You don’t have to watch this video of Joshua McLemore’s final days (do not watch this video before bed). His mother, Rhonda, couldn’t bear to watch it after lawyers told her the contents. She died 16 months later, her family thinks of a broken heart. But his family want people to see it.
You see men and woman who are probably otherwise decent people let a schizophrenic man die of starvation covered in his own feces. Talk about the banality of evil.
I got a tip about the story from Eric Heipt at Seattle’s Budge and Heipt, a law practice that litigates wrongful death lawsuits. They have seen some things. But you could tell Ed Budge, who is spearheading the lawsuit, can’t quite wrap his head around this one. I’m also incredulous—like why didn’t someone call 911, if only to get this screaming, starving, hallucinating, confused, schizophrenic man off their hands? The just kind of dumbly stare at him and occasionally hose him down.
Here’s a link to the article if you want to read and/or don’t want to watch the video (the video is age-restricted and only available on YouTube so don’t worry about accidentally seeing it).
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This is like Walker County, AL -- Anthony Mitchell and others.
ahhh the Bearcat.
Do you follow Jessica Pishko's work? She's the main expert on Sherriffs. But yes, a few stories I've done involving Sherriff's offices have no helped increase my faith in the system.