Four prison guards who were allegedly involved in the death of Darren Rainey—a schizophrenic inmate at the Dade Correctional Institution who died in 2012 after being thrown into a scalding hot shower and left there for two hours as punishment—will not be charged.
According to the Miami New Times, on Friday Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle‘s office said that corrections officers Edwina Williams, Cornelius Thompson, John Fan Fan, and Ronald Clarke will not be held accountable.
From the Miami News Times:
Fernandez Rundle’s 72-page close-out memo leans heavily on an autopsy that has been roundly criticized by civil-rights advocates. The report claims Rainey was not found with burns when he died. Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida American Civil Liberties Association, has said in the past that the autopsy, which was leaked to the press during the investigation, showed that a federal investigation was needed.
Rundle’s office, however, noted that one Miami-Dade County cop reported that nurses said Rainey’s body had “red areas” on it, and that his skin was, indeed, “slipping off” after being removed from the shower. Rundle’s memo said, however, that this could have instead been due to “body decomposition,” rather than burns.
“In response to specific questions by Detective Sanchez regarding burns, Dr. [Emma] Lew advised that Rainey did not sustain any obvious external injuries, and, particularly, that there were no thermal injuries (burns) of any kind on his body,” the report says. It then adds that from 2012 to 2014, no cause of death was determined.
According to the outlet, several inmates claimed that they heard Rainey’s screams while he was in the shower. After his death, his loved ones felt forced to cremate his remains.
In Rundle’s memo that was released on Friday, she wrote that the evidence did not meet the requirements for filing criminal charges, reports the Miami News Times.
SOURCE: Miami News Times
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