Ariel Castro charged with murder

chadwick

i know what the letter says. i am saying castro is a weak, evil fool who is not a man.

mickeyrat

chadwick wrote:

i know what the letter says. i am saying castro is a weak, evil fool who is not a man.

I get it now. Since the article was centered around the son more than the dad, I think you can understand my confusion by your post.

chadwick

mickeyrat wrote:

chadwick wrote:

i know what the letter says. i am saying castro is a weak, evil fool who is not a man.

I get it now. Since the article was centered around the son more than the dad, I think you can understand my confusion by your post.

it's ok, mickey. yours & my hearts are both in the right place. & to be honest i did not read the letter in its entirety. this mistake as proven to get the better of me on here where i make a comment stupid as shit all because of not fully reading a submitted post. i blame slayer, 'seasons in the abyss' played at full volume

mickeyrat

chadwick wrote:

mickeyrat wrote:

chadwick wrote:

i know what the letter says. i am saying castro is a weak, evil fool who is not a man.

I get it now. Since the article was centered around the son more than the dad, I think you can understand my confusion by your post.

it's ok, mickey. yours & my hearts are both in the right place. & to be honest i did not read the letter in its entirety. this mistake as proven to get the better of me on here where i make a comment stupid as shit all because of not fully reading a submitted post. i blame slayer, 'seasons in the abyss' played at full volume

its all good.

both articles I posted speak to our culture(both the public at large and the media) and gotta have info now, rather than wait for correct info, ya know? Reactionary , rather than a measured response based on best known info to make an informed decision.

read a quote attributed to Jesus in a gospel not included in the bible, "become a passerby" , certainly not all things require my attention or action, but soem do.
The more I can learn about guys like these , the better I am able to discern whats important for me to pay attention to. All of that comes down to trusting your gut , that "somethings off here" feeling. I'm sure many on that street felt that way over the years.

PJ_Soul

mickeyrat wrote:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/09/ariel_castos_son_struggles_to.html#incart_river




The last time I saw my father was about five months ago. I was in Cleveland for the weekend, and he asked me to stop by his house before I hit the road back to Columbus.

When I pulled up, he poked his head out from the back of the house and waved me to the backyard. I remember commenting to him that another of the neighboring houses looked freshly boarded up, and we recalled memories of my childhood friends who lived there decades ago. Today, the houses themselves are just memories, and so is my father, Ariel Castro.

I'm still shell-shocked from the way these past several months unfolded. Instantly, my father became one of the most hated men alive. In no time, reporters from around the world demanded to know who this man was and what kind of background he came from. Just like that, my father went from captured to convicted to imprisoned to dead.

The initial media crush was surreal. Cameras showed up at my workplace, reporters blasted my Facebook friends for information about me. The national networks set up shop, and I watched as person after person who barely knew my father lined up to get their moment on national television. I hid at a friend's house after the news broke because I was shaken to the core, and I didn't want to be forced to grieve with cameras and microphones pointed at me.

When I eventually returned home, I found dozens of business cards, notes and letters slipped under my door. Everyone wanted a moment of my time. But reporters weren't my only visitors -- thieves were, too. Someone pried open my front door and ransacked the place, carving "Bitch" in the door before leaving. The next jolt wasn't far behind, when a documentary on a major news network plastered a picture of me that it had lifted from my Facebook page over a picture of my father's house. They thought I was him and he was me.

That, however, was exactly what I wanted to scream from the rooftops. I am not my father, and I can't explain his actions or be held accountable for something I never knew he was doing. When I was finally ready, I gathered my thoughts and spoke out on a national stage, and the experience went a long way toward helping me move forward with my life. All that was left was to retrieve any old pictures and belongings from 2207 Seymour and try not to look as my childhood home was ceremoniously torn down.

I was horrified and disgusted and angered when I got the news of the unthinkable crimes my father committed. I still am. He deserved to pay for his actions, every day of those 1,000 years he could possibly serve. My anger with him kept me from visiting him in prison, even when he was moved to a facility just 20 minutes away from my doorstep. Coping would have to come before any possibility of a change of heart. But after mere weeks, that window slammed shut.

It took awhile for the reality of it all to set in. I steeled myself yet again after my father's death. It was all I could do. I had reporters, in revoltingly poor taste, seeking me out for a knee-jerk reaction, wanting to know the whereabouts of my father's remains, waiting for me outside the Franklin County coroner's office. I just wanted to get through those horrible days without NewsChannel 5 breathing down my neck.

I learned long ago that it's not worth the effort to actively hate someone who will always be in your life. An uncle told me at my mother's funeral, barely a year before we found out with the world what my father had done, that I shouldn't hate my father for everything he had already put us through. God would take care of him, he said. Both of my parents are gone now, and my father's punishment is between he and his Maker. Hate isn't going to do anyone any good.

Instead of bidding goodbye and good riddance to Ariel Castro, the question should be, now what? If my father's life and death can lead to changes in how we deal with sexual predators, domestic violence, mental illness and, yes, prison safety, then we should have those discussions. If we can prevent a repeat here or anywhere, then justice truly will have been served amid all the broken pieces my father left behind.

Mickeyrat, I thought for a second that you were Castro's son posting about it and I was all :shock: :shock: :shock: .

I am not sure how I am supposed to feel about this letter or whatever. Am I supposed to feel bad? I do feel sorry for the guy, having such a sicko for a dad and having to deal with the media fallout.... is that the appropriate emotion? .... There is a lack of surprise or shock in his words - just something about them. I wonder if he knew something? He was his son.... seems possible that he could have, and was just to on scared and messed in the head about his dad to do anything. Or not. Who knows. There is something a bit odd about the letter though.

Pingfah

I'm not sure there's a normal way to write a letter describing how your whole life was blasted to pieces in the space of a few hours. He sounds to me like a man seeking catharsis, and just trying to make sense of an insane situation.

He probably wrote the piece for himself rather than us.

mickeyrat

and this is why I'm pissed about the way this turned out.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... eport.html

Coroner rebuts theory that Cleveland kidnapper died in sexual act

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Ariel Castro report (PDF)
Director views inmate suicides as failures; new steps being taken
State probes 2nd high-profile prison suicide in month
Video: Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro found dead

By Darrel Rowland and Alan Johnson

Thursday October 10, 2013 4:35 PM

The investigation of this year's second high-profile suicide in Ohio prisons once again faults corrections officers for failing to complete their rounds and falsifying records to show they did.

Also, new details reveal for the first time that there is a possibility that Ariel Castro might not have been trying to kill himself, but was instead performing a sexual practice called auto-erotic asphyxiation. However, Franklin County Coroner Dr. Jan Gorniak discounts that possibility for Castro, who was found dead on Sept. 3 in his cell at the Corrections Reception Center in Orient, south of Columbus.

Today’s findings that Castro’s prison guards Caleb Ackley, 26, and Ryan Murphy, 27, neglected their duty echo results of the probe of the Aug. 4 suicide of Death Row inmate Billy Slagle in which two officers were suspended for failing to make rounds and creating fraudulent records. All four officers are suspended with pay pending further disciplinary action.

“Rounds were not properly completed. Post log books were falsified. There was no satisfactory verification process in place. Shift supervisors were not given clear direction on verification procedures and expectations. ... Corrections officers were utilizing fire escape doors as shortcuts between segregation pods and floors,” the Castro report said.

Just as in the Slagle suicide, the head of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association challenged the investigative findings by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. They charged that the prison administration has a “pattern of scapegoating front-line workers after a spate of high profile prison suicides.”

“Why isn’t DR&C focused on the systemic and more dangerous problems of increased violence, overcrowding or the need for mental health services in our prisons?” union President Christopher Mabe said in a statement. “It appears that DR&C is trying to deflect criticism and, ultimately, ignore the real problems at hand. Instead, once again, they are scapegoating our officers who are just trying to get their jobs done in an extremely challenging environment.”

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said as a result of the findings in the suicide cases the agency is “putting in place statewide a system of supervisors conducting random checks to verify that rounds are being conducted according to policy. This will be done on a weekly basis.”

Smith said that despite the union’s assertion, the number of employees working in high security and restrictive housing settings has not been reduced. However, the agency has reduced the overall number of corrections officers by several hundred due to cutbacks.

Smith said prisons Director Gary Mohr is meeting this week with Fred Cohen and Lindsay Hayes, independent consults hired by the agency to review the agency’s suicide prevention policies and make recommendations.

Castro, 53, pleaded guilty to nearly 1,000 counts related to his imprisonment of three women in his Cleveland home for a decade, including aggravated murder – for forcing one of the victims to miscarry — kidnapping, rape and other crimes. He had been in prison for only about a month when he died.

Corrections officers were supposed to check on Castro every half hour, notes the report, which was partially censored. However, log entries verifying of at least five of those checks were falsified, investigators found. But the check less than a half-hour before Castro’s body was found was completed properly, as was the one in which the discovery was made. He died by hanging himself with a sheet attached to a window hinge in his cell, Gorniak determined.

The probe noted that Castro left no suicide note, expressed no suicidal inclinations during family visits and showed no suicidal tendencies in several assessments. He did however complain that he feared his food was being poisoned.

The report says that Castro’s “pants and underwear were pulled down to his ankles. The relevance of this finding is unclear. These facts, however, were relayed to the State Highway Patrol for consideration of the possibility of auto-erotic asphyxiation.”

Gorniak rejects that speculation.

“I’m standing by my ruling. Hanging by suicide,” she said. “Based on the totality of the scene, the pieces don’t fit that puzzle. I have ruled that out.”

Gorniak said she was never told that Castro was found hanging with his pants at his ankles. But she said that is not likely relevant.

“Our job isn’t to determine why people kill themselves. The only people who know why aren’t here to answer for themselves.”

Gorniak said she found no semen in her autopsy of Castro’s body.

Castro also had filled out informal complaint forms but never turned them in. “Castro generally complains about verbal harassment from other inmates and staff; however, he did not provide any names or detailed facts sufficient for the (investigative) team to conduct a further investigation into these allegations. These documents also contain multiple references to Castro’s fear that someone was tampering with his food.” They found the latter allegations baseless.

Castro apparently flushed some of his meals down the toilet, then complained that not eating was causing him health problems. Investigators found those complaints coincided with two visits by medical staff on Aug. 14 in response to complaints by Castro about “chest pains, dizziness, nausea and concerns about his food not properly being prepared.”

Castro showed an interest in being placed in “protective control” after prison officials told him he would not be safe in some prison areas.

The report also faulted the response time of the MedCare ambulance, which took 34 minutes to get to the prison after being called; the state’s contract requires a 15-minute response time, or to call another ambulance company if they couldn’t make the run.

“As a result, Castro was not en route to (Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center) OSUMC until nearly an hour after he was discovered,” the report says. “There is no indication, however, that the delay had an effect on the ultimate outcome.” Investigators recommended the MedCare contract be terminated unless the state gets assurances of improvements.

Castro was found at 9:18 the night of the death. He was pronounced dead at the hospital about an hour and a half later.

Castro was found facing the cell door with his knees bent, according to Franklin County coroner's office notes. The hinge was almost 7 feet from the floor of the cell. Police reports listed Castro at 5 feet 7 inches tall. Prison officials had to get a tool to cut the sheet from his neck, today’s report says.

Two sheets of paper were found in the cell, one with Bible verses written on it and the other with the names of Castro's children and grandchildren, the notes said. A photo display of his family members and Bible open to chapters 2 and 3 of the book John were also found.

Castro was four weeks into a sentence of life without parole plus 1,000 years when he killed himself. His body was released to his son in Columbus.

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catefrances

Gorniak said she was never told that Castro was found hanging with his pants at his ankles. But she said that is not likely relevant.

its highly relevant if he died during an act of auto erotic asphyxiation.

mickeyrat

Michelle Knight with Dr. Phil in a two part episode starting today. First to speak out , only one to not reunite with her family after escape.