DANIEL GEIGER - THE FIRST INMATE PLACED IN THE SHOWER AS PUNISHMENT THAT KILLED DARREN RAINEY

"From the beginning I explained to the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) that Daniel Geiger was the first mentally disabled inmate placed in the shower (Rainey was killed in) as a torturing device, and easily the most mentally disabled inmate I witnessed get placed in the shower as punishment.  Just prior to Geiger leaving the Dade C.I. TCU to go to Lake C.I. TCU I witnessed him eating his own faeces.  I don’t believe Geiger was ever in touch with reality when I knew him in the Dade C.I. TCU.

In 2012 Geiger was transferred to Lake C.I. TCU.  I was told that in the end of 2016 Geiger was found dead in the Lake C.I. TCU.  I don’t know anything about Geiger’s death, I just know he died.

When I was reading the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 memorandum stating they aren’t going to prosecute Rainey’s killers, I noticed that it said that the MDPD attempted to interview Geiger.  Page 36 of the State Attorney’s memorandum provides a synopsis of MDPD’s attempt to interview Geiger.  The synopsis says Geiger appeared despondent, that Geiger didn’t appear to fully understand the questions and that he was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I., but this synopsis contends that the interview was done at Dade C.I.  In other words, Geiger didn’t know he was at Dade C.I. when the interview was being done.  (I guess Geiger returned from Lake C.I. to Dade C.I. sometime prior to this interview and sometime after this interview he transferred to Lake C.I. again.)

By reading this synopsis on page 36 of the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s memorandum, you can see that Geiger was severely mentally disabled when the MDPD tried to talk with him.  However this fact didn’t stop the Dade County State Attorney from citing Geiger like she was citing a mentally-stable man.  To be specific, on page 69, first paragraph, last sentence of the State Attorney’s memorandum it states “Geiger said he was unaware of the shower being used for punishment or torture.”  

Do you think it’s right that the Dade County Florida State Attorney cited Geiger like he was a stable inmate?  Let’s think about this:  when the MDPD interviewed Geiger at Dade C.I. they said he appeared despondent, did not appear to fully understand the questions and was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I.  To me it’s outrageous that the State Attorney cited Geiger like he was mentally stable.  The mentally unstable shouldn’t have their words used against them, and they should be given more protection because they are mentally unstable.  

Do you believe it’s right for the police to ask severely mentally disabled people if they were victimized and when they give some kind of answer that can be interpreted as ‘no,’ that the police and State Attorney use that answer against them and let the suspect get away that harmed them?  Shouldn’t the police and State Attorney use witnesses and other types of evidence to prove the crime(s)?  

Another thing that I find outrageous is not only that the State Attorney cited a mentally unstable man like he was stable, but she also cited a dead man.  Yes, Daniel Geiger died several months prior to the State Attorney releasing their memorandum.  

If you look at Martin Christianson’s statement on page 41 of the State Attorney’s memorandum you’ll read that the State Attorney told us what Christianson’s statement was, but also told us that Christianson was deceased.  The State Attorney didn’t tell anybody that Geiger was deceased.  Why do you think the State Attorney did this?  

Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you think can help us with getting justice for Darren Rainey.  Please sign our petition at Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."

Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. Caged Crusader, a.k.a. Miami Harold - Tennessee D.C., April 2017

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A few thoughts on the above, by Jeremy Schanche.  I strongly believe that those convicted of crimes should be treated in accordance with the law.  I don't approve of every law, or every sentence handed down, but the principal of the rule of law is vital, and is central to democracy and free society.  Convicts should be protected from arbitrary, cruel and unusual punishment, which obviously would include starvation and torture, by any means.  This is in accordance with the law. 

Those who feel that the law is either too lenient or too oppressive in any instance can seek redress through various channels including courts of law, lobbying political leaders, engaging in activism and outreach, protesting, exercising your free speech, attempting to influence people through media, writing, publications, etc.. if you're lucky enough to live in a so-called democracy, that is. 

The reality does not live up to the ideal, or the legal entity and is failing countless inmates, who suffer extremely cruel but all-too-usual punishments that constitute torture.  Again and again I ask myself when someone is going to call in the UN - I know they've already been involved at Pelican Bay prison in California where sleep-deprivation was policy.

Daniel Geiger was deeply disturbed and not only was he not getting the medical help that might have led towards his eventual rehabilitation, he was being tortured, and starved, systematically along with others, in a Florida prison of the twenty-first century. 

The notorious 'Shower-Treatment' that has cast such an oppressive shadow over Dade Correctional Institution sine 2012, was actually devised for and tested on Daniel Geiger.  He was tortured in the super-heated steam on at least two occasions, if not more.  He was also known to be starved and lost a dramatic and dangerous amount of his body-weight in Dade, as did others.  To my knowledge, so far, at least six witnesses to the shower-torture at Dade C.I. have already died, through various causes.  How many are still left alive, I wonder?

Daniel Geiger was extremely noisy and shouted continuously, day and night.  Rather than get him appropriate medical treatment, he was cynically used by guards as a weapon.  They would place him in cells next to inmates they wished to sign out of the TCU.  This was essentially using a deranged and tormented soul as a pawn, a mere tool to apply leverage to other inmate-patients who were seeking medical help in the Transitional Care Unit.

To me this represents an incredible degree of callousness, using an acutely suffering man to influence the behaviour of other intensely suffering inmate-patients.

Geiger was so deranged that he was known to eat his own shit and he would not accept the fact that he was even in Dade prison, yet, Katherine Fernandez Rundle and the MDPD got him to say he was not aware of any torture at Dade TCU - even though he himself was starved and tortured there. 

So a deranged man who was starved and tortured was interviewed by police, presumably without a lawyer present, and supposedly gave reliable testimony that he knew of no torture being practiced.  This was in an environment that the guards referred to as 'Auschwitz' as they greeted new arrivals and told them, "we kill guys here and get away with it..."  and yet Geiger's 'statement' to the MDPD detectives who got him in that room, is considered reliable evidence by the police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle.  Reliable enough to disprove any ridiculous stories of torture and abuse, that is. 

And as Harold Hempstead points out, she was also using the words of a dead man to her own advantage, without bothering to inform people following the case that he even was dead. 

An increasing number of witnesses to the torture at Dade C.I. have been dropping dead in dubious circumstances, inmate-witnesses to the torture and killing that she's gone on a long, circuitous and futile journey to try to deny, Katherine Fernandez Rundle would prefer to try and bury this fact along with so many others, after all, it's what she does best.

Harold Hempstead - Darren Rainey Murder Evidence, Dade C.I. 23 June 2012: Caged Crusader’s Witness Statement to US Department of Justice, Miami-Dade State Attorney, 5.5.2016

Jeremy Schanche reads a sworn statement by Harold Hempstead describing Darren Rainey’s murder by Officer Roland Clark.

On 23 June 2012, a black Muslim convict was tortured to death at Dade C.I. in Florida.  He was locked into a specially rigged shower stall for almost two hours, in temperatures of up to 183 Fahrenheit.  When he was eventually found, most of the skin had peeled away from his dead body.  An inmate was later ordered to throw the skin into the trash.  This brutal murder was covered up by guards and other authorities, until inmates, including Harold Hempstead, succeeded in finally contacting the Miami Herald newspaper, which broke the story. 

Although the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech, the reality of life in the Florida Department of Corrections, like its counterparts in many other American states, is different.  Inmates who merely file complaint forms, let alone talk to the press, can expect brutal retaliation from certain of the guards.  Inmates who stand up and blow the whistle on brutality, abuse and corruption are taking a great risk to their own safety, in a penal system that has degenerated into routine brutality, systematic starvation, and regular torture and murder. 

This film should never have been made.  People should not be steamed to death in locked showers, screaming for mercy, dying alone in terror and agony.  USA is not the only nation to conceal horrors such as this, but the USA has a Constitution, a blueprint for justice, democracy and the rule of law – not all nations have such a thing.  Furthermore, the USA is a vital element of western culture and civilization.  For this nation to live up to its promise, its meaning and its true identity, something must change.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the Russian author of such books as Crime and Punishment said “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”  For ‘America’ to ever be ‘Great’ it’s going to have to take a radically different approach to the treatment of those it locks up and takes into its power.

This film has been made in an attempt to publicize the evidence of the prisoner, witness and whistle-blower Harold Hempstead who is endangering his own safety to bring justice for the murder of a mentally disturbed black Muslim man, Darren Rainey.  On 7th November 2016, the prisoner Daniel Geiger died in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.  He is mentioned in the film as the inmate for whom the ‘shower-treatment’ was originally devised.  Daniel Geiger was put in the special shower on more than one occasion.  He was also systematically starved.  Regular food-deprivation was part of the regime at Dade Correctional Institution and Harold Hempstead is convinced that is has contributed to more than one death. 

Records show that this prisoner’s weight at the start of his detention was 179lbs, which is just over 12 ¾ stone.  However, when New Yorker journalist Eyal Press spoke to Daniel Geiger’s mother, Mrs Debra Geiger, she reported that in 2012, her son had told her that his weight was down to 105lbs (7 ½ stone).

Whatever crimes a man may have committed, the Constitution, the foundation document of the nation, requires, in the name of the people, that convicts shall be treated according to lawfully encoded standards of justice and welfare, with recourse to legal redress of grievance and the free speech to do so.  While the rights of the convict are obviously considerably fewer than those of the free citizen, they are, nonetheless, clearly defined and enshrined in law, and should, when circumstances deem it necessary, be vigorously protected by we, the people. 

Notes: 

1.  ‘Affiant’ means the author of an affidavit or witness-statement – which in this case is Harold Hempstead. 

2.  ‘C.I.’ stands for ‘Correctional Institution’ or prison.

Here’s the interview I did with Harold Hempstead in summer 2016 for my paper, The Limpet:

https://savetheholyheadland.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/harold-hempstead-murder-witness-talks.html

The first of numerous articles from the Miami Herald newspaper on the murder of Darren Rainey and conditions in the Florida Department of Corrections:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1964620.html

An in-depth look at Florida’s mistreatment of mentally-ill prisoners:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/02/the-torturing-of-mentally-ill-prisoners

George Mallinckrodt is a psychotherapist and outspoken advocate for the mentally ill, who has written a book about his experiences working at Dade C.I.  Its central focus is the killing of Darren Rainey and it’s entitled Getting Away With Murder:

http://georgemallinckrodt.com/

The blog of Harold Hempstead’s sister and advocate, Windy Hempstead:

https://helpmybrotherharoldhempstead.wordpress.com/

Many articles on Darren Rainey, Harold Hempstead, FDC and more here:

https://wobblywarrior.wordpress.com/

Finally, here’s the written text of Harold Hempstead’s sworn affidavit of 5^th May, 2016, the document read in the film, which describes the torture and murder of Darren Rainey that guards and officials tried to conceal.  Convict-whistle-blowers are taking an enormous risk by witnessing the truth and protecting society’s most vulnerable members.  Please help their work by reading and sharing the evidence.  Thank you and stay free.

https://savetheholyheadland.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/harold-hempstead-evidence-darren-rainey.html

Update:  25.1.2017: Over the last  couple of days I've been sending out the following email to various people.  It reached them all except The Tribune which was bought out and closed and Al Jazeera, who's contact form wasn't working.

Public Message To:  Ms Vanita Gupta, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division; Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney, Miami-Dade County, Florida;  FBI (Case Agent);  Miami-Dade Police Department (Case Detective);  Dade County Medical Examiner;  ACLU of Florida (Dr. Howard Simon); Stop Prison Abuse Now (Steven Wetstein);  Florida Legal Services (Peter Sleasman);  Disability Rights Florida (Molly Paris);  Florida Justice Institute (Randall Berg);  Forgotten Majority;  National Action Network (Rev. Al Sharpton);  Rainbow Push Coalition (Rev. Jesse Jackson);  National Domestic Workers Alliance (Alicia Garza); Black Alliance (Opal Tometi);  Nation of Islam (Louis Farrakhan);  Miami Herald Newspaper (Julie Brown);  CBS4 Miami (Michelle Gillen);  WTVT Fox 13 Tampa (Craig Patrick);  New Yorker Magazine (Eyal Press);  Windy Hempstead;  Susan Chandler;  George Mallinckrodt. 

C.C.:  Antonia Farzan, Miami New Times;  St.Petersburg Times;  Orlando Sentinel;  South Florida Sun Sentinel; The Tampa Tribune;  The Florida Times-Union;  The Palm Beach Post;  Sarasota Herald-Tribune;  The News Journal;  Florida Today;  Gainsville Sun;  New York Times;  Washington Post;  Russia Today;  Al Jazeera;  Black Lives Matter;  The London Times;  The Guardian;  The Independent;  Reprieve;  Amnesty International;  Big Issue;  Fulham Football Club, London;  Florida Tourist Board;  etc.

Brothers and Sisters,

You are receiving this message because your names appear on Harold Hempstead's affidavit of 5th May, 2016, detailing the murder of Darren Rainey at Dade Correctional Institution on 23rd June, 2012.  Since Mr Hempstead wanted you to receive the written evidence, I thought it might be useful to have it in video form too.

I am not aware of the current progress of the investigation into Mr Rainey's killing, four and a half years ago, but I feel that since the slaughter was initially concealed by the authorities, it is appropriate now to compensate for this by giving the event some more publicity.  

You may be wondering why Mr Rainey's death is a matter of concern to a foreigner - after all, Darren Rainey was a black-Muslim, a drug-user, mentally-disturbed and poor.  Well, I don't want a world where people are boiled to death in showers - I want a world of wisdom and compassion.

With thanks to all who are genuinely working for justice.

Good wishes,  Jeremy Sch@nche

Newlyn, Kernow, Great Britain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHdVztdD10k