Bar Complaint Revives 10-Year-Old Question: Why No Charges Filed Against Florida Guards Who Killed Prisoner?
by David M. Reutter
A dustup between Republican politicians landed in Florida’s Charlotte County Circuit Court on February 15, 2024, when presiding Judge Lisa Porter reserved ruling on disclosure of grand jury proceedings that resulted in no indictments against state prison guards in the 2014 beating death of prisoner Matthew Walker at Charlotte Correctional Institution.
As PLN reported, Walker, 46, was awakened around midnight on April 11, 2014, by a guard who noted a cup and magazine out of place in his cell. “This is crazy. You are waking me up about a cup,” Walker said, according to his cellmate. When the guard took this as a threat and called for backup, a responding guard used his boot to crush Walker’s larynx, causing him to suffocate. However, no one was indicted in his death. [See: PLN, Feb. 2016, p.1.]
“Even the medical examiner listed it as a homicide,” said Walker’s sister, Mae Atkins. “So, if it’s a homicide, then why wasn’t anyone indicted? Everyone in that cell should have been charged because they have a duty to protect.”
The case gained renewed attention thanks to a Florida Bar complaint filed in April 2020, alleging that attorney Christopher Crowley, during his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Charlotte County State Attorney against fellow Republican Amira Fox, “publicly disparaged his opponent through various campaign materials, advertisements, and social media postings” that accused her of misconduct and corruption. Specifically, Crowley reiterated claims of Louise Salcedo, 85, a grand juror assigned to the review of Walker’s death, who said in 2015 that prosecutors “improperly and inappropriately” discouraged the grand jury from indicting the guards.
In his defense against the bar complaint, Crowley petitioned the circuit court to unseal the grand jury proceedings, seeking evidence that Fox acted inappropriately, as his campaign rhetoric charged. After the circuit court reserved judgment on that request, a Referee Report to the state Supreme Court on March 22, 2024, recommended sanctioning Crowley with a loss of his law license for 91 days—long enough to cost him his job as a prosecutor for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Bar’s complaint is still pending at the Court. See: Fla. Bar v. Crowley, Fla., Case No. SC2020-0529.
Additional source: Fort Myers News-Press
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login