Posted 11:13 am Tuesday, December 22, 2009
New Black Panthers Cancel March
Rbvp/TW
March canceled, dec. 22 mt, spcq-bw
START-BYLINE-1By BETTY WATERSEND-BYLINE-1
March canceled, dec. 22 mt, spcq-bw
START-BYLINE-1By BETTY WATERSEND-BYLINE-1
By BETTY WATERSEND
Staff Writer
HENDERSON -- A march scheduled by the New Black Panther Party to the Rusk County Courthouse here Tuesday to protest handling of an inmate's death in the county jail has been canceled, according to an official with the sheriff's office.
Staff Writer
HENDERSON -- A march scheduled by the New Black Panther Party to the Rusk County Courthouse here Tuesday to protest handling of an inmate's death in the county jail has been canceled, according to an official with the sheriff's office.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers have closed an investigation of the incident after an autopsy report came in stating the inmate died of natural causes.
Quanell X, an African-American activist and reputedly a leader of the New Black Panther Party based in Houston, had announced the march during a meeting in Mount Enterprise on Nov. 25 with relatives and friends of Gerald Donnel Johnson, who was found non-responsive on the floor of the county jail Oct. 16.
But Ron Duncan, chief deputy for Rusk County Sheriff's Department, said Monday that the sheriff's office has been informed that the march has been called off.
"We had a neutral party involved with this and they have contact with Quanell X and that third party has advised Lt. (Charles) Helton that they are not going to march," Duncan said, declining to identify the third party.
Helton, of the sheriff's department, was assisting Texas Rangers in an investigation of Johnson's death.
Johnson was transported to East Texas Medical Center-Henderson, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy report from Southwest Institute of Forensic Services in Dallas listed the cause of death as idiopathic cerebellar hemorrhage and the manner of death as natural.
Quanell X complained in the Mount Enterprise meeting that the inmate's family was not contacted by the sheriff's department about his death and was not given "real information" about what happened to Johnson nor any hopes of a real investigation into what happened.
Duncan said in an interview Monday, "We had the Rangers conduct a very fair and impartial investigation. We're very sorry for the family's loss. If there's anyway we can assist the family, we'll be glad to do that."
Duncan acknowledged that a hospital representative initially contacted the family to inform them about Johnson's death, but he said sheriff's department officials met with the family later that night at the hospital.
"We told them it was being investigated. Lt. Helton met with them at least three more times during the course of the investigation to keep them informed as to the progress of the investigation," Duncan said.
Johnson, 31, had surrendered at the jail during the afternoon of Oct 16 on drug charges and a charge of earlier evading arrest.
