Last Updated on September 11, 2022, 8:30 PM | Published: September 11, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — John Basco died in the Oklahoma County Detention Center (Jail) early Sunday morning not even three days after being booked.
He was a key witness among four in the upcoming criminal trials of three of his former jailers and a plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit against the three.
The three former jailers no longer working at the jail are:
- Gregory Cornell Butler, Jr.
- Christian Charles Miles
- Christopher Raymond Hendershot
This comes shortly before the next scheduled appearance of the former jailers in Oklahoma County District court September 21 on the criminal misdemeanor charges of “cruelty to a prisoner.”
The actions at the heart of the criminal charges and federal civil rights lawsuit occured in the jail November 2019 while Sheriff P.D. Taylor was still in charge of running the jail. Since then, the operation of the Jail was turned over July 1, 2020 to the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority (Jail Trust) who employs a jail administrator and the jailers.
Before the turnover, jailers were employed by the Oklahoma County Sheriff. After the turnover, jailers are employed by the Jail Trust.
‘Conveniently dead’
Basco was one of those detainees and has been the most effective in making accusations according to his attorney, Cameron Spradling, in the federal civil rights case filed agains the jailers and the county.
“One of the Baby Shark victims is conveniently dead within three days of his arrival,” said Spradling. “District Attorney David Prater lost his most important witness for the upcoming criminal trial.”
Charges
This is a screenshot from OSCN of the criminal charges against the three:
The actions are alleged to have happened while the jail was still under control of the Oklahoma County Sheriff, who was P.D. Taylor at that time. Tommie Johnson III is the current Sheriff who is named in the federal civil rights lawsuit along with the county commissioners.
Butler and Miles are accused of shackling four detainees to a bar on a wall in a partial squatting position in a room normally used for attorney-client conferences and playing the song “Baby Shark” over and over for hours as punishment.
Hendershot, their Lieutenant at the time, is accused of knowing about the actions and not taking corrective action.
Butler and Miles were fired after an investigation, and Hendershot retired as a result of the incidents.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
