The Death of Larry Neal

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  • 8/6/2019 The Death of Larry Neal

    1/4

    HE FULL STORYShelby Co. Jail ]The Cochran Firm ]U.S. Dept. of Justice ]Fulton Co. Sup. Court ]The Bar & DeKalb Police ]Media Blackout ]Unacceptable Solutions ]Looking Back ]Looking Ahead ]

    sten to the interview! Hear Larry's story on theake Up Call Showogtalkradio program. ]

    THE W RONGFUL D EATH OF LARRY N EA L T HE S ECRET D EATH OF A MENTALLY I LL H EART P ATIENT IN A

    T ENNESSEE J AIL AND THE S UBSEQUENT COVER -U P The Full Story Larry The Docum ents Contact Us Updates Foundation

    At the time of Larry s death, Shelby County Jail was already under federal overview by the U. S. JusticeDepartment follow ing suit by the U.S.A. One would think that overview by the United States Department of Justice would ensure openness an d honesty from everyone connected with Larry s death. Contrarily, for more thanfour years, all requests by Larry s family to government entities, including the Justice Department, for reports,explanations, and accountability regarding my brother s euthanasia have been ignored, or we were told no reportsexist.

    We attribute the fact that Larry s family has never received any information explaining Larry s incarceration anddeath to THE COCHRAN FIRM. Unfortunately, Larry s family hired The Cochran Firm to file Larry s wrongful deathsuit, never knowing that The Cochran Firm s managing partner in the law firm s Memphis office, Julian Bolton, Esq.,had a vested interest in seeing to it that our suit against Shelby County Jail never got filed. [See Ex. 1 Comm.Bolton.] I cannot be gi n t o t e ll y ou h ow hu rt w e wer e to learn that The Cochran Firm deliberately tricked mygrieving, elderly mother into signing a contract for legal representation which that law firm never had the smallestintention of honoring. Rather, it was necessary for The Cochran Firm to trick Larry s family into believing we hadlawyers so that no honest lawyer would ever get the opportunity to really work on our behalf and file suit againstShelby County Jail. Because we planned legal action, it was not surprising that Shelby County Government wasnot forthcoming with information about Larry s incarceration and death. However, if Larry s family had indeed hadan honest attorney, those records would have been subpoenaed and released during discovery. That is exactlywhy The Cochran Firm contracted with my mother to prevent her hiring an honest attorney with no conflict of interest in the matter of Larry s wrongful death. [See Ex. 2 Death Certificate.]

    To what civil rights organization can disenfranchised people turn for assistance when they are aggrieved byAfrican Americans in positions of power?

    P l ea se con t ac t you r cong re s s iona l r ep r e sen t a t ive t oday and demand t ha t hosp i t a l i z a t i on r ep l aceincarceration for the mentally ill people in your state. http:/ / ww w.house.gov/w riterep

    Next, I offer a brief chronicle of my family s fruitless efforts spanning over four years to get information anddemand accountability for Larry s death:

    [...Background on The Cochran Firm and Shelby County, TN]

    -2-

    P AGE [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [ 7] [8] [9] [10] [H OM E ]

    http://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/Ex01_CommBolton.pdfhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/Ex02_DeathCertificate.pdfhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story07.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.htmlhttp://www.tracker-software.com/buy-nowhttp://www.tracker-software.com/buy-nowhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story07.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.house.gov/writerephttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/Ex02_DeathCertificate.pdfhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/Ex01_CommBolton.pdfhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/foundation/foundation01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/updates/updates01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/contact/contact01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/docs01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/larry/larry01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/wakeupcallshow/2008/01/22/TBAhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story07.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.html
  • 8/6/2019 The Death of Larry Neal

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    HE FULL STORYShelby Co. Jail ]The Cochran Firm ]U.S. Dept. of Justice ]Fulton Co. Sup. Court ]The Bar & DeKalb Police ]Media Blackout ]Unacceptable Solutions ]Looking Back ]Looking Ahead ]

    sten t o the i nterview! Hear La rry's story on theake Up Call S howogtalkr adio p rogram . ]

    THE W RONGFUL D EATH OF LARRY N EA L T HE S ECRET D EATH OF A MENTALLY I LL H EART P ATIENT IN A

    T ENNESSEE J AIL AND THE S UBSEQUENT COVER -U P The Full Story Larry The Documents Contact Us Updates Foundation

    A DETAILED BACKGROUND

    The Cochran Firm Fraud / Undisclosed Conflict of Interest / Deliberate Malpractice

    Immediately after notification of Larry s death on August 1, 2003, his family contracted with The Cochran Firm tofile a wrongful death action against Shelby County Jail and negligence suits against the State of Tennessee andLarry s final care home. The Cochran Firm did not reveal to its clients the fact that the firm s Managing Partner of the Memphis office, Julian Bolton, Esq. was a 20+year member of the Shelby County Commission, which is theentity that owns and operates the jail where Larry died. The Cochran Firm used its position as our attorneys toshield Shelby County Jail from our lawsuit by accepting our case and allowing it to languish on its shelves whilethe statute ran. After successfully preventing our suit against Shelby County, Bolton was promoted to theposition of Treasurer of the Board of Commissioners, and then to Chairman. Ironically, Julian Bolton is/was also avalued member on the Midtown Board of Mental Health. [See Ex. 3 - Contract.]

    The Cochran Firm lied to clients before contract, stating that the firm s conflict check resulted in no impedimentsto their representation. This firm lied to the Neals in writing after contract regarding a fictitious and nonexistentinvestigation and discovery process it was conducting and cautioned us not to discuss the Larry s jail death withanyone, because that law firm would handle everything. We were told before signing contract that The CochranFirm s Atlanta, Georgia office and Memphis, Tennessee office would work together to get justice for my family (Mymother and I are Atlanta area residents). But, instead of behaving as the Neals attorneys, The Cochran Firmmerely held Larry s wrongful death case inactive for nearly 11 months while the statute of limitations ran(12 months in Tennessee). By the time the N eals found out about The Cochran Firm s ties to their defendant andthe law firm s lies about a nonexistent discov ery proces s, it was too late for another law firm to accept our caseon a contingent fee basis. (The poor in Ame rica suffer many injustices for the lack of affordable legal counsel.)La ter, T he Cochran Firm s att orney assigne d to our c ase, David McLaughlin, lied to the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility during its investigation of the Neals malpractice allegations.

    The Neals filed suit pro se for fraud against The Cochran Firm, having their Complaint served to the law firm s Atlanta office, which was the office the Neals originally contacted and arranged for legal representation onAugust 1, 2003, immediately following Larry s death. [See Ex. 4 Complaint] This Atlanta law office answeredour suit in the name of Cochran Cherry Givens Smith & Sistrunk, P.C. ( CCGSS ) and claimed in its discoveryresponses not to be The Cochran Firm (as it had represented to the Neals prior to contract signing and contraryto much public advertising), and it denied any affiliation whatsoever with other Cochran Firm offices. [See Ex. 5 -CCGSS Response to I nterrogatories.] [See Ex. 6 - Cochran Firm Web P ages.] & [See Ex. 6a - More CochranFirm Web P ages.] Instead, it claimed before the court to be a law firm completely owned and operated withinthe State of Georgia. The Georgia Secretary of State s office, however, issued a report that no such entity as

    Cochran Cherry Givens Smith & Sistrunk, P.C. was registered with the State of Georgia. [See Ex. 7 GA Sec. of State Search.] Further investigation and search of public records revealed no firm called Cochran Cherry GivensSmith & Sistrunk, P.C. registered with the City of Atlanta or as a d/b/a with the Fulton County Superior Court. Sothis law office, well known and advertised as the Atlanta office of The Cochran Firm, presented itself to the courtas being a completely disinterested third party but was nevertheless allowed to answer our complaint against TheCochran Firm and to have our suit dismissed by Georgia Superior Court in May 2006.

    Shelby County JailShelby County GovernmentShelby County Attorney

    In response to my inquiry, the County Attorney declared We did nothing wrong, but rendered no explanation orreport regarding Larry s incarceration and death in ja il. [See Ex. 8 Letter from Brian L. Kuhn, Shelby CountyAttorney, dated 8/17/ 06.]

    Shelby County Coroner s Office

    The coroner s office faxed the Neals a poor copy of Larry s autopsy drawings with sketchy narrative descriptions,but lacking a full narrative report. When asked for a detailed autopsy report and a coroner s investigative report,the Coroner s office replied that there were no furth er reports on Larry s death. According to the autopsy, Larrydied of a heart attack. However, the autopsy report did not explain the fresh head injury on Larry s body, andLarry s family does not consider the Shelby County Coroner s office a credible resource.

    Larry s autopsy was performed by the office of Shelby County s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. O. C. Smith. This sameman was later indicted for faking his own kidnapping after placing a note on his person and accusing himself of lying in favor of Memphis police in a capital murder case. The accused in this case was facing a death sentence,having maintained throughout his trial that it was a policeman who shot the policeman he was accused of killing.[See Ex. 9 - Smith Indictmen t.]

    [...The Department of Justice]

    -3-

    P AGE [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [ 7] [8] [9] [10] [H OM E ]

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    HE FULL STORYShelby Co. Jail ]The Cochran Firm ]U.S. Dept. of Justice ]Fulton Co. Sup. Court ]The Bar & DeKalb Police ]Media Blackout ]Unacceptable Solutions ]Looking Back ]Looking Ahead ]

    sten to the interview! Hear Larry's story on theake Up Call Showogtalkradio program. ]

    THE W RONGFUL D EATH OF LARRY N EA L T HE S ECRET D EATH OF A MENTALLY I LL H EART P ATIENT IN A

    T ENNESSEE J AIL AND THE S UBSEQUENT COVER -U P The Full Story Larry The Documents Contact Us Updates Foundation

    MEDIA BLACKOUT

    I have contacted the media repeatedly to no avail about these relevant news events. The mistreatment of dogscontinues to take journalistic precedence in America, while my poor brother s secret jail death and The CochranFirm s subsequent cover-up remain un reported. Perhaps this journalistic blackout is because of the advertisingdollars the media earns from The Cochran Firm. That firm continues to advertise its law office at 127 WestPeachtree Street, A tlanta, Georgia, alt hough that law office denied it is an office of The Cochran Firm in GeorgiaSu perior Court in order to avoid responding to my family s suit for its fraud. We remain hopeful that some

    journalists will become interested in our quest for information and justice regarding my brother s death and launchan investigation, an investigation which Larry s family cannot afford to finance and the Justice Department refusesto conduct. Mean wh ile , w e t ha n k Go d f or Bill Gates and others who made it possible for ordinary citizens toresearch and report their own issues via the Internet. In the absence of official government-issued reports, whichLarry s family lacks the means to substantiate anyway, we are hopeful that one of Larry s fellow inmates or somesympathetic police officer or jail guard will some day visit our web site and come forward to tell us how thingsreally were with Larry during his final incarceration, thereby helping to bring closure to his family.

    The list of persons and entities the Neals contacted in our continual quest for assistance, information, and justiceregarding Larry s wrong ful de ath is over f our-years long, despite verifiable proof for all allegations. Numerouspersons related to these events have resigned their jobs; however, this brings little comfort to Larry s family,being yet deprived of full disclosure of the circumstances of Larry s death and restitution by The Cochran Firm forits fraud. The details of our quest for justice in this matter are truly shameful for America, a country so concernedabout human rights around the globe, with a creed of equality and justice for all of her citizens. This web site is apersonal appeal for your assistance. Hopefully, our ef forts to ascertain information and justice for Larry will alsoraise public awareness of the plight of the incarcerated mentally ill and assist thousands of mentally ill persons likeLarry who yet languish in American jails. If you are interested in helping, please contact us.

    P l ea se con t ac t you r cong re s s iona l r ep r e sen t a t ive t oday and demand t ha t hosp i t a l i z a t i on r ep l aceincarceration for the men tally ill people in your state. http://www.house.gov/writerep

    [...Unacceptable Solutions]

    -7-

    P AGE [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [ 7] [8] [9] [10] [H OM E ]

    http://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/contact/contact01.htmlhttp://www.house.gov/writerephttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story02.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.htmlhttp://www.tracker-software.com/buy-nowhttp://www.tracker-software.com/buy-nowhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story02.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.house.gov/writerephttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/contact/contact01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/foundation/foundation01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/updates/updates01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/contact/contact01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/docs/docs01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/larry/larry01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/wakeupcallshow/2008/01/22/TBAhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story10.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story09.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story08.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story06.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story05.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story04.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story03.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story02.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/story/story01.htmlhttp://www.wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.html
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    HE FULL STORYShelby Co. Jail ]The Cochran Fi rm ]U.S. Dept. of Justice ]Fulton Co. Sup. Court ]The Bar & DeKalb Police ]Media Blackout ]Unacceptable Solutions ]Looking Back ]Looking Ahead ]

    sten to the interview! Hear Larry's story on theake Up Call Showogtalkradio program. ]

    THE W RONGFUL D EATH OF LARRY N EA L T HE S ECRET D EATH OF A MENTALLY I LL H EART P ATIENT IN A

    T ENNESSEE J AIL AND THE S UBSEQUENT COVER -U P The Full Story Larry The Documents Contact Us Updates Foundation

    JAIL, HOMELESSNESS, AND EUTHANASIA UNACCEPTABLE SOLUTIONS

    A young mother became alarmed in her local grocery store when she realized that her active three-year-old sonwas no longer trotting along behind her as she shopped. She and the store personnel hurriedly searched up anddown the aisles looking for him and calling his name. They found the little tot sitting on the floor near thecheckout on aisle 7, surrounded by colorful candy wrappers. He had opened dozens of different candies and

    sampled each one! His mouth and chin were covered with chocolate, and melted candy was smeared across hisshirt and on the floor around him. In a similar incident, my brother, Larry, walked into a supermarket one summerday, taking the opportunity to enjoy the air conditioning, for it was oppressively hot outside. As he walked downthe fresh food aisle, his eyes fell on the rows of plump, sweet grapes. He stopped at that display, and with noeffort to conceal his actions, Larry began to eat the grapes. They were cool and good, and he laughed aloud,delighted at how pleasant they tasted. Larry was interrupted in his consumption by an angry clerk who was yellingand pointing at him, directing the store guard to restrain that thief while the police were called. In fact, Larry wasno more a thief than the three-year-old, because neither of them was acting out of malice, and in both scenariosan essential element of crime was missing: intent. In deed, neither the three- year-old boy nor my mentally illbrother, in his dim ini s he d c ap a cit y, wa s ca pa ble o f plan ning and executing a real crime. The child rebelled when hismother lifted him away from the sweet feast. The youngster began to cry loudly and struggle against his motherto get back to his candy. But the boy s mother was bigger and stronger than he was, and she effortlesslycarried him away from the scene of his crime. Contrarily, no one in Larry s family was big or strong enough toextricate him from the many situations his mental illness caused as he wandered at will the streets of Memphis.Indeed, Larry s family was not allowed to either restrict his movements or enforce psychiatric treatment and drugsto help him. After all, mentally unstable people like Larry have their rights!

    There are those organizations that denounce enforced hospitalization and treatment of the mentally ill, callingsuch intervention a violation of civil rights. The sincere efforts of such organizations may benefit those mentally illpersons who manage to stay clear of our nation s jails; however, for thousands of others like Larry, it is just asunreasonable to expect them to run their own lives without psychiatric drugs and restraint as it would have beenfor the young mother to allow her little boy to finish the candy at his leisure and then find his own way home. Letthose organizations fight not only for the rights of the moderately mentally ill, but let them also fight for inpatientcare for mentally ill men and women who are today serving time for committing crimes they cannot evenunderstand as well as for scores of mentally ill persons who are homeless, living under wretched conditions anddeprived of treatment that might restore many to useful lives.

    [...Looking Back]

    -8-

    P AGE [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [ 7] [8] [9] [10] [H OM E ]

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