Police Interview tactics turn to torture in Tennessee
Listen to the torture here. Caution, it’s pretty graphic. Read the transcript here. Read about the officers from the local news station here.
Three and half hours north of here, Lester Eugene Siler was a small time drug dealer in Jacksboro, Tennessee. The police showed up and wanted him to sign a consent to search and he wouldn’t. These cops threaten to kill him. The stick a loaded gun down his pants. They beat him repeatedly with a slap jack. They hook his testicles up with battery cables and shock him. Threaten to burn him with a lighter. They threaten to break his fingers. They even threaten to beat his wife.
During what is the most disturbing 40 minutes of audio you are likely to ever hear, you can hear the deputies laughing. They explain to him how they will explain the marks on him by saying he fought them. And that if they had to kill him, how they would plant a gun.
When a suspect alleges abuse, it is normally a credibility determination with no other proof. His word against the word of the officers. However, his wife had placed a recorder in the room that the beating occured in.
It has been reported that after the tape stops, they stick his head in a bathtub and fishtank while threatening him with drowning.
I don’t normally like to comment on this type of stuff, but I just had to after listening. I found it here and here.
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April 30th, 2006 at 11:13 am
That case is from last year.
I was a prosecutor in Campbell County from 1996-2001. I worked with David (Webber) and Sammy (Franklin), but I think the other two guys came on board after I left.
When I heard the news, I didn’t believe it. Only when I called the DA’s office and talked to my friends there did I accept the truth.
Siler was no angel. He’s was a cop-hating drug dealer who got arrested, made bond, and went back to dealing drugs. He probably still is. David and Sammy both have children they don’t want to see hooked on Siler’s product.
But none of that excuses what they did.
At best, this was an isolated incident of frustrated cops trying to give a long-time drug dealer what they thought he deserved, but never got from the courts. He knew the tape was running, so he played up the whining and crying and moaning as much as he could.
At worst, this is an example of modus operandi of a group of vigilante cops that ended up behaving worse than the bad guys they arrested. If that’s true, I have to look back on 5 years of my career and wonder how many times I put up their testimony and asked for a conviction, never knowing what had really happened.
That’s the kind of thought that keeps you up at night.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
There is nothing isolated about this at all. This is the modus operandi of a police state out of control which now exists in America.
I was accused of a crime I didn’t commit and spent 2 years in a Georgia prison, and saw and experienced some of the most appauling humans rights violations imaginable to man. From my particular unique perspective I was able to witness first hand what goes inside of these places behind closed doors and out of sight.
I won my appeal and thank god, because surely I would of died in such a place. If you have never seen it and been on the receiving end yourself, you have no idea the amount of terror involved. Its amazing how common folk cling to the belief that their police force and government has their best interests in mind, because to recognize otherwise is too disconcerting and uncomfortable to bear. Despite it being shown time and time again.
Prisons do nothing but make people go stupid and insane. The constant noise, the poor nutrition, the sensory deprivation, the constantly being surrounded by overcrowded conditions, no thinking concious soul can sustain under such conditions.
They do the exact same thing they do in prisons as they do in the tape. Except they take you around a corner out of site and slam you into the most dangerous weapon around, a solid wall, or the concrete floor. They don’t need to hit you with sticks or pepper spray, though I’ve seen that as well.
I filed grievances on torture, which were not even recognized nor the paperwork accepted, which was a clear violation of Georgia law. All grievances, no matter how frivious or riduculous, must at least be recognized and reviewed. Believe me, I wrote very carefully, very concisely and to the point, and my statements and accusations were anything but frivolous. When my grievance wasn’t accepted, I did the next best thing, I got it notarized.
Laws are only followed when its in their best interest to follow them, otherwise they are summarily and expediently ignored. For example, all Georgia State Prisons are inside of Georgia and therefore still under Georgia law. One of our most precious laws, freedom of speach, is not only protected by the United States Constitution, but also affirmed in the Georgia State constitution as well. While being forced to walk single file to the mess hall, its basic human nature to want to make small talk with the person in front or behind you. This however does not look orderly and is not allowed. When an inmate simply points out the law, he is verbally attacked military style by the Head of Security with “Fuck the Constitution”. This is the 3rd highest in command of a prison, saying basically, the law does not apply here. If you do not believe me, I can show you a grievance with some 50 odd signatures on it to state otherwise. Laws are simply rules passed to internalize their control over you. There is no justice. The whole justice system is a sham. Or its become so big as to become nothing more than a way to project power with the crushing force of steal and concrete.
Every moment people are being tortured as you sit and read this at the end of dirt roads hidden in pine forests in some 50 odd prisons and perhaps hundreds of county jails across Georgia out of site. Uneducated people who think and function at the level of children.
I can give you an ear full, let me tell you. Or better yet, a copy of my grievance on torture that they refused to recognize or accept.
During my whole 2 years in prison, I never once got a DR (demerit), I never missed a day of work, I never caused one single bit of trouble for anybody, even though belive me I was quite angry and vehemently stuck to my guns about my innocence, no matter how patronizing I was talked to. When told to jump, I jumped. I never filed any frivolous grievances, the few I did file I thought them through very carefully and was very specific and to the point and as clear as possible. I had a reputation for not bothering anybody, and spent most of my time writting and trying to hold onto any sanity possible in such a hellhole.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
[…] Torture victim/drug dealer, Lester Siler (the man that I wrote about here) got a 20 year sentence for selling drugs. See the LaFollette Press article here. […]
August 27th, 2006 at 5:07 am
prescription-diet-pills…
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