FALSE STATEMENTS MADE IN THE DADE COUNTY FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY’S 3/17/17 WRITTEN DECISION TO NOT PROSECUTE DARREN RAINEY’S KILLERS

Katherine Fernandez Rundle

In this blog I’m going to address numerous statements made by the Dade County Florida State Attorney in her 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Darren Rainey’s killers.  The Dade County State Attorney’s statements that I’m about to address are somewhat trivial, but I feel I should give them some attention.  Why?  Because they add up to more attempts to cover up Darren Rainey’s murder.  

All the page references herein are to the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers.

1. The last sentence on page 30 says I asked “inmate (Daniel) Medbury if he would talk with reporters.”  Rainey was killed on 6/23/12.  The possibly hundreds of pages of grievances and letters I wrote between July 2012 and February 2014 on the Rainey murder and the events that happened at Dade C.I., will show not one reference to the media.  My writings after March 2014  show hundreds, if not thousands of references to the media.  What does this show?  It shows I never thought about contacting the media between July 2012 and February 2014.  To further prove that I never thought about contacting the media prior to February 2014, not one media outlet in the World will say I contacted them prior to February 2014.  The first media outlet I contacted was in February 2014 and it was through another person.  That media outlet was the Miami Herald newspaper, the Dade County Florida State Attorney could easily verify through Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) Housing Logs and Records that I haven’t been incarcerated with or communicated with Daniel Medberry since prior to December 2012.  Since I never thought about contacting the media in 2012, I would’ve never asked Medberry if he’d talk to reporters.  Again, I never thought about communicating with media / reporters prior to February, 2014.  I did give the Miami Herald in 2014 Daniel Medberry’s name, but since I never spoke with Medberry from December 2012 till the day I’m writing this blog, I never had a chance to bring up the media to Medberry.  I could be wrong, but I don’t believe Medberry made this claim.
2. In the first paragraph on page 43, it says Gregory Shevlin didn’t “have any direct knowledge of the death of inmate Rainey.”  I explained in detail in a blog I wrote just on Shevlin how I believe Shevlin was in fear of his life when the police questioned Shevlin about Rainey’s murder while he was still housed in the Dade C.I. TCU and how Shcvlin was one of the orderlies working on the night Rainey was killed.  
3. In the first sentence, second paragraph, on page 59 it says “inmate-interviews taken later were likely tainted or influenced by the statements made by inmate Hempstead as several of those interviewed mentioned they had spoken with inmate Hempstead.”  I underlined ‘likely’ because this is just the State Attorney’s bias opinion.  The State Attorney presents contradictive positions in her own document.  The Dade County State Attorney throughout her 3/17/17 written decision contends the testimony of other inmates and I were inconsistent.  In the above cited sentence on page 59 the State Attorney contends other inmate’s interviews were likely tainted or influenced by statements I made to the other inmate-witnesses.  If I allegedly “tainted or influenced” their testimony, then that would mean the statements of other inmates had to be consistent with mine.  I’m sure she wouldn’t allege I “tainted or influenced” their statements to be inconsistent with mine.  Because the Dade County State Attorney is attempting to twist the truth, her writings are full of obvious contradictions like this one.  
4. In the last two sentences of the third paragraph on page 61 it states “in addition, Hempstead asserted that Rainey began to scream as if in pain as well as kicked the shower door because the water in the shower was too hot.  Therefore, it is Hempstead’s position that Rainey was deliberately scalded in the shower by the excessively hot water.”  This is another lie and twisting of the facts by the Dade County State Attorney.  I’ve consistently stated from June 2012 in my diary, FDC Grievances, letters and interviews that inmates placed in the shower for punishment could avoid getting the hot water on their bodies, and that the primary punishment with the shower was the extreme heat and steam in the shower caused by the hot water.  I really don’t know what to say about this far-fetched lie and twisting of the facts by the Dade County State Attorney.
5. In the last paragraph of page 61 it states that I encouraged/solicited some of the inmates I spoke with to file complaints and contact the media.  It is a well-known fact that I did ask Daniel Medberry and Mark Joiner to file complaints on the Rainey case.  I didn’t ask any other inmates to do such because the majority of other inmate-witnesses were mentally unstable or very fearful.  If I could’ve spoke with Medberry or Joiner after I started talking with the media in 2014 I would’ve asked them to speak with the media, but to this day I haven’t got a chance to speak with them.  The last time I spoke with Medberry was prior to December 2012 and the last time I spoke with Joiner was January 2013.  Since I haven’t got a chance to speak with these inmates since the foregoing times, when I started talking with the media in 2014, I gave the media these inmates’ names.  This might just be a trivial lie by the Dade County State Attorney, but it’s still a lie.  
6. On page 64 the Dade County Florida State Attorney says I was incorrect in saying Ofc. Thompson found Rainey dead in the shower and that Ofc. Clarke actually found Rainey dead.  Since 2012 I stated in my diary, FDC grievances, letters and interviews, that Ofc. Thompson found Rainey dead, left Rainey dead on the shower floor for approximately eight minutes while Ofc. Thompson told Ofc. Clarke and his co-workers that Rainey was dead, and that Ofc. Clarke came back to the shower and acted like he found Rainey dead.  A review of the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers shows that the Dade County Florida State Attorney just chose to believe what the Dade C.I. staff said who killed Rainey (and have a reason to lie), over what I said (even though I have/had nothing to gain by speaking out in this case.)

These are some of the small lies and twisting of facts in the Dade County State Attorney’s written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers I wanted to address.  Please share this blog with your friends and with anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Harold Hempstead, 'Caged Crusader', Tennessee D.C., 2017