Pr. George's Jail Guards Are Mum in Death Probe

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Investigation Urged Into Inmate's Death

Prince George's County officials and an attorney for the family of Ronnie L. White call for a thorough investigation into the 19-year old's death while in police custody.

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White's 70-square-foot cell has a standard metal bunk, a metal toilet-and-sink unit and a thin mattress, jail employees said. The maximum security cells have four walls and a door, not bars. The door has a small window and a slot for meal trays. Inmates are usually kept locked inside for 23 hours a day.

Officials have said that no video cameras were trained on the area where White was held. Most jails across the country follow identical or similar protocols about cameras, said Bobbi Luna, first vice president of the board of directors of the American Jail Association.

Luna said many jails have cameras for monitoring but not recording. Luna said she was not aware of any jails that have cameras trained on individual cells, largely because of cost constraints.

John Erzen, a spokesman for Johnson, said the state police have given the county no information about whether officers are cooperating with the investigation. Erzen would not say whether the county would suspend officers who do not cooperate with investigators. Johnson said yesterday that no one at the jail had been suspended or removed.

Knowles criticized investigators for approaching correctional officers outside of work. "It doesn't make sense to go to a guy's house at 10 p.m. to get a statement if it's not a criminal investigation," he said. He declined to identify the officer involved, and he did not say whether the officer cooperated with investigators.

Knowles said he was working in the jail the day White died. "When I first entered the scene, I didn't know who this individual was," he said. "I didn't know this guy. It was mentioned while I was standing there who he was."

Knowles said, "We were assured by the initial county police investigation that everything looked good and there was no foul play."

White was in Unit 5 of the jail, which has 1,300 inmates. The unit is one of two adjacent horseshoe-shape maximum-security corridors, each with 46 to 48 cells, according to jail employees.

Cameras monitor hallways leading to the units so that guards in a central command center can see who is entering or exiting. The cameras show only live video and do not record the hallway activity.

Some lawmakers and community leaders said they shared the concern among officers that Findley's death was being overshadowed.

"I'm concerned that the gravity of his death has been put on the back burner," said Del. Barbara A. Frush (D-Prince George's), who had known Findley for years.

Frush, a frequent critic of Johnson, said she wishes that he had taken more time at his Monday news conference to share details about Findley's life and sacrifice. "I would hope the county executive would make every effort to let the people know that this man was a hero."

Johnson said yesterday that Findley "deserves to be remembered as a great police officer."

"We should not get the two mixed up," he said of Findley and White. "But this is a big situation, a big tragedy for someone to be in our custody and die allegedly in these circumstances."

C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George's), chairman of the county's Senate delegation, said he would address the need for "swift justice" for White at an NAACP event today. Muse praised county officials for appointing an outside law enforcement agency to lead the investigation but said he feared it has cast a shadow over grieving for Findley.

"I'm anxiously hoping they solve this quickly," he said. "Somebody got in there. It's a jail. Somebody knows who did it and how they got in there."

Staff writers Ruben Castaneda, Hamil R. Harris, James Hohmann and Jenna Johnson and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.