JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Federal prosecutors have elicited witness testimony since the summer about the controversial death of a 31-year-old father at the Duval County jail, according to copies of nearly a dozen grand jury subpoenas The Tributary obtained through a public-records request.
Last week, State Attorney Melissa Nelson said the U.S. Attorney’s Office took the lead on the investigation into the April death of Charles Faggart, but it has been unclear what actions, if any, the FBI or federal prosecutors had taken on the case. The subpoenas suggest that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was already in the process of taking a deep look at the circumstances surrounding Faggart’s death.
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JSO did not return a request for comment, and the FBI said it would not comment on the investigation.
Prosecutors began ordering witnesses to arrive at the federal courthouse downtown to give testimony in June and July, according to the documents, though it’s not clear if a grand jury has yet been impaneled to hear about the case. Federal prosecutors sometimes use grand jury subpoenas to obtain records and testimony in the earlier stages of an investigation.
The subpoenas over the summer went to 11 Jacksonville Fire and Rescue first responders. Several of those employees work at Station 1, which responded to a call from the Duval County jail on the morning of April 7, according to a heavily redacted police report about the clash between Faggart and several corrections officers.
JFRD paramedics used a chest-compression device on Faggart before taking him to UF Health, where he arrived unresponsive and critically injured. Doctors pronounced him dead two days later.
Federal investigations and grand jury proceedings operate in secret, and the subpoenas, which were delivered to the city’s Office of General Counsel, do not indicate what issues prosecutors are probing about Faggart’s death.
The assistant U.S. Attorney listed on the documents, Ashley M. Washington, has experience on civil-rights cases with the local office, as well as myriad other kinds of criminal cases.
It’s rare for federal investigators to scrutinize Jacksonville cops, even as multiple past controversies — including dangerous conditions at the jail — have prompted local activists and some lawmakers to press for outside scrutiny. JSO integrity officers usually work with the State Attorney’s Office to investigate alleged officer misconduct, an arrangement that some criminal-justice advocates have long argued is too insular.
Why Faggart departed the jail in such a perilous state remains a mystery and a significant source of controversy.
More than 24 hours after Faggart arrived at UF Health unresponsive and bloodied, and handcuffed to a bed, Waters called an evening press conference to announce that an unidentified person had been seriously injured in an “incident” at the jail. JSO acknowledged Faggart’s identity only after The Tributary identified him through court records, and police have only released a heavily redacted report about his violent clash with jail guards that left him unresponsive.
Several key details from that police report conflict with findings by the UF medical staff that later treated Faggart.
Waters stripped nine JSO jail guards of their corrections authority after the clash but has not said whether those officers violated any department rules. Those officers have since been reassigned to other duties.
Nelson’s office has also not said what conclusions, if any, it has drawn about Faggart’s death, and although a medical examiner’s report was completed over the summer, its contents also remain a mystery.
Nate Monroe is the executive editor of The Tributary. He can be reached at nate.monroe@jaxtrib.org.
Nichole Manna is The Tributary’s senior investigative reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@jaxtrib.org.