Union Parish Diary

Charge: Simple Battery
Arrest Date and time: July 24, 2008 approx - 9PM
My wife and I had been having difficulties getting the company (MAC-RE, LLC), whom she works directly for, to pay (approx. $10,600) for our services for maintenance and lawn care that had been provided to them. We had invested our personal money to pay my helpers and were promised / guaranteed the reimbursement within a week once invoices were turned in to the company.
We were asked to hold these specific invoices until after a Rural Development inspection was over on June 26, 2008. Invoices were turned in July 07, 2008.
On July 24, 2008, I had an argument with my wife, Cynthia Johnson about us not receiving our money from the company (MAC-RE, LLC). I told her that it was time to get off her ass and stand up for herself and demand payment that was promised.
That seemed to touch a nerve with her and she proceeded to get really mad at me. During our argument she had started slapping and pushing me telling me to get the hell out. While throwing one of her punches, one seemed to hit me in the throat and I attempted to block it resulting in me slapping her open handed across the face. She then called the police department. Once police arrived, I asked an officer what if we both were hitting and was told we would both be arrested.
I did not want her to lose her job by us having this argument so I told the officers that she did not hit me and that I was the instigator and to arrest me, not her. I was arrested with no resistance and transported to Union Parish Detention Center for booking.
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July 24, 2008 - 9pm - Thursday
Arrested for Simple Battery and taken to UPDC and put in a single cell.
July 25, 2008 - All Day - Friday
No offers to make a call - No problems - Still in a single cell.
July 26, 2008 - All Day - Saturday
No offers to make a call - No problems - Am thinking since I was arrested this close to a weekend that I would most likely be staying till Monday. Still in a single cell.
July 27, 2008 - All Day - Sunday
No offers to make a call - No problems - Still in a single cell.
July 28, 2008 12:25AM - Monday
Monday morning I was in my bunk trying to sleep and heard a "faint" scream cry from a female. I sat up in my bunk to try and make out what the sounds were. I put my ear up to the cell wall and heard what I would consider a woman being beat and raped while being cheered on by approx 3 - 4 other parties which included a female.
12:25am - 1:45am - Monday morning
For the next hour to hour and a half, is a continuous muffled screaming, scratching and beating with faint cries of pain and pleadings for help.
1:30am - 1:45am - Monday morning
I hear a small conversation between a male and the female victim with the male saying "Now you know, nothing happened here...right?" The female victim says in a weak voice that she will call the police to turn them in and why they would do this to her.
1:45am - 2:15am
Quietness / 2 trustees, at separate times, enter their dorm area. Both looking as if they were sweating and freaked out. They both shower then walk back out with a small personal bag each. They each notice that I see them as I was sitting on my bunk.
2:15am - 2:30am
I hear a black female officer in the hallway saying to an unknown person, "Can you believe she slit her own neck?" (in a sarcastic way). It was around this time when James Lewis in cell J-7 was released to assist in unknown activities.
2:30am - 3:30am
Continuous spraying (cleaning) of floors and flushing toilets in the area I had heard the activities before take place. Lewis in the meantime, I can hear from a distance but clearly, making crazy off the wall riddles and singing of a body, like "this woman needs a man" and laughing in a psychotic way.
3:30am - 4:45am
I hear a few people, to include Lewis, removing and loading something through the utility exit. No more sounds or conversations from any officers or Lewis. Just the continuing clean up and flushing of toilets in the area where the activity was.
4:45am - 6:30am
I hear Lewis again and officers again. Lewis is now degrading an officer because the officer couldn't do what he was supposed to do, Lewis saying "You couldn't even do the kid... I had to crack his head with the 2x4 (laughing) and the boy even put his fist up to ya (laughing)" Lewis was also making comments/riddles about rough waters in the boat and how those bodies (referring to more than 1) were not gonna stay tied down... and now he knows what cold pussy feels like. While Lewis is talking in riddles and in a crazy way, a couple of officers are telling him to "shut up you crazy fool" laughing and making open statements that he was out of his mind, brushing off as if what he was saying as a crazy man talking.
5:15am - 5:30am
A black female officer makes conversation with someone that the area that was messed up needs to be cleaned better as there was still hair on the floor. More flushing and cleaning takes place. The light to my cell was turned on and door opened with a male officer saying "What do we do about him?" The other officer says "He's OK for now" I had been on my bunk for a while at this time with a towel over my eyes to make it look as if I was asleep. I can only imagine that it was too late for anything to be done to me, as shift change was upcoming.
5:30am - 5:45am
Cleaning and spraying stopped.
6:00am - 7:00am
I lay in my bunk scared and freaking out. Shift change taking place. I feel as if I am having a heart/anxiety attack. Lewis is still talking in riddles, like the fish have been fed. Also I hear someone is concerned that one of the bodies (plural) may have not been tied down properly and that it needed to be taken care of.
7:00am
Lewis is now quiet. I assume he has been given a sedative to shut him up.
7:00am - 11:00am
I lay in my bunk scared as shit, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I am thinking that someone has mentioned that I have heard and seen too much.
11:00am
Lunch is being served. I have to get out of here. My left chest is in severe pain. I go to the nurse to complain about it and am sent to Union Parish Hospital.
1:00pm - 6:00pm
I am at UPHospital with Sgt. ? . I eventually confide in this Sgt., he is a pastor. I tell him what I have experienced and heard. I do this in hopes that he is a clean/right officer (dayworker). He assures me that everything is OK.
7:00pm
I use the phone in the ER to call Jarrel (nobody knowing that I am doing this). I tell Jarrel that something isn't right and to get me out of here. I am seen by the doctor who is transferring me to Conway for further evaluation. Tuesday July 29, 2008 Am in Conway being observed. I practically beg the officer on duty to call my brother for me. He eventually calls him for me and lets me speak over the speaker phone on his cell. I again tell Jarrel that something is bad wrong. I tell him that something is going to happen to me if I don't get out of UPDC. Jarrel assures me that he is doing everything he possibly can. Wednesday July 30, 2008 Am being discharged back to UPDC with the medical report saying that my problem was strictly my blood pressure and nothing else.
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Arrived back at UPDC. The first person to meet me was the Warden who makes a comment "Well... did you get your Xanax you were wanting?" I said "No Sir...you know prisoners do not get narcotics..you know that." The nurse then brings me into her office and instantly takes my BP, she seems to be be pissed. Once my BP was taken she orders me straight to my cell.
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Am back in my cell. I notice the bad shift coming on. I hear talk within a few officers of what a potential threat I am and that I need to be taken care of. I was hearing conversations of ways it could be done like injecting clorox into my system or making it look like I slit my own throat. Seems they are trying to figure out how to make me permanently quiet.
7:00pm - 9:00pm
I hear an officer talking to a couple of trustees about getting a shank and how they would corner me in the cell and one to block a certain area to pin me up. At this moment I make my watch into a weapon to try and protect myself. I see one of the trustees go into his population cell and return with something wrapped in a cloth. The officer and 2 trustees are outside my cell. I cause a commotion to try to attract attention from the center tower watch. I now have about 4 officers outside my cell. I am pleading for protection from one of the good officers. I am sweating profusely. One officer says "What is wrong with you... are you on PCP or something?" I said that I wasn't ready to die by being shanked, pointing at the 1 officer and 2 trustees. The black officer makes a comment to put me in a paper suit. I try to calm down since if they were to put me in a paper suit they would discover my watch I have to use as protection. Union Parish Detention Center:
9:00pm - 10:00pm
I steadily wipe sweat from my head and face and lay on my bunk in fear, now with other officers attention on me. 10:00pm
I call for the Sgt (female). I ask to be put on suicide watch. She said that she would personally check on me herself. I also ask for my cell light to be left on for my own safety. I feel I have foiled an attempt on my life.
10:00pm Wednesday thru 9:00pm Thursday
I sleep on and off in fear. I hear nothing else.
9:00pm - 10:00pm
I ask the officer in the hallway to turn off my light. They refuse to turn it off. I sleep a little throughout the night, knowing that I am periodically being checked on by a couple decent officers.
6:00pm - 9:00pm
I hear something going on between the officers. One black officer saying that he is not going down for this bullshit. That if he is going to jail he is going to hell along with some others. I have again been brought back into their conversations and that I am needed to be taken care of soon. Debates between 3 to 4 officers (1 female) as to how this can happen. Possibly be let go in the female population and discovered to have attempted to rape or kill a female then committing suicide myself. A female officer then says "I guess I need to turn my back for a while then don't I?" I assume this is the way they have decided I was to go. Minutes later an inmate had injured himself and rolled out in a wheelchair, bleeding, taking the good officers off the floor to attend to him. I then heard a male officer ask if they are ready for the white boy. I was NOT going down to the hands of someone else in a set up. I was at the end of my ways to protect myself.
9:00pm - 10:00pm
I will try to commit suicide by tearing/slicing the skin on my neck with the watch I was to use as a weapon. While doing this and blood flowing fairly fast, I while write under my bunk the word MURDER in hopes that if I die someone would look into this.
Category:Diary/Journal