big lower body, glasses, balding at the top … mostly works in the med unit" leaned into Carlock's back before sitting on top of him.

--He said that's when the woman with the walkie-talkie made the comment about Carlock being better off if he was unconscious. "They were all laughing and sniggling and giggling like it was a joke," he said.

--Then a woman who McLemore believes was a nurse saw blood on Carlock's toe and bent down to see why it was bleeding. When she did, she noticed his toes were purple, felt for and couldn't find a pulse in his feet and told the corrections officer to get off Carlock's back.

--They flipped him over and had trouble getting a pulse in his neck. Someone sent for ammonia capsules, and that didn't rouse him, either, McLemore said.

"They panicked. They all stopped laughing. It wasn't funny to them anymore," he said.

After about seven minutes, McLemore said someone he believed was a nurse told him to sit down in his cell. "She said: 'You seen what happened. We'll use you as a witness.'"

He said he responded: "I seen you kill the man."

They then moved him to a different cell where he couldn't see what was happening.

McLemore said he doesn't know any of the jail personnel's names, but there were at least six corrections staffers there and two people, a man and a woman without uniforms and carrying radios who he believes were supervisors.

He said he could identify every one of them if he's shown pictures.

Tony Sacco, chief deputy for the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office, said the corrections officers' report indicated one of them was "securing Carlock's shoulders" but does not say specifically how.

"I assume the FBI will dig into all that stuff," he said.

As for the time frame of events, Sacco said information downloaded from the fired Taser indicates Carlock was stunned at 7:42 a.m. The first call for an ambulance was at 7:49 a.m. A second call for an ambulance went out at 7:56 a.m., and the ambulance arrived at 7:59 a.m.

Ambulance personnel administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (Sacco said the report does not indicate that any jail personnel attempted CPR), hooked up an IV and took Carlock away at 8:12 a.m. The sheriff's office was notified that Carlock died at 9:28 a.m.

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