Folio Weekly: BRING ON THE INQUEST INTO MICHELLE O’CONNELL’S DEATH -- The St. Johns Sheriffs Office cannot be trusted

BRING ON THE INQUEST INTO MICHELLE O’CONNELL’S DEATH -- The St. Johns Sheriffs Office cannot be trusted


Michelle O’ Connell
JUSTICEFORMICHELLE.COM
By Jeffrey C. Billman
Posted 9/10/14
“There is a visceral sense of, ‘What if she was murdered and this guy goes free?’” Brad King, the special prosecutor who declined to indict St. Johns County Deputy Jeremy Banks for his girlfriend Michelle O’Connell’s death (ruled a suicide) in 2010, told PBS’ Frontline last year. “There ought to be at least some visceral sense, ‘What if she did commit suicide and he’s in prison for the rest of his life?’”

He makes a good point, one intrinsic to the American justice system — better that 10 guilty men go free than an innocent hang, and all that. But that doesn’t elide the myriad and troubling problems with the official account of Michelle’s death: the charges from Michelle’s family that Banks was a domestic abuser; the reports from colleagues that he had a temper, especially when he drank (as he did that night); the statement of crime scene expert Jerry Findley, who concluded that the shooter, like Banks but not O’Connell, was most likely left-handed, and the scene was “more consistent with homicide than suicide”; the testimony of two neighbors who say they heard a woman yell for help, then heard a gunshot, then another yell, then another gunshot, then silence; the fact that the official theory of how Michelle got a cut on her eyelid is that the gun recoiled forward, which, according to forensic scientist Peter Diaczuk, “defies the laws of physics.”

All of these things, well elucidated by the blockbuster New York Times/Frontline investigation, lead me to suspect that Michelle O’Connell did not commit suicide that night four years and one week ago. But neither can I say beyond a reasonable doubt that Jeremy Banks murdered her. And that gets at the underlying issue, why we’re still talking about this case: the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, either through willful indifference or general incompetence, botched (perhaps irreparably) this investigation six ways to Sunday, most importantly by failing to call in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement right away. Instead, deputies decided on the spot that O’Connell killed herself and unquestioningly took Banks at his word.

For that, someone should be held accountable. But that hasn’t happened. And it won’t happen. The SJSO is now invested in the suicide narrative, rallying around its deputy and vigilantly protective of its reputation.

Consider the statement Sheriff David Shoar’s office issued last week, after Michelle’s family held a press conference to announce new evidence in the case — a bar owner who said Banks was in his establishment the day after Michelle’s death saying that she got what she deserved — and demand that State Attorney R.J. Larizza order a coroner’s inquest: “It is not surprising that on the fourth anniversary of Michelle O’Connell’s death, members of her family have orchestrated news events to again draw attention to this tragedy. Families of suicide victims often go to great lengths to try and demonstrate that their loved one did not take their own life and we have great compassion for these families.”

Sorry, but “great compassion” is not a condescending statement dismissive of the family’s legitimate questions — questions that exist only because of the sheriff’s office’s well-documented failings. Can you really blame Michelle’s family for not trusting them?

Who knows if, four years on, a coroner’s inquest will reveal anything new or useful? But at this point, it’s the least we can do. The SJSO has proven that, at least in this instance, it has zero credibility.