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Legal fight over inmate's death goes on [Former suspect in OKC bombing]
Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 01/14/2007 | Pamela Manson

Posted on 1/14/2007, 2:43:46 PM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Whether it was suicide or murder, the death of Kenneth Trentadue was horrific.

His body, bruised and covered with blood, was found hanging from a noose in a prison cell in 1995. His throat was slashed and he had suffered three massive blows to his head.

Investigators determined the inmate killed himself, but his family says Trentadue died at the hands of guards who mistook him for a suspected accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing.

The battle over what happened has spanned a dozen years and led to four lawsuits. On Wednesday, the litigants will go another round at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The federal government wants to overturn a judge's ruling giving $1.1 million to the family for emotional distress caused by how Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials handled the aftermath of Trentadue's death.

Family members want to press ahead with another claim: They believe the federal government has tried to derail their quest to prove murder by attempting to bring obstruction of justice charges against Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, Kenneth's brother.

Bloody cell: The government has stuck to its suicide finding. Official reports give this description of what happened:

Trentadue, 44, who was in the BOP Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City on an allegation that he had committed a parole violation, asked to be placed in protective custody. He was put in the Special Housing Unit in solitary confinement with no telephone privileges.

At 2:38 a.m. on Aug. 21, 1995, he was alive and well. At 3:02 a.m., his body was found hanging from a noose made from a bedsheet.

In those 24 minutes, according to the government, Trentadue had managed to kill himself after two failed attempts.

First, he used a pencil to write a suicide note on the wall of his cell. Next, he tore a sheet into strips, then constructed a ligature with them.

Trentadue then remade his bed, climbed the wall of his cell, wove his bedsheet rope into a metal vent above his sink and tried to hang himself. The rope broke and he fell, hitting the sink and ricocheting across the cell headfirst into the corner of a metal desk. The force of the impact caused him to rotate 180 degrees and careen across the cell, smashing his head into a wall.

While unconscious from two head wounds, Trentadue bled profusely onto the floor. After regaining consciousness, he tried to get up but hit his head on the metal stool. He first crawled, then got up and staggered around his cell, leaving blood on the walls and floor.

After lying on his bed for a while, Trentadue used two plastic toothpaste tubes or a plastic knife to cut his throat, leaving more blood. When that suicide try failed, he reconstructed his bed sheet rope and successfully hanged himself.

His family insists the death was a murder. Jesse Trentadue says Kenneth resembled Richard Lee Guthrie, an alleged accomplice of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and that authorities killed his brother during an interrogation that got out of hand.

Guthrie - who was a member of the Midwest Bank Robbery Gang, which stole from financial institutions to fund attacks on government buildings - was eventually captured and struck a plea deal in 1996 on bank robbery charges. A few months later, he was found hanged in his cell in Kentucky in what was ruled a suicide.

Family alleges cover-up: Kenneth served six years in prison for bank robbery but straightened out his life after his 1988 release, marrying and finding work in construction, according to the Trentadues. But then, a few months after the April 1995 Oklahoma City attack, he was accused of failing to report to his parole officer and sent to the Federal Transfer Center.

Two days after his arrival, he was dead. The acting warden called Trentadue's mother and wife and told them that Kenneth apparently committed suicide. Neither consented to an autopsy; however, prison officials authorized one.

Kenneth's body was shipped to a California funeral home, where family members saw the autopsy incisions and numerous lacerations. Because the injuries were unexpected, funeral home employees photographed the body.

Oklahoma's chief medical examiner initially listed the manner of death as "pending" and later classified it as "unknown." The death ultimately was declared a suicide.

A number of federal and local investigations also were launched into Trentadue's death and all concluded the inmate killed himself.

The family rejected the findings. They allege the cell was cleaned and the purported suicide note erased before a thorough investigation was complete.

They also say the explanation of how Kenneth died makes no sense.

"The Government contends that Trentadue's extensive trauma was all self inflicted, in a matter of approximately 20 minutes and in absolute silence so as not to alarm nearby staff," they say in a court brief.

Distress not 'severe': Jesse Trentadue has filed three federal Freedom of Information Act suits in Utah seeking documents on the bombing, which killed 168 people, and on the investigation of Kenneth's death. In addition, the family brought the suit that resulted in the $1.1 million award and the 10th Circuit appeal.

In that appeal, the government argues that the emotional distress suffered by the Trentadues is not considered "severe" under Oklahoma law, the required standard to get damages.

On their side, the Trentadues are fighting to uphold the award. They also ask that their claim that the government tried to indict Jesse on false charges be dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could file a new suit and continue to litigate the issue. Leonard ruled the claim was irrelevant to the case before him but never threw it out, leaving it in limbo, the family says.

The evidence cited in their briefs include a 1997 memo by an FBI agent on his talks with a Department of Justice attorney about allegations that three inmates were planning to provide false information to Jesse Trentadue. The DOJ attorney allegedly "explained that there is no problem with us learning, during the course of our investigation, of Jesse Trentadue's possible involvement in an obstruction of justice operation," the agent writes.

The family's briefs also contain a letter written to a BOP official by a federal prisoner who says he could help place a "yoke of silence" on Jesse Trentadue. And they allege the FBI tried to coerce another inmate - who was in a nearby cell and testified in a deposition that guards had killed Kenneth - into saying Jesse Trentadue had induced him to lie.

That inmate, Alden Gillis Baker, died in prison before the family's Oklahoma suit went to trial. He hanged himself with a bed sheet, according to the BOP.

The Department of Justice does not comment on pending lawsuits. Jesse Trentadue was never indicted.

pmanson@sltrib.com

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who believes his brother was tortured and killed in 1995 in a federal prison by guards who mistakenly thought he was connected to the Oklahoma City bombing.

U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard in Oklahoma City ruled in 2001 that inmate Kenneth Trentadue committed suicide, but awarded his family $1.1 million for the emotional distress caused by the way prison officials handled the aftermath of the death.

The matter was appealed once before and the 10th Circuit ordered further findings by Leonard, who reinstated the award. Now the case is back in Denver on appeals by both the federal government and the family.

The United States is asking again that the award be overturned. The Trentadues want a ruling that would allow them to present evidence that the government tried to indict Jesse on bogus charges of obstruction of justice to disrupt their inquiry into Kenneth's death. Leonard had refused to hear evidence on that claim.

"The Government contends that Trentadue's extensive trauma was all self inflicted, in a matter of approximately 20 minutes and in absolute silence . . . "


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
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Could you imagine the hellfire and damnation directed toward President Bush and AG Gonzales if a muslim terrorism suspect died in jail in this manner? But since this guy died of Arkancide during the Krinton/Reno regime, nobody cares. There's an article on page C8 in a back section of the local paper, that's it.
1 posted on 1/14/2007, 2:43:49 PM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Sounds just like the old, "He stole more chain than we could swim with."


2 posted on 1/14/2007, 2:56:03 PM by CPOSharky (Year = 365 days. muzzy 'most holy' days = 450. Go figure.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

http://www.peterlance.com/Peter%20Lance/al%20Qaeda%20and%20OKC%20bombing.html


3 posted on 1/14/2007, 2:56:16 PM by Perdogg (Happy 2007)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Bookmark


4 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:04:51 PM by pepperdog
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

His body, bruised and covered with blood, was found hanging from a noose in a prison cell in 1995. His throat was slashed and he had suffered three massive blows to his head."

The Littlerock coroner says "suicide".


5 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:07:27 PM by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Whether it was suicide or murder, the death of Kenneth Trentadue was horrific.

His body, covered with blood, was found hanging from a noose in a Federal prison cell in 1995.

He had a stab wound in his chest and heart, one in the back between his 5th and 6th ribs, a small caliber bullet wound in the nape of his neck and his throat was slashed.

Investigators determined the inmate killed himself..

Oh wait ... I'm thinking of a 'different' Klintoon era 'suicide', never mind.

6 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:10:58 PM by Condor51 (The Dem's don't want another 'Vietnam' - they want another Dien Bien Phu.)
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To: Condor51

Arkansacide


7 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:20:59 PM by buffyt (It is not a CHOICE ~ It is a CHILD!!!!!!)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

This "suicide" scenario is a strong competitor against the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy shooting for fantasy. The "investigators" here remind me of a local medical examiner who ruled that a man committed suicide by shooting himself seven times in the back with a bolt action rifle.


8 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:21:46 PM by FreePaul
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To: FreePaul

Dr. Fahmy Malak, cornoner in Arkansas during Clinton years, found James Milam had died of natural causes, after being DECAPITATED!

http://www.daveschultz.com/clinton/Mena.html


9 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:27:28 PM by buffyt (It is not a CHOICE ~ It is a CHILD!!!!!!)
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To: buffyt

Well, wouldn't it be natural to die after being decapitated? Can't argue with Arkansas logic.


10 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:30:29 PM by FreePaul
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To: Condor51
The M.O. was so similar, I didn't know the difference until the last sentence of your post.

This was brought to you by the same people who perfected shooting flammable gas into a person's residence, then shooting incendiary rounds in so that the house would burn like a roman candle while the suspect was still inside. But Bush is a horrible guy who just stomps all over civil rights.

11 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:47:31 PM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: buffyt

Amazing. I wonder if these guys flying top-cover for Klinton were motivated by money or the threat of being found dead by the same means. Maybe both, we'll probably never know.


12 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:49:43 PM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: FreePaul; buffyt

I agree. If I were decapitated I would consider suicide, too. I don't understand the confusion.

What I am confused about, though, is the lack of interest by all the media in such common shenigans under Clinton.


13 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:53:53 PM by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
More info on Trentadue
14 posted on 1/14/2007, 3:58:34 PM by Eastbound
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To: FreePaul

I'll have to bet you have never read the Warren Commission Report.


15 posted on 1/14/2007, 4:02:07 PM by Shooter 2.5 (Vote a Straight Republican Ballot. Rid the country of dems. NRA)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

I do not understand WHY the Clintons are not in prison. It is baffling!


16 posted on 1/14/2007, 4:12:25 PM by buffyt (It is not a CHOICE ~ It is a CHILD!!!!!!)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

You should read
Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy by Stephen Jones
and
The Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing by Jayna Davis

and there is always John Doe - Jose Padilla


17 posted on 1/14/2007, 4:14:31 PM by buffyt (It is not a CHOICE ~ It is a CHILD!!!!!!)
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To: Shooter 2.5

I've never read it, but I would take the opportunity if it's available. It's probably on-line somewhere. BTW, ole Prez. Ford was on the Warren Commission.


18 posted on 1/14/2007, 4:15:10 PM by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
If you just look at the photos and read the interviews with the people who were there, it's pretty obvious who killed Kennedy. The doctor's reports and the autopsy report will help too.
The Warren Commission didn't have computer analysis and any way of enhancing the Zapruder film like we have today.
19 posted on 1/14/2007, 4:24:19 PM by Shooter 2.5 (Vote a Straight Republican Ballot. Rid the country of dems. NRA)
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To: All
ricocheting across the cell headfirst into the corner of a metal desk

Hey, it happens all the time. Tell-tell signs that suicide is planned: victim appears perfectly normal in every way. The wife of Irv Rubin noted, "I saw my husband yesterday. He was just the same as before. He didn't say goodbye."

Irving David Rubin, the chairman of the Jewish Defense League, committed suicide while being held on federal charges in Los Angeles jail.

While waiting with other prisoners outside their cells to go for breakfast Mr. Rubin suddenly slit his throat and dived head first from the third-tier walkway at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

"We were traumatized," said a federal official quoting the prisoners surrounding Mr. Rubin.

It doesn't have to be prison or even Arkansas when suddenly the uncontrollable urge hits someone. In 1962 U.S. Department of Agriculture agent Henry Marshall, investigating the cotton allotment irregularities connected with Billy Sol Estes and others in very high Washington places, used his bolt-action rifle to shoot himself at least five times. Like the hapless man ricocheting and careening around his cell Mr. Marshall's multiple gun-shot wounds prove that he never gave up.

In the old days Looney Tunes artists would often use the action from government suicide reports as . . . .

20 posted on 1/14/2007, 5:02:12 PM by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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