Missouri Warden, Four Guards Out After Prisoner’s Fatal Beating
Missouri’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is fighting hard to keep details secret about the departure of five employees—including a prison warden—after the brutal death of prisoner Othel Moore at Jefferson City Correctional Center on December 8, 2023.
A cellphone search reportedly led the unnamed guards on a Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) to storm Moore’s cell that day. Prisoners in neighboring cells reported seeing blood flowing from the 38-year-old’s ears and nose as the CERT guards pepper-sprayed him and put him in restraints. They then heard him yell, “I can’t breathe,” as the guards pulled a spit hood over his head before he died.
Four guards were fired on February 22, 2024. But DOC spokeswoman Karen Pojman refused to give their names, nor any details about the firings. Pojman was even more opaque about the departure of the prison’s warden, Doris Falkenrath, on June 13, 2024. Was she fired, too? Pojman wouldn’t say, claiming she was “not able to comment on the nature of or reasons for Warden Falkenrath’s separation from the department.” A 25-year DOC veteran, Falkenrath has been replaced by Acting Warden Kelly Moriss, according to the agency’s website.
At the time of his death, Moore was 18 years into a 30-year sentence for second-degree domestic assault, first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and possession of a controlled substance. He had also been convicted of “violence to an inmate or employee” of DOC. A Chicago attorney hired by his family, Andrew Martin Stroth, said that DOC “has a pattern and practice of abusing Black inmates” like Moore. Stroth has demanded surveillance video from the prison, but to no avail. DOC has also yet to provide a full autopsy report, he added.
Lori Curry, Founder and Executive Director of Missouri Prison Reform, said that 135 DOC prisoners died in 2023, up from 124 the year before; with 66 more deaths reported through May 31, 2024, she said that the prison system was on track to end the year with 150 dead prisoners. As for Moore’s death, she said “there are still employees that I believe were involved or should have some accountability.”
Sources: KYTV, Kansas City Star, Missouri Independent
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