Amherst County Deserves Explanation in Taylor Death

The News & Advance
Published: April 19, 2008

To function properly with a democracy, a law enforcement agency needs to have the trust, confidence and support of the community it serves.
The Amherst County Sheriff’s Department needs to remember that in the days ahead.
It’s been almost three years since Sanchez Jarkel Taylor ran out of gas on U.S. 29, just south of Faulconerville in Amherst County. Three years since he trekked up the hill to Bethel’s Welding the afternoon of June 16, 2005, to see if he could borrow the phone to call for help. Three years since Sanchez Jarkel Taylor died of injuries incurred at the hands of five sheriff’s deputies.
Five deputies responded to a call of a “suspicious” young black man “lurking” around the business just after 5 p.m. When the first two arrived, they ordered Taylor down on his knees, and he immediately complied. He was then maced and hit with a baton; when he managed to get up and began struggling, they threw him down to the ground again atop a metal rack. Three more deputies arrived and, after another struggle, basically sat on Taylor, with his face to the ground, and hogtied him.
That was the point — 5:40 p.m. — when one of the deputies noticed he wasn’t breathing. One hour and 22 minutes later, at 7:24 p.m., he was dead.
After Taylor’s autopsy results came in, Dr. David N. Cresson, a Lynchburg pathologist, declared his death a homicide, the killing of one human being by the act or omission of another.
Amherst Sheriff Jimmy Ayers called in the Virginia State Police to conduct an investigation; Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox asked Halifax County prosecutor Kim White to handle the legal duties.
And there the matter has sat.
For three long years.
State police officials here and in Richmond say their investigation ended long ago, and the report was turned over to White.
But White, a seasoned prosecutor and former colleague of Maddox’s in the office of former Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Petty, has said nothing publicly about the matter.
Neither she nor the Amherst sheriff’s department has had any comment, claiming an “ongoing” investigation precludes them from doing so.
Even though state police say they finished long ago.
Nothing about the circumstances surrounding Taylor’s death. Nothing about whether any of the five deputies will face criminal charges. Nothing to anyone at all. For almost three years.
Lynchburg attorney Aurelia Langhorne has filed a $15 million suit on behalf of Melva Taylor Davis, Taylor’s mother, arguing that his federal civil rights were violated and that local law enforcement officials tried to cover up the circumstances surrounding the death.
Federal Judge Norman Moon, in a January 2008 hearing, quizzed an attorney for the deputies as to why Taylor was maced, hit with a baton, thrown face down to the ground and hogtied when police reports said he immediately dropped to his knees in compliance with deputies’ initial orders. “If the person is such that he’s easily controlled by five deputies, you don’t get to throw him to the ground,” Moon said Jan. 4 in a pre-trial hearing. (A week-long trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 15 in federal court.)
When Clarence Beard died in the custody of Lynchburg police in September 2006, the events that followed his death were quite different. An internal investigation was quickly undertaken. The state police were immediately called in. Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette was out front in a hurry with a detailed report, taking questions from the public and actually answering them.
The public is due an explanation in this matter, if for no other reason than that for almost three years, no one has said a word.
A mother has lost her son. Residents of Amherst County have a sheriff’s department under a cloud with allegations of civil-rights violations and a cover-up swirling around it.
For the good of everyone, it’s time for this matter to end.