Ellsworth comment leads to suicide story

Editor’s Note — The following story appeared in the Feb. 15 edition of the Southeast Missourian newspaper following a telephone inquiry from I-R reporter Vince Hancock.

By Mark Bliss
Southeast Missourian

A 24-year-old inmate, who was transitioning from a man to a woman, killed herself in a Cape Girardeau city jail cell last summer, but police did not disclose the incident to news media or the public at the time.

The incident came to light after an architect involved in the design of the jail section of the new Cape Girardeau police station commented on the situation at a public meeting with Ellsworth County, Kan., commissioners.

Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair said Tuesday that “as with all suicides, we do not do a release unless there is a specific request for the information. The decision not to release was predicated on the incident itself and the location of the incident had no bearing.”

The jail death occurred on the evening of June 13, 2017.

Blair said the incident was “the only jail suicide” to occur at the Cape Girardeau lockup in the past five years.

Blair was hired as police chief in June 2013.

Amalia LeAnn Smith, referred to as a female by herself on her Facebook page and by witnesses in the case but as a male by police, was found hanging in a cell, according to an incident report.

The newspaper learned of the death from a Kansas journalist late last week. The reporter covered a presentation by St. Joseph, Mo., architect Lawrence Goldberg last month in which he discussed the incident.

Goldberg’s firm is discussing possible options for renovating, expanding or replacing the Ellsworth County jail, according to the Ellsworth County, Kansas, Independent-Reporter newspaper.

In an article published online Wednesday, the Independent-Reporter quoted Goldberg concerning the death in the Cape Girardeau jail.

“They brought into custody someone who was a cross-dresser, who provides a substantial challenge for a sheriff or a police chief, because physiologically they may not have changed gender, but emotionally they have or psychologically they have. Where do you put them in a jail? Where do you put them in an old jail? The consequences were pretty severe,” Goldberg said. “The night he was brought in, that night, he was beaten to death. The community will now suffer the consequences,” the Kansas newspaper quoted Goldberg as saying.

Goldberg suggested the death might not have occurred had the new jail been in place.

Blair said the accusation that Smith was beaten to death is “a flat out lie.”

The death was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which found no wrongdoing on the part of the police department, the chief said.

Blair said some of Goldberg’s other statements also were incorrect.

Smith was alone in a cell, according to the police chief.

In addition, Goldberg wrongly indicated the incident occurred recently, Blair said.

The police chief described Smith as transitioning from a man to a woman, but that Smith “still had male parts.”

Calls by the Southeast Missourian to Goldberg were not returned. An employee of Goldberg’s firm said the architect was sick with the flu.

Blair said he recently spoke to Goldberg by phone. Blair said the architect was “extremely vague” about his remarks to the county commissioners. “He knew I was not pleased with him,” Blair said.

In response to the Southeast Missourian’s inquiry, Cape Girardeau police provided copies of both the incident report regarding Smith’s suicide as well as the original report concerning Smith’s arrest. The report on the investigation into the death was not immediately made available by the Missouri Highway Patrol.

According to the police report, an on-duty jailer called for medical assistance shortly after 9 p.m. on June 13, 2017.

Jailer Michael Valentine stated in the report that he saw Smith “hanging from the bars of his cell by his pants.” Valentine said he entered the cell, cut down the “makeshift noose, laid Smith on the floor and untied the knot” around his neck.

Valentine said he did not detect a pulse and then began chest compressions, according to the report.

Police surveillance video shows that Valentine was near Smith’s cell at 7:43 p.m., but left that area of the jail a minute later. Valentine found Smith hanging in the cell at 9:10 p.m.

Smith was transported by ambulance to Southeast Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:41 p.m., according to the incident report.

Blair said jailers had checked the jail cells as policy requires, but he said the jailers “cannot just sit there and stare at them (inmates) 24/7.”

Shoe strings and belts of inmates are removed as a safety precaution, Blair said.

But the police chief said there was no indication when Smith was placed in custody that she would be a danger to herself.

Police arrested Smith at 9:48 p.m. June 12 in connection with a domestic assault.

Police responded to a reported assault at an apartment in the 300 block of North Park Avenue.

According to the incident report, Smith and her partner, who lived in the apartment together, had fought that night.

Smith’s partner told police that Smith wanted to “horse play.” The partner said Smith “snapped” and began striking him with a closed fist and then repeatedly struck him on the head with a “thick piece of wood,” according to the report.

Smith told police that her partner was on top of her and that she hit him because she could not breathe. The police report quoted Smith as saying that “things just got out of hand.”

Policies regarding notifying media outlets when deaths happen while in jails or police custody vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Many law enforcement agencies release information in such incidents, including, for example, a jail suicide in 2013 in Scott County.

Media outlets reported last week that the FBI is investigating a southwest Missouri jail suicide, which was announced via a news release from the U.S. Medical Center for Federal

Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., as well as the Greene County Sheriff’s Office. On Jan. 6, the Barton County, Mo., Sheriff’s Office put out a news release about a suicide in jail, and publicly announced it had contacted a nearby sheriff’s office to investigate the death.

The June jail suicide in Cape Girardeau is similar to an incident that occurred at the same facility in September of 1996. Police and the county coroner reported at that time that an 18-year-old man hanged himself. In both cases, the victims hung themselves with their jail uniform pants, according to law enforcement officials.

The Southeast Missourian does not typically cover suicides, but makes exceptions, particularly if the deceased is a public figure, if the death happens in a public place, if there are unusual factors involved or if the circumstances surrounding the incident can shed light and help the public understand the causes.