Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Unanswered Question

People are still going back to the question of where and how Jon Massey was able to get cyanide.

The why is fairly obvious - everyone knows what happens to "chomos" (child molesters) in prison, they are the lowest of the low and usually don't make it out alive.

But there are numerous irregularities about the "official" reports that surrounded Jon's collapse and subsequent death.

The first issue is that "a court employee" allegedly stated that they saw Jon put something in his mouth. Of course a court employee said that - after all, the judge knowingly waved off the court officer when he tried to put handcuffs on Jon. And the judge had full knowledge of the level of Jon's long-term depression and suicidality, those records were part of the medical reports that he ordered turned over to the DA.

A better question than where Jon got cyanide would be, "Why did a judge knowingly interfere with standard safety procedures on an extremely high-risk defendant?" After all, Jon had already attempted suicide with just the false allegations. Wouldn't being wrongfully found guilty increase his determination?

Let's get back to that hypothetical, unnamed court employee. Jon's best friend, Ruby's older sister, and I were in the courtroom that day also. We already knew that his attorney was watching the jury. But the three of us were watching Jon closely because we were concerned that he would try to kill himself. And he put nothing in his mouth. The only thing he did was to pick up a cup of water and drink it - without putting his hand to his mouth or dropping anything in the cup.

As a matter of fact, before we reentered the courtroom to hear the jury verdict, Jon's attorney asked him to get himself squared away. Jon kept his glasses, his comb, and made sure he had $50 for the commissary - not the actions of a man on the verge of killing himself. Jon also gave his attorney the order to file a notice of appeal immediately if necessary.

The second issue is that although the Undersheriff at the time had made the statement to the press that "Jon told the deputy at the loading dock that he had taken cyanide", one of our family members spoke to both deputies who had been there to transport Jon. Both deputies said that Jon collapsed without saying a word immediately upon exiting the elevator.

The third issue is that somehow, conveniently, no paperwork was exchanged between the court officer and the transporting deputies, making Jon a "John Doe" at the hospital - and resulting in medical personnel being unable to access his records for over 20 minutes. This was combined with the fact that none of his family members (myself, his sister, his mother) were notified at all. I found out about him being hospitalized from the news, after he had been at the hospital for over 30 minutes.

So more appropriate questions at this point would be "Why wasn't Jon formally identified by the people who had him in custody?" and "Why wasn't the family informed immediately?" Either one of these actions could have potentially resulted in better medical care through faster access to his records.

Finally, even after the autopsy report confirmed that Jon died from cyanide poisoning, there was no investigation into where he had gotten it from. None.

The question really isn't about where or how Jon got the cyanide, frankly I don't know. I do know that even in high school he was incredibly bright and we had amazing teachers. Jon had taken AP Chemistry and earned one of the highest scores on the AP exam in our school's history. He always figured out anything he put his mind to - figuring out cyanide wouldn't have been a challenge.

The question that really needs answering is, "Why are there so many other issues surrounding Jon taking cyanide?"

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