On January 16, 2003, the sheets were pulled up over
the broken and bruised head, neck and body of a man who had been admitted
to Raleigh’s Wake Medical Center after being transported to Raleigh
by two deputies of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department.
Gary Rummer was a man slight in stature, barely 130 pounds. He was soft
spoken because a birth defect that had left him with a hair-lip, caused
by a cleft palate. This made his speech somewhat difficult to understand
and had caused Gary some embarrassment throughout his 50 years of life.
His friends of the past 30 years, Steven and Hilarie Scarbro, say he
is one of the gentlest people they have ever been acquainted with. Yet
Gary Eugene Rummer died from a violent altercation while in custody
of the New Hanover County Jail.
Last year on a Friday evening, Mr. Rummer had a couple of beers prior
to driving home. He was stopped and arrested for driving while intoxicated.
His blood alcohol level was tested by a certified technician utilizing
a breath testing machine and Gary’s blood alcohol concentration
was registered a .08, this being just at the bubble of the legal limit
to drive. He was placed in the New Hanover County jail that night and
had to stay put until he could appear in court on Monday morning. Monday,
the Scarbros bailed Rummer out of jail. Later he returned back to court
for trial and then received his sentence for DWI. Part of the sentencing
was for Mr. Rummer to complete 24 hours of community service.
Mr. Rummer failed to meet the courts requirement to give 24 hours of
his time for community service. On January 10th he was rearrested and
brought to jail. Sometime around noon on the 14th, Rummer was transported
to Central Prison hospital in Raleigh for “medical safe keeping”,
one hundred and twenty miles away. He was unconscious during the entire
trip. For some reason, immediately after the deputies delivered Mr.
Rummer to Central Prison, he was rushed by ambulance to the Wake Medical
Center’s emergency room. Two days later, on the 16th, his friends
the Scarbro’s, signed the papers necessary to remove Mr. Rummer
from the life support ventilator and stood by him till his last breath
of air was released into the sad, silent room.
Speculations flew since the release of the autopsy report in April.
Prior to the release of the autopsy report, the Sheriff’s Department
called his death an accident with insinuations that his death was related
to an alcohol related illness. Gary Rummer’s autopsy report showed
something entirely different though. It showed a broken neck, severe
brain damage and hemorrhaging, and several bruises on and around various
places of his body. Suspiciously, the report also stated he died from
injuries suffered from an altercation with a law enforcement officer.
Almost 3 weeks after Mr. Rummer’s death, on February 4th, the
SBI was called in to investigate the death. This was the exact same
date that the District Attorney’s Office was first notified of
his death by the Sheriff’s Office. The report has been completed
and delivered to the DA’s Office and soon after, a press conference
was held Monday, June 2nd to absolve the deputy jailer, and all others,
of any criminal wrong-doing.
Jail conditions have historically been horrendous. Spilling over with
scores of people awaiting trial. Most of these people are too poor to
“bond out” and some of them are too dangerous to be let
out. But we have to keep them somewhere until they can have their day
in court. Those that end up convicted or plea to a lesser charge may
be given a prison term, some will be released with time already served
(meaning that for those inmates, they spent their prison time in a county
jail situation rather than a tougher state prison facility). Others
are released on probation with a suspended prison sentence, which means,
that if they fail the conditions of their probation, they will end up
serving time in prison.
Our jail was initially designed to hold 125 inmates. An addition in
1990 gave the jail 83 new beds, bringing the total to 209. Today the
daily population is over 300. It has been as high as 400 in the very
recent past. I can remember seeing juvenile inmates sleeping on the
floor chained to the wall in hallways because there was no place for
them to stay safely. Young inmates often fall victim to physical as
well as sexual assaults by other, more seasoned, criminal inmates. If
I had a picture to show you of the conditions I saw back in the 90’s
you would think it was some poor third world country’s jail, not
ours. New Hanover County is one of the wealthiest areas of the State
and certainly has the money, education, and community participation
to have a model jail system, yet we don’t even come close.
We all knew back in the early 90’s that, not only was the overcrowding
dangerous to the inmates, but to the deputies working there as well.
Sadly, the then Sheriff Joe McQueen, and the County Commissioners, failed
to act on the overcrowding problem. When it became obvious that overcrowding
could be a deadly situation for both the inmates as well as the jailers,
no one acted. That is until 1998 when an organization representing prisoners’
rights made a serious threat. Michael Hamden, a lawyer with the not-for-profit
advocates right’s agency, NC Prisoners’ Legal Services,
threatened suit if the County would not keep the inmate population below
262 inmates. The Sheriff’s department has since been shuttling
inmates back and forth all over the state at a cost of over $125,000
a month trying to keep the NCPLS lawsuit at bay.
The new jail is now way behind schedule. One time scheduled to open
in the fall of 2001, it now looks like it won’t be in operation
until March of 2004. Cost overruns are being adjusted with creative
accounting procedures to show only a slight increase, to our taxpayers,
in the projected $48 million budget. The delays, the bickering, the
poor planning, and the lack of vision, by Sheriff McQueen and the County,
to initiate this new jail sooner, caused problems that couldn’t
be overcome easily and without great expense. We should now be looking
at situations already facing the new, yet to be finished, jail. We are
projecting overcrowding issues even before we cut the ribbon on the
new jail. We have sold off spaces to the Federal Government for their
inmates to be held for trial, we have the returning inmates who have
been kept in the western part of the State, there are inmates that require
special needs, inmates that have to be segregated, and most noteworthy
of all, we have a growing crime problem which stuffs more and more inmates
into our jail. That’s right, it is because our crime problem is
so bad that we have so many people in jail awaiting trial. It stands
to reason that the less crime we have committed here, the less numbers
of people we would have to incarcerate. Some would have you believe
that it is the 2% annual increase in population that causes our jail
to overcrowd. But it is not the population, it is a crime rate that
is more than 50% over the State’s norm that fills our courts and
our jails, not only costing us our valuable tax money but it effects
the safety and security of our families and our neighborhoods.
So who is at fault, who is it that caused Gary Rummer’s death?
I would say, based on my own preliminary investigation, that it was
the deputy who, (the District Attorney excused from any criminal indictments)
at the very least, lacked the proper training and who, using poor judgment,
wrestled with Mr. Rummer causing mortal injury. I can also find fault
with the medical personnel who examined Mr. Rummer and tragically misdiagnosed
his injuries. We may never truly know who is at fault or if there is
any proof to anything, one way or another, since the SBI report is locked
up in the District Attorney’s Office and not available for outside
interpretation. But why did Rummer die? That question is a bit more
complex, but a brief answer, by me, as to why he died, would be this:
Gary Eugene Rummer died on January 16, 2003 because of the increasing
crime rates, as much as 50% higher than anywhere else in this Country.
This packs our already overcrowded jail system. Crimes associated with
the illegal drug use and trafficking here in Wilmington have overcrowded
our jails for years now. In my opinion, the responsibility of the jail’s
problems, including the death of Mr. Rummer, falls squarely on the shoulders
of those people who have consistently turned their back on this growing
crime problem.
It is the incompetent leadership within the Sheriff’s Department
that led to Mr. Rummer’s death. Crime is rampant, overcrowding
has faced us for the past 10 years or more, this isn’t the first
questionable death at our jail, and still no one is accountable. “
He died as a result of his lifestyle ma’am.” A direct quote
by Ms. Scarbro describing what she was told by an official at the Sheriff’s
Department, when she asked what happened to her good friend Gary Rummer.
How outrageous.
How arrogant.
How irresponsible!
Death, rape and robberies take place inside our jail. This is the one,
single place that safety and security should be paramount. Jail, any
jail, is notoriously a bad place to end up and rightfully it should
be, but it is something that can be controlled safely. Jails are controlled
safely all over this country. Not here though. When they can’t
even police their own jail you can imagine the problems policing the
entire County. Just look at the overwhelming historical evidence pertaining
to the negligence of the leadership and abuse of power within the Sheriff's
Department.
We have to remember that almost everyone in the jail is awaiting their
first trial. Technically, most of the inmates are people suspected of
committing a crime, men and women innocent, until proven guilty. Some
of these inmates will have spent months in jail awaiting trial, only
to be found not guilty later in court. Not every inmate is a criminal.
Not every inmate is even facing a prison sentence. Yet all of these
inmates are not safe. The deputies guarding the inmates are not safe.
We are not safe. Our friends, our neighbors, our loved ones are not
safe, just ask the family and friends of Mr. Rummer or Gerald Blackledge,
a family member of ex-Sheriff McQueen. Blackledge also died in custody
of the New Hanover County Jail after being picked up for a probation
violation. The Blackledge family, like the many other victimized families,
settled a hefty lawsuit against the County because of the exact same
incompetence that caused the death of Mr. Gary Eugene Rummer.
I call upon Chairman Davis and the County Board of Commissioners to
immediately make a public statement regarding the death of Mr. Rummer
and report to the citizens how corrective measures are in place to avoid
further mistreatment. Some of the incarcerated at our county jail may
be innocent people. Some are good people who have fallen temporarily
under some bad circumstances. Someone is responsible for the safety
of all these inmates. We deserve to know that there is absolutely no
effort to cover this matter up by anyone inside the Sheriff’s
office. Our community’s trust is at stake, the longer the Board
of Commissioners waits to comment, the more pain we will all suffer.
The arrogance of our officials, as evident by their lack of public concern,
troubles me deeply. In my 23 years of law enforcement and through my
many years as an advocate for the victims of crime I have never seen
such disregard for genuine accountability. It is not just the death
of Mr. Rummer, it is the awful handling of personnel issues and outrageous
acts of run amuck police officers that concern not only me, but many
of our responsible citizens.
I voice my opinion to encourage others to do the same. Join with me,
organize within your churches, your places of business and become a
communal voice of concern. Justice can be served if we speak out loud
enough. We must hold our elected officials accountable, it encourages
the honesty and integrity we hope for on election day.
Marc Benson
Executive Director
Citizens Commission for Judicious Reform
www.JudiciousReform.com
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