Lost Boys

Hoss, a German shepherd patrol dog trained to locate nitrates and people by following the hottest human scent, led officers to an apartment where the front door was open and the phone was off the hook. (Robert had called his sister and told her someone was trying to kill him.) Nearby, they found a trash bag filled with bloody clothes, 6.4 grams of cocaine in cookie form and a handgun wrapped in a light blue towel. Across the way, Robert was sitting shirtless on his girlfriend's patio wearing shorts and a flowery women's bathrobe. A white cloth was tied around his bloody leg.

"I didn't shoot at those police officers," Robert said when he was handcuffed. "They shot at me."

A spent bullet fell out of his bathrobe.

Several HPD officers testified that they have known Robert for a long time. One officer said that whenever he arrested someone for selling crack, Robert was usually nearby.

Robert's criminal history began when he was 11 and served as a lookout while a seven-year-old's bike was stolen. He has 18 other arrests on his record, including assaulting a mentally challenged 25-year-old man, possession of crack and trespassing. On December 3, 1998, a jury convicted him of aggravated assault on a public servant and sentenced him to 24 years in prison for shooting at Chaison.

Reginald wrote Robert, telling him to do his time easy, stay out of trouble and maybe he could get transferred to the Michael Unit and they could be "cellies." After Robert's incarceration, Reginald's troubles began, says the family attorney. Martin says that in March, Reginald was housed with Ronnie Cousins, an older, larger inmate with a history of homosexual preferences. The suit alleges that sometime that month Cousins "slipped a pill in [Reginald's] coffee and raped him while he was in a semi-unconscious state. After gaining knowledge of the sexual assault, Reginald began to experience major behavior problems and was transferred to solitary confinement."

Martin says Reginald reported the rape to a sergeant, but the warden was never notified and a rape kit wasn't performed. "Problems were dealt with by prison officials on their own time and in their own inappropriate manner," Martin wrote in her petition. "Inmates witnessed prison officials disregarding Reginald LaVergne's outcries for help as he marched and screamed around his cell naked and dirty." She says inmates heard guards taunt and torture Reginald, telling him if he was going to act like an animal, he was going to be treated like one.

It's a tricky case, because other than a body that looks like it came out of a concentration camp, Martin doesn't have substantial evidence of retaliation, aside from convicts' statements that another inmate was treated poorly. The lack of documentation, Martin says, is even more proof that the prison disregarded Reginald's calls for help. A letter from another inmate Martin plans to depose says that one of the Michael Unit guards was friends with Chaison, who told him to get Reginald. When told of the conspiracy theory, Chaison laughed. "I know some TDC guards, but just in passing," he says. "I don't know any personally that I associate with or anything like that."

Reginald's behavior record reports that he didn't always want to get out of the shower, made "obscene gestures" at guards and tried to head-butt an officer. In March, Reginald was placed in administrative segregation, where his mother's lawyer says he lost his mind. "Inmates observed and heard Reginald constantly and daily screaming, begging for help and banging continuously on the cell wall," the suit says.

The month before Reginald's death, his psychological record reflects that he was seen naked, screaming and covered in feces. When he complained about being cramped in his cell, social worker D.M. Shelby noted that he appeared agitated, distressed and depressed. On March 19, 1999, Shelby wrote in the chart that Reginald could parrot what was said but didn't seem to understand anything. Reginald said he wanted to see the warden and asked to be moved out of segregation. He promised to "be good," but Shelby wrote that Reginald "does not appear to grasp concepts of good behavior." Eleven days before his death, medical reports note that Reginald was screaming like an animal, and the nurse wrote a referral to the psych department for evaluation. That same day, it was noted that his feet were ulcerated but Reginald refused treatment. He told psychologist Reed Dobbins that he was sick of being sodomized by other inmates and worried about getting HIV; during that same session Reginald also asked for candy, cocaine and vodka. The psychologist wrote that he had a good sense of humor.

The morning after, Reginald was eating his own feces. Six days later Reginald complained to registered nurse Timothy Sanders that he was not receiving health care or pain medication. Reginald was told to discuss his problems with the psychologist at his next mental health appointment. Four days later, a licensed vocational nurse noted that there were large piles of poop in Reginald's cell, he was thin and needed to see the psychologist.

The next day, he was dead.

Officers were serving lunch when they saw Reginald lying naked on the metal bunk in cell 44. His mattress, clothes and uneaten food were on the floor. Reginald lay with his back against the wall, drool ran from his mouth, and his eyes were open, fixed and dilated. Officers called his name repeatedly and ordered him to come to the door, but he didn't respond. By the time he was handcuffed and carried to the infirmary, he had stopped breathing and his body was cold.