Speaking for the Dead | 2

Summary

Death County, PA – Episode 2: "Speaking for the Dead"

Release Date: April 28, 2025

In the gripping second episode of Death County, PA, hosted by Joshua Vaughn and produced by Wondery, listeners delve deeper into the murky waters of Dauphin County Prison (DCP) and the mysterious deaths that have plagued its halls. Titled "Speaking for the Dead," this episode unravels a complex web of corruption, misinformation, and systemic failures through investigative journalism and firsthand accounts.

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Introduction: Unmasking the Coroner's Facade

The episode opens with a critical examination of Graham Hetrick, the coroner of Dauphin County, whose television persona as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes raised public trust but concealed deeper issues within the county's death investigations.

Graham Hetrick’s TV Persona:

• [00:16] Joshua Vaughn: Introduces Graham Hetrick's role in solving murders, highlighting his analytical prowess at crime scenes.
• [06:12] Graham Hetrick: "We have to take this life and claim responsibility for it because this is our school. This is where we learn and we pass or we fail."

Despite his public image, former deputy coroner Michael McClurg (Mac) exposes the inaccuracies perpetuated by Hetrick’s television show.

Mac’s Critique of Hetrick:

• [02:46] Michael McClurg: “That's not what happened.”
• [03:05] Mac: Criticizes the portrayal of Hetrick solving crimes single-handedly, emphasizing that the coroner’s role is often misrepresented.

Mac reveals that actual crime scene investigations rely heavily on surveillance footage and forensic pathologists, not the dramatized methods shown on TV.

Misrepresentation of Coroner Duties:

• [03:28] Mac: “There's a misconception that the coroner performs the autopsies. He orders the autopsies, but a forensic pathologist actually performs it and comes up with the cause or manner of death.”

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The Ishmael Thompson Case: Unveiling the Truth

Central to this episode is the case of Ishmael Thompson, an inmate whose death raises serious questions about the integrity of DCP’s operations.

Initial Reporting and Discrepancies:

• [10:00] Joshua Vaughn: Details the scant information available publicly about Ishmael Thompson's death, noting the press release's vagueness.
• [11:20] Fran Chardo (District Attorney): Attempts to clarify the lack of evidence for physical assault but inadvertently fuels suspicion with ambiguous statements.

Joshua Vaughn’s Investigation: Vaughn uncovers discrepancies between official reports and eyewitness accounts, leading him to request autopsy reports and consult experts.

Expert Analysis:

• [14:09] Roger Mitchell: Howard University professor and former forensic pathologist Roger Mitchell dismisses Hetrick’s determination of an undetermined manner of death, asserting, “When you engage somebody and you fight somebody and they die subsequent to that fight, it's a homicide.”

Revelations from DCP Staff: James Labomski, head of staff training at DCP, provides a harrowing account of Ishmael’s final moments, highlighting procedural failures and officer misconduct.

James Labomski’s Testimony:

• [26:02] James: “It made me sick. This is something that should not have occurred for a number of reasons.”
• [28:11] James: Describes the internal meetings where administration chose to minimize accountability, culminating in a hefty settlement with Ishmael’s family without proper documentation of wrongdoing.

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Systemic Failures and Cover-Ups

The episode meticulously outlines how internal protocols were ignored, leading to Ishmael Thompson’s preventable death.

Use of Force and Policy Violations:

• [21:43] James: Explains the ineffective and dangerous use of spithoods in conjunction with pepper spray, exacerbating Ishmael’s distress.
• [22:56] James: Criticizes the supervisors' inadequate responses, such as dismissing Ishmael’s pleas for help with, “if you're talking, you're breathing, so just keep breathing.”

Administrative Complicity:

• [29:24] Joshua Vaughn: Illustrates how the warden and Director of Corrections concealed the truth, prioritizing the county’s image over justice.
• [30:11] Joshua Vaughn: Highlights the systemic indifference, as no officers were held accountable except for one being let go, followed by Labomski’s layoff.

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The Ripple Effect: Lamont Jones’ Quest for Justice

The fallout from Ishmael’s death sets the stage for Lamont Jones, whose own tragic loss propels him into a relentless pursuit of truth and accountability within DCP.

Lamont’s Determination:

• [32:18] Joshua Vaughn: Connects Ishmael’s case to Lamont Jones’ ongoing fight against corruption and negligence at DCP, emphasizing the personal stakes involved.

Future Implications:

• [33:25] Joshua Vaughn: Teases the ongoing investigations and the challenges Lamont faces as he seeks to expose the systemic issues plaguing Dauphin County Prison.

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Notable Quotes

• Graham Hetrick: “We have to take this life and claim responsibility for it because this is our school. This is where we learn and we pass or we fail.” [06:43]
• Michael McClurg (Mac): “There's a misconception that the coroner performs the autopsies. He orders the autopsies, but a forensic pathologist actually performs it and comes up with the cause or manner of death.” [03:28]
• Roger Mitchell: “When you engage somebody and you fight somebody and they die subsequent to that fight, it's a homicide. It's death at the hands of another.” [14:43]
• James Labomski: “It made me sick. This is something that should not have occurred for a number of reasons.” [26:02]
• James Labomski: “I don't want to call it necessarily atonement. I don't know if I have something to atone for. But I do know that Ishmael's family, they should really know this is. This is what happened to their loved one.” [31:58]

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Conclusion: A Call for Accountability

"Speaking for the Dead" serves as a poignant exposé on the failures within Dauphin County Prison’s system. Through meticulous investigation and courageous testimonies, Joshua Vaughn unearths the truth behind Ishmael Thompson’s death, challenging the narratives upheld by those in power. This episode not only sheds light on a single tragic incident but also sets the foundation for Lamont Jones’ ongoing battle against the entrenched corruption that threatens justice within Death County, PA.

Listeners are left anticipating the next installment, where Lamont’s journey promises to further uncover the dark secrets of DCP and seek the accountability desperately needed for the voiceless inmates.

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Follow Death County, PA on the Wondery App or your preferred podcast platform to stay updated on Lamont Jones' quest for justice and the uncovering of Dauphin County Prison's darkest secrets.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Wondry plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Death County, Pennsylvania, early and ad free. Join Wondry in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts.

[Joshua Vaughn]

The crime scene at the City Gas and Diesel Mini Mart is grim. The store's clerk, a 23 year old Indian immigrant, lies dead behind the counter, a single bullet wound in his chest. The bulletproof glass surrounding the counter is splattered with the man's blood. Two Harrisburg police detectives arrive at the scene. There are no witnesses, no fingerprints, and no obvious leads. The detectives are stumped, but they know who can help.

[Graham Hetrick]

The dead speak in patterns, angles of bullets, blood droplets and wounds.

[Joshua Vaughn]

They call in a signal 12, a death.

[Graham Hetrick]

When I have a signal 12, it doesn't matter what time of day or night it is. I'm the coroner and I respond.

[Joshua Vaughn]

In this episode of the Coroner, I speak for the dead. Graham Hetrick does just that. He drives to the convenience store and greets the detectives. It's the middle of the night, but Graham is wearing a bow tie. He begins to examine the crime scene.

[Graham Hetrick]

I noticed that there was bulletproof glass, specifically designed to protect the attendant that surrounded the counter. But I also noticed that the window had been opened. It made me wonder if the window was open because he knew the customer or if somehow he had been forced to open it.

[Joshua Vaughn]

This is just the first of Graham's many insights. He's like a modern day Sherlock Holmes. He even figures out the victim's time of death just by measuring his temperature with a thermometer. When Graham gets the body back to his morgue, he personally conducts an autopsy.

[Graham Hetrick]

We started to examine the blood clot and as I moved my fingers around the clot, I could feel a solidity that was much harder than the clot itself.

[Joshua Vaughn]

It's the bullet. Graham realizes the clerk must have been shot while he was bending over to get cash from the register. The killing was a robbery in progress, likely by someone the clerk knew. Graham cracked the case. The detectives find the killer, get him to confess, and the crime is solved.

[Michael McClurg]

That's not what happened.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Michael McClurg, who goes by Mack, was a deputy coroner who worked under Graham Hetrick for 12 years, starting in the late 90s.

[Michael McClurg]

I mean, I always called his TV show the Science Fiction Hour because I had firsthand knowledge of nothing happened the way it was portrayed on that TV show.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Mack remembers this specific case and he remembers watching this episode. He knew from the get go it wasn't what happened because Mack responded to the murder at the mini mart, not Graham. And Mack knew that even if Graham had been there that night, he wouldn't have been analyzing evidence at the crime scene. The coroner doesn't do that. And it didn't stop there.

[Michael McClurg]

There's a misconception that the coroner performs the autopsies. He orders the autopsies, but a forensic pathologist actually performs it and comes up with the cause of manner of death.

[Joshua Vaughn]

So the notion that Graham was some super detective who also personally conducted autopsies was completely made up. But the most ridiculous thing of all to Mac was the way the episode showed Graham helping to solve the crime from clues on the dead body. That was just flat out false. As soon as the police arrived at the mini mart, they looked at the store's surveillance video.

[Michael McClurg]

We saw exactly how the shooting went down. And when the clerk reached forward to slide the bulletproof glass closed, he was, you know, leaning forward, and he caught the suspect's arm in the window as he closed. And that's when the gun went off. The whole episode was him trying to figure out the trajectory of this wound.

[Joshua Vaughn]

And it's like.

[Michael McClurg]

Well, they said he. It's a lie. It's all Hollywood.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Which Mac understood. The coroner. I speak for the dead was cable TV entertainment. But there was something that really bothered him about it.

[Michael McClurg]

And I know it's Hollywood, but, I mean, come on, he's still the sitting corner, you know, he's still the elected official in place.

[Joshua Vaughn]

To Mac, it felt like Graham was putting on a show. And voters kept rewarding Graham by electing him over and over and over. He said he was doing a great job, and everyone seemed to buy it. But after Tyreek Riley's death, things started to change. People in Dauphin county started getting more skeptical. They started asking hard questions, demanding real answers, and refusing to accept the cable TV lies they'd been fed for years from Wondery and Pennlive. I'm Joshua Vaughn, and this is Death County, Pennsylvania. Name, who's going to say my name? And all joy, but to be brave. This is episode two. Speaking for the dead. Three seasons into the coroner, I speak for the dead. Graham Hetrick was at the height of his celebrity. The local minor league baseball team, the Harrisburg Senators, even gave out a bobblehead of Graham posed next to his dog Sherlock. He was also working the local media circuit, giving interviews about the show to Pennlive, the newspaper I work for, with a production team.

[Graham Hetrick]

We go through over 600 homicides. I had one guy thank me for the episode because he says, I never was able to process the death until I. I actually watch it. There and he says, I never realized you guys were working seven years to solve the case.

[Joshua Vaughn]

When Graham got a platform like this, he typically wanted to talk about a lot more than his job. He liked to share his personal philosophies, trends he was observing in the world, lessons he thought we should all live by.

[Graham Hetrick]

We have to take this life and claim responsibility for it because this is our school. This is where we learn and we pass or we fail. Tick, tick, tick goes the clock, doesn't it?

[Joshua Vaughn]

Graham kept returning to this theme. Individual responsibility. It seemed like the lens through which he understood the world. You could see it in the way he had talked about Tyreek Riley's case. At the press conference, he suggested that Tyreek's brain inflammation might very well have been caused by cocaine use, even though tests confirmed that there was no cocaine in his blood at the time. What he didn't want to talk about was what the corrections officers or anyone else at DCP had done to Tyrique. Graham liked to say he spoke for the dead. But there was only a certain kind of story that Graham seemed to want to tell. When I came across the name Ishmael Thompson for the first time, it was on a spreadsheet of inmate deaths at Dauphin County Prison. Ishmael had died on July 29, 2021, a few months before I started working at Pennlive. There wasn't much information on him available publicly, mostly just a short press release from the Dolphin county commissioners which said at Dolphin County Prison, Thompson physically struggled with staff, punching one officer in the eye before he was housed in a cell. He was being observed in a cell when he stopped breathing. Dolphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick ruled the manner of death as undetermined. Dolphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo's Criminal Investigation division reviewed the death and found no evidence of physical assault. No criminal charges will be filed. That press release caught my attention not because of what it said, but what it didn't. What happened between housed in a cell and stopped breathing. And when I read that Ishmael's manner of death was undetermined, it immediately triggered my bullshit detector. There was clearly more that happened in this case. So when I got the files I had requested from the county about Ishmael and some of the other inmates who had died at dcp, I was eager to get a better sense of what had gone down. The very first document I read was the use of force reports submitted by CoS at DCP. I was only partway through the very first page of the very first document when I knew that I was reading something incredibly damning. The autopsy reports weren't readily available at this point, but I was able to get my hands on other official documents, like the police reports from Ishmael's arrest. And the story was very different from what was in that press release. Ishmael was from Delaware. About a week before his death, he had driven to Harrisburg and for reasons that no one understood, marched into a Comfort Inn and demanded to use a shower. When the hotel staff refused to let him, Ishmael became belligerent and erratic. He stripped naked in the parking lot, got half dressed again, then went back inside, walked up to the hotel manager and punched him in the face. The responding police officer thought Ishmael was likely suffering from a mental health issue, but he still ended up in processing at DCP that night, according to those reports that I had gotten from the county, Ishmael had acted a lot like he had at the Comfort Inn. And corrections officers had responded with a series of increasingly harsh measures. Eventually, Ishmael was subdued in a restraint chair with a spithood placed over his head. There. He seemed to be gasping for breath, crying out. He couldn't breathe. He lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital. He was likely brain dead before he arrived. The county had concluded that Ishmael had died from a, quote, medical event. I wanted to ask the district attorney, Fran Chardo, about Ishmael, so I dropped by his office at the county courthouse. It's a large room on the second floor. You have to pass through multiple locked doors to get there. I brought the press release with me.

[Fran Chardo]

Can I see that?

[Joshua Vaughn]

Yeah, absolutely. I handed the press release to Chardo. I didn't understand how he could say that there was no evidence of physical assault.

[Fran Chardo]

I would not have phrased it precisely that way.

[Joshua Vaughn]

He told me it was most likely a misunderstanding, that whoever wrote the press release just got that detail slightly wrong.

[Fran Chardo]

Well, I'm not going to criticize the press release, but that's not my job. My job is merely look whether there was a crime. And we found no evidence of a crime.

[Joshua Vaughn]

But to me, that was an incredibly important detail. By saying no evidence of physical assault, it completely changes how someone might look at this case. That's the part that I think really raises the concerns with me, is no physical assault, and then it just reads like he was in his cell and then stopped breathing.

[Fran Chardo]

I now see the basis for your concern. I think that's a fair criticism. I mean, I was thinking about it in terms of this guy being really messed up and vulnerable, and that's what likely caused his death. I mean, you've got a guy who doesn't know how he ended up here and is erratically gone bananas. And maybe it's, you know, I had a skewed view, but I thought, okay, well, it wasn't so much this interaction where he's throwing blows. It's he is, you know, an eggshell inmate. We didn't necessarily know it, but this is the inmate. This is somebody who ends up dying because he has. This is in this situation.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Chardo implied that the CO's use of force wasn't unreasonable. It was just that Ishmael was so medically fragile. And that was in line with Graham's findings that Ishmael's manner of death was undetermined. At one point, Chardo actually pulled up the autopsy report on his computer and read from it. It was the autopsy report I hadn't seen yet, which gave me an idea. When the interview was over, I shut off the recorder. I stood up and made a slight turn towards the door before turning back. I tried to be as casual as I possibly could. No big deal, but, like, can I get a copy of that autopsy report? The DA paused for a second, but agreed to email me a copy. Graham Hetrick's autopsy report contained a lot of the same information as the use of force reports, but there were even more details. It seemed pretty clear to me why Ishmael died. I just didn't get how the coroner could say the manner of death was undetermined. I knew I needed to get a second opinion, so I sent it to someone I know.

[Roger Mitchell]

My man. How you doing?

[Joshua Vaughn]

Roger Mitchell is a Howard University professor and a former forensic pathologist. He's nationally known for his work on deaths in custody and how they're often ignored. I got on the phone with Roger to ask if he agreed with Graham's findings that Ishmael's manner of death was undetermined. I disagreed with Graham, but I'm just a reporter. I needed someone who knew what he was talking about. And right off the bat, he was clear.

[Roger Mitchell]

The short answer is no, I don't agree.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Roger didn't think Ishmael's death was undetermined at all.

[Roger Mitchell]

When you engage somebody and you fight somebody and they die subsequent to that fight, it's a homicide. It's death at the hands of another.

[Joshua Vaughn]

A homicide. As Roger saw it, the guards at DCP killed Ishmael.

[Roger Mitchell]

The bottom line is that this man was living what relatively normal life, whatever that normal life was for him prior to the altercation. The altercation happens. He never returns back to baseline health and he dies.

[Joshua Vaughn]

And for Graham to call Ishmael's death undetermined, Roger felt that he wasn't doing his job.

[Roger Mitchell]

It becomes irresponsible of the medical, legal death investigation system, the coroner and medical examiner's system, to not call these homicides.

[Joshua Vaughn]

By not calling Ishmael's death a homicide, Graham was letting DCP off the hook. He was saying, case closed. We tried. No point in asking further questions. I wanted to make sure Ishmael's story didn't end like that. A year after Ishmael died, Pennlive published my investigation into his death. The headline was Hiding a Homicide. After the article was published, someone who had worked at the jail reached out. He knew a lot about Ishmael's death. He hinted this went way beyond Graham's ruling, and there was a video that he had seen and he wanted to tell me all about it.

[Narrator]

In Death County, Pennsylvania, Lamont Jones thought freedom meant leaving Dolphin County Prison behind. But when his cousin dies under mysterious circumstances, Lamont uncovers a web of corruption, a reality TV corner, and a system designed to silence the truth. If you're drawn to stories of justice gone wrong, you'll be gripped by American Scandal police corruption in Baltimore, where the Gun Trace Task Force, an elite police unit, turned into a criminal empire, robbing suspects and falsifying evidence while the city looked the other way. When the truth finally came out, it exposed a culture of corruption that went far beyond one rogue unit. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. Discover exclusive seasons, binge new seasons first and listen complet ad free on Wondry. Plus, start your free trial in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[James Labomski]

Are you captivated by the dark and mysterious world of true crime? Wondery offers you the ultimate true crime experience with early access to new episodes, exclusive content, and a seamless ad free listening journey with Wonry. Plus, you'll get access to hundreds of podcasts, including more than 50 true crime series like Dr. Death, the shocking true story of a trusted surgeon who brought unimaginable pain and suffering to his patients.

[Joshua Vaughn]

This was not an operation that was performed. This was attempted murder.

[James Labomski]

And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a lighthearted nightmare. With Wondery, you get access to exclusive bonus content, too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community.

[Joshua Vaughn]

This case is one of Those roller coaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure.

[James Labomski]

Sure.

[Joshua Vaughn]

No, he for sure he did it.

[James Labomski]

Each story is crafted to keep you enthralled, revealing the complexities and motivations behind every crime. Subscribe to Wondery on the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify today. Unlock the door to a world of true crime like never before. With Wondery. The best true crime stories are always at your fingertips.

[Joshua Vaughn]

When James Labomski arrived at Dolphin County Prison the morning after Ishmael Thompson died, he knew it was going to be a long day.

[James]

I do remember feeling anxious, just anxious.

[Joshua Vaughn]

James was in charge of training the staff at Dolphin County Prison. He's a big guy, kind of intimidating. He rides a motorcycle. He's got a mustache and a goatee. He looks like someone who would be in charge of training prison guards. It was his job to make sure that correction officers understood procedures and best practices. And on that morning, James had gotten a call. He hadn't been given many details, but he knew something had gone very wrong. He now needed to review video of an incident that had occurred the night before the death of Ishmael Thompson. After Tyrique died, correction officers had to wear body cameras. They still weren't admitting that anything went wrong with Tyreek, just that it would be good to see what the guards were seeing when there was an incident. At the start of the video, Ishmael is with a sergeant. They are in the processing center at dcp.

[James]

He was in the process of doing a strip search before entering the prison. He was trying to get him to.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Put his clothing back on, but that isn't happening.

[James]

Ishmael was having some difficulty understanding the sergeant who was giving him orders at the time.

[Joshua Vaughn]

In the video, Ishmael just walks off. He's naked, and he still seems hell bent on taking a shower right now. And in fact, there is one there in the processing center.

[James]

Ishmael enters the shower and starts to shower, and the sergeant tells him multiple times, look, you can't shower now. You need to get out. You have an opportunity to shower later. You need to get out. And Ishmael refused.

[Joshua Vaughn]

He is clearly in the middle of a mental breakdown, and that is obvious to the people working at dcp. But they continue to treat him like an average, disruptive inmate. The sergeant calls for backup, and then he goes over to get Ishmael out of the shower. Ishmael gets upset. He throws a punch and it lands. The sergeant pulls out his pepper spray and sprays it directly, directly at Ishmael. Now it's pandemonium. Several backup officers storm into the room, including a supervisor.

[James]

They're working on trying to secure Ishmael, which was difficult because you have somebody who is wet and soapy, right? And Ishmael had been sprayed. So he's now saying that he's having a difficult time breathing.

[Joshua Vaughn]

The first thing pepper spray does when it hits you is it inflames the mucous membranes in your nose, throat and lungs. That means your eyes and nose will start running. It gets harder to breathe. Your throat's whole airway starts to feel like it's on fire.

[James]

You're gonna snot up, you're gonna wheeze, you're gonna spit.

[Joshua Vaughn]

The county's own use of force manual named all of the effects of pepper spray. It says they can last up to 45 minutes.

[James]

And that's what he was doing. So as he's doing that, somebody said, told him to stop spitting.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Ishmael is spitting because of the pepper spray. But that doesn't stop the officers from grabbing something called a spithood, which looks.

[James]

Like a, like a cheesecloth style hood. So if anybody spits, the spit won't actually go through the little tiny holes, but it has a bunch of little holes in it. So it's supposed to allow you to breathe.

[Joshua Vaughn]

In theory, but Ishmael had been pepper sprayed. The combination of coughing and gagging and those tiny holes for breathing can be dangerous. James watched Ishmael continue gagging and spitting inside of the spithood. The officers handcuff his arms behind his back. They bring out a restraint chair, which looks like a heavy duty, high backed wheelchair with straps. They sit Ishmael down and start wrestling to get the straps on him. But they can't quite do it properly where they take off the handcuffs.

[James]

And during all of this, there were multiple times when Ishmael was saying, you can't breathe.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Strapping someone into a restraint chair, handcuffed, with their arms pinned behind their back, it compresses the chest cavity, making it way more difficult to get air into your lungs.

[James]

Some of the comments coming back from the supervisor was, well, if you're talking, you're breathing, so just keep breathing. Which isn't part of the policy and also isn't necessarily correct. Then a couple of your staff members wheel him back in the chair into one of the holding cells that are in the booking area, and they tell medical that it's now time for them to come in and check him.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Medical staff are supposed to check to make sure restraints aren't too tight. The Person in the chair can breathe and see if there's anything medically they need. A nurse enters the room. She doesn't stay long.

[James]

They checked the handcuffs. They kind of checked his fingers. There wasn't any kind of communication at all. And then he left.

[Joshua Vaughn]

James didn't train the medical staff. They weren't DCP employees. They worked for a company called PrimeCare, which DCP contracted to provide all medical services. But James remembers looking at that video and thinking, that's it. That's all they're going to do.

[James]

Did they check for a pulse? Did they check that he was breathing properly?

[Joshua Vaughn]

From what James was seeing, Ishmael was in bad shape.

[James]

He looked exhausted. His head was hunched over a little bit, and you could tell that he was having a difficult time breathing. I do remember that it became less frequent, and he just looked defeated. So it went from saying, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, to just not saying anything.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Several minutes go by. Ishmael is still in the restraint chair, and a corrections officer is in the room. But he doesn't have a clear view of Ishmael's face, which is why it takes longer than it should for him to realize that Ishmael has stopped breathing.

[James]

And they called for medical. They said medical emergency.

[Joshua Vaughn]

All across the screen. Everyone is scrambling. They're trying to talk to Ishmael, but he isn't responding.

[James]

So they tried to remove him from the chair, and that was difficult because they didn't put him in the chair properly to begin with. So whenever they tried to undo the restraints, the restraints were twisted up.

[Joshua Vaughn]

The nurse comes back into the room, but Ishmael is still unresponsive and stuck in the chair, which makes it hard to administer medical attention. The officers finally manage to get Ishmael free and onto the floor. At this point, not only is he not breathing, he no longer has a pulse. Medical staff administer cpr, pressing hard on his chest, trying to pump air into his lungs with a respiratory bag. But there was still pepper spray on Ishmael's face.

[James]

It was irritating. The medical staff as they were trying to provide him care.

[Joshua Vaughn]

They use a defibrillator on him to try to get his heart to start beating again. They give him two doses of Narcan. No response. Two officers come in and rush Ishmael off, still unconscious. Five days later, on July 29, 2021, Ishmael Thompson was pronounced dead. He died at Harrisburg Hospital. You had to watch a video of. Basically you watched somebody die.

[James]

It made me sick. This is something that should not have occurred for a number of reasons. What made many of us upset was that had the policies and procedures that were in place been followed to the letter, it might not have happened. I remember feeling like I sat there and I watched my staff kill somebody. And that's how I felt if that. And that's. That's horrible for me to say.

[Joshua Vaughn]

James had trained the staff on the use of pepper spray, how to wash it off with water to stop the gagging and spitting. He had trained them to take the handcuffs off when putting an inmate in the restraint chair. That way they could breathe properly. He had trained them to continually monitor someone in a restraint chair to make sure they were okay. James knew that what he saw was wrong. And if officers weren't following the training, something needed to change. He was ready to speak out to prevent a death like this from happening again. But the people in charge had a different plan. After Ishmael Thompson died, there were no protests, no press conferences. Graham Hetrick didn't get up and do a PowerPoint explaining the manner of death. Unlike Tyrique, Ishmael wasn't a Harrisburg local. He had family who mourned him, but they were in his home state of Delaware. And because Ishmael died in the hospital, his death officially didn't happen at Dauphin County Prison. That meant that the county could get by without reporting his death to the state or federal government. It seemed like nothing was going to happen following his death. But inside dcp, James could tell that Ishmael's death was a big deal.

[James]

We would have weekly meetings. There would have been director and all the other directors and the warden. So in the next weekly meeting, the one topic was Ishmael.

[Joshua Vaughn]

In that meeting, James assumed there would be some discussion of what needed to change after Ishmael's death and whether any DCP staff would face disciplinary action.

[James]

And I remember the then director instructing the warden to determine who needs to document where people failed policies or procedures or failed whatever it is that that needs to be documented, Whether that be a disciplinary report, a counseling slip, something. Something needed to happen that documented that the administration knew that errors were made in that incident. And this is at least documented that we're addressing it. We're going to try to address it.

[Joshua Vaughn]

This all made sense to James. He had already taken notes on the incident, how the COs hadn't followed the protocol. But as the meeting went on, it became clear to James that the warden had other ideas.

[James]

The response from the warden at the time was, well, I spoke with some of them And I don't think that's the right course of action. So I didn't do it.

[Joshua Vaughn]

James couldn't believe it. Despite a request from the Director of Corrections, the warden refused to follow through. And even worse, the Director of Corrections just accepted it. We asked DCP about this. They said they couldn't comment due to the terms of a settlement with Ishmael's family. DCP denies any liability in Ishmael Thompson's death, but they did pay his family $4.2 million in that settlement.

[James]

The result was that there was nothing documented that any of these individuals had done something incorrectly. Basically, I was confused, upset, concerned. Like, I came in here and I did what I was asked to do, and the result is nothing.

[Joshua Vaughn]

James knew what he saw. He knew it was wrong. But now it seemed as though everybody at DCP was going to move on.

[James]

And then I remember going, well, if this is where we're at now, you know, what. What do we do next?

[Joshua Vaughn]

What happened next was that the county commissioners put out that press release about Ishmael's death, the one where they claimed the DA had said there was no evidence of physical assault. The county seemed content to shrug it all off. Nothing to see here. This was salt in the wounds for James. Not only was the county not holding the officers accountable, they appeared to be lying about the incident. James took his concerns to his boss, who was the director of security at dcp.

[James]

I even asked, pardon my French, but what the hell is a medical incident? Like, really? That's so vague. Like, what does that mean? So that kind of let me know that the original report that had come out was something that was supposed to appease the community, that, you know, we know that he had died of a medical incident, okay. Without giving any information at all.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Despite Jane speaking up to his boss, it looked like nothing would happen. What he saw in those videos, the brutal and preventable death of Ishmael Thompson, would not lead to any accountability. In the end, none of the officers involved were disciplined, but someone was let go. Six months after Ishmael's death, James was laid off. And that supervisor who was in the room while Ishmael was incorrectly restrained, he was put in charge of training. James was at a loss. So he was willing to talk with me.

[James]

I don't want to call it necessarily atonement. I don't know if I have something to atone for. But I do know that Ishmael's family, they should really know this is. This is what happened to their loved one. And I don't know if they were going to get that kind of information from anyone else who was still there. But I do know that it's the right thing to do so that the family can have some knowledge of this.

[Joshua Vaughn]

Is what happened A few months after Ishmael died and no one got so much as a slap on the wrist for what happened, There was another death at dcp. It would show just how negligent the jail could be, but this time it was primarily the medical staff and not the guards who failed. When Tyreek Riley died, his cousin Lamont Jones had gone searching for answers. He hadn't gotten them, but he was determined to keep pushing for the truth about Tyreek and about what was happening to all the inmates at dcp. Lamont hadn't known Ishmael and he hadn't known about his case, but this new incident would once again hit close to home for Lamont, and this time he was going to be in a better position to fight for the truth.

[Roger Mitchell]

Why is he in prison? You stick him in a place that doesn't have the adequate resources to handle that level of illness. It gave me an eerie feeling of man, this could be like Death Row and they don't even know it.

[Joshua Vaughn]

That's on the next episode of Death County, Pennsylvania.

[Narrator]

Follow Death County, Pennsylvania on the Wondry app, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Death County, Pennsylvania early and ad free by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey if you have a tip about a story.

[Joshua Vaughn]

You think we should investigate, please write.

[Narrator]

To [e-mail] Tips.

[Joshua Vaughn]

From Wondery and PennLive this is episode 2 of 6 of Death County, Pennsylvania. Death County, Pennsylvania is written and reported by me. Joshua Vaughn Producer is Rachel Yong Senior producers are Eric Benson and Chris Siegel Story Editor is Michael May Associate Producer is Emily Locke Fact checking by Annika Robbins Sound design and mixing by Jeff Schmidt Audio assistance by Daniel William Gonzalez Sound supervisor is Marcelino Villalpando Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For free Sun Sync Senior Managing Producer is Latta Pandya Managing producers are Heather Baloga and Matt Gant Senior Development Editor is Rachel B. Doyle Development Producer is Olivia Weber Executive producers for Advanced Local are Richard diamond and Selena Roberts Executive producers are n'j'jeri Eaton, George Lavender Marshall, Louie and Jen Sargent. For Wonder.