kintml2u
05-22-2004, 02:07 PM
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+/+County/241310ACA0D13E1486256E9A001670C9?OpenDocument&Headline=Dentist+wins+round%3B+judge+orders+tapes+ of+alleged+abuse+by+g
Dentist wins round; judge orders tapes of alleged abuse by guards
By Carolyn Tuft
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/19/2004
A federal judge has ordered a Justice Department lawyer to supply videotapes of the "alleged abuse" of Creve Coeur dentist Charles "Tom" Sell at the hands of federal prison hospital guards in Springfield, Mo.
The judge, Donald J. Stohr, subpoenaed the videotapes to a hearing Friday for testimony on whether Sell is mentally fit to stand trial. Sell has been in prison for seven years, awaiting trial on charges that he defrauded Medicare and plotted to kill an FBI agent and witness.
Sell's case hit the national spotlight last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot forcibly medicate Sell, and other nonviolent offenders, unless it meets new criteria set forth by the high court. He has steadfastly refused anti-psychotic drugs that lower courts had ordered him to take.
Sell has always maintained he is mentally fit and earned a perfect score on a competency exam.
Federal prosecutors and Sell's lawyers have refused to comment on the case.
On May 13, Stohr ordered Dennis Bitz, a Justice Department lawyer, to supply the videotapes that Sell and his family have sought since 2000. Prison hospital officials have said the tapes existed, then that they did not exist and, later still, that the tapes did exist.
In 2000, then-U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft assisted the Sell family's effort to release the tapes. But after Ashcroft was appointed attorney general, Ashcroft took the reins of a Justice Department that was blocking the tapes' release.
It is unclear what action the judge might take once he sees the tapes.
Sell, 54, says he hopes their release might help other patients at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., prove abuse at the hands of the guards. Sell alleges that guards have abused many inmates, even using some for gladiator-style fights, and handcuffing them to bunks for 30 days straight.
"I want the public to know that this is their hard-earned tax dollars at work," Sell said during an interview at the St. Louis County Jail this week. "This is sadistic."
Sell then pulled up his tan jail shirt and showed his abdomen. A 7-inch-long, 4-inch-wide lump, which he claimed is a rupture or hernia from being beaten by the guards, protruded from his belly. He said that besides the two abuse episodes that the tapes could show, he has been attacked many other times by the guards, often being beaten in the abdomen.
Sell said the videotapes will show two particular episodes of abuse:
On Nov. 9, 1999, he said, guards stormed into his cell after he broke a plastic food tray, stripped him naked and took him to another room. There, they shackled Sell to a concrete block so he could not move and left him there for 19 1/2 hours straight.
On Feb. 19, 2000, after Sell complained about being too cold in his unheated cell, he said, a guard stripped him naked and handcuffed him behind his back. Then, the guard allegedly took Sell to a shower and sprayed him with scalding hot water for 10 minutes in front of a female nurse. He alleges that after the guard repeated that about six times, the guard slammed the still-naked Sell face-first to the floor and dragged him on his belly to his jail cell.
Federal authorities, who would not discuss particular accusations, have said in internal investigative records that Sell has received "not inhumane treatment."
As for the Friday hearing - which could lead to the judge ruling Sell fit to stand trial - Sell said he is not optimistic he will ever get his day in court.
Sell rocked back and forth in his seat, saying he had pain all over his body and said, "I think they're going to send me back to Springfield and leave me there to die."
Reporter Carolyn Tuft
E-mail: ctuft@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 340-8105
{found on FPPP}
Dentist wins round; judge orders tapes of alleged abuse by guards
By Carolyn Tuft
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/19/2004
A federal judge has ordered a Justice Department lawyer to supply videotapes of the "alleged abuse" of Creve Coeur dentist Charles "Tom" Sell at the hands of federal prison hospital guards in Springfield, Mo.
The judge, Donald J. Stohr, subpoenaed the videotapes to a hearing Friday for testimony on whether Sell is mentally fit to stand trial. Sell has been in prison for seven years, awaiting trial on charges that he defrauded Medicare and plotted to kill an FBI agent and witness.
Sell's case hit the national spotlight last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot forcibly medicate Sell, and other nonviolent offenders, unless it meets new criteria set forth by the high court. He has steadfastly refused anti-psychotic drugs that lower courts had ordered him to take.
Sell has always maintained he is mentally fit and earned a perfect score on a competency exam.
Federal prosecutors and Sell's lawyers have refused to comment on the case.
On May 13, Stohr ordered Dennis Bitz, a Justice Department lawyer, to supply the videotapes that Sell and his family have sought since 2000. Prison hospital officials have said the tapes existed, then that they did not exist and, later still, that the tapes did exist.
In 2000, then-U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft assisted the Sell family's effort to release the tapes. But after Ashcroft was appointed attorney general, Ashcroft took the reins of a Justice Department that was blocking the tapes' release.
It is unclear what action the judge might take once he sees the tapes.
Sell, 54, says he hopes their release might help other patients at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., prove abuse at the hands of the guards. Sell alleges that guards have abused many inmates, even using some for gladiator-style fights, and handcuffing them to bunks for 30 days straight.
"I want the public to know that this is their hard-earned tax dollars at work," Sell said during an interview at the St. Louis County Jail this week. "This is sadistic."
Sell then pulled up his tan jail shirt and showed his abdomen. A 7-inch-long, 4-inch-wide lump, which he claimed is a rupture or hernia from being beaten by the guards, protruded from his belly. He said that besides the two abuse episodes that the tapes could show, he has been attacked many other times by the guards, often being beaten in the abdomen.
Sell said the videotapes will show two particular episodes of abuse:
On Nov. 9, 1999, he said, guards stormed into his cell after he broke a plastic food tray, stripped him naked and took him to another room. There, they shackled Sell to a concrete block so he could not move and left him there for 19 1/2 hours straight.
On Feb. 19, 2000, after Sell complained about being too cold in his unheated cell, he said, a guard stripped him naked and handcuffed him behind his back. Then, the guard allegedly took Sell to a shower and sprayed him with scalding hot water for 10 minutes in front of a female nurse. He alleges that after the guard repeated that about six times, the guard slammed the still-naked Sell face-first to the floor and dragged him on his belly to his jail cell.
Federal authorities, who would not discuss particular accusations, have said in internal investigative records that Sell has received "not inhumane treatment."
As for the Friday hearing - which could lead to the judge ruling Sell fit to stand trial - Sell said he is not optimistic he will ever get his day in court.
Sell rocked back and forth in his seat, saying he had pain all over his body and said, "I think they're going to send me back to Springfield and leave me there to die."
Reporter Carolyn Tuft
E-mail: ctuft@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 340-8105
{found on FPPP}