(PG)
The Internal Affairs Of Prison
A Silenced Conspiracy
Authored By: Bradley Chapline
2018
A Silenced Conspiracy
Authored By: Bradley Chapline
2018
Part l
In both the olden and present days of prisons, felonies being committed are virtually normal daily occurrences behind the walls, fences and razor wire of our penal institutions. And not just by inmates, but by some of the prison officers, as well.
This is the story of Officer Cedric Porter. He was once my corrections partner and my best friend.
I remember Cedric’s first day on the job in the early 1990's at the Southern Desert Correctional Center. He was not in the norm of a typical “old school” looking prison guard. Cedric was intelligent, hardworking, well groomed, and had a gleaming personality.
But, Cedric was an actual product of an internal battle that I had waged against some other powerful, influential and unified old world prison staff. The process of new management hiring minorities was certainly not met with open arms from a significant portion of Caucasian officers.
In retaliation, Caucasian officers, through their local union, filed a” reverse discrimination” lawsuit against management’s fresh hiring practices of minorities. But, this lawsuit was never to be heard from within the judicial system.
Officer Cedric Porter and I worked together for some months. We were, "per se", the perfect “salt and pepper” team. My respect for Officer Cedric Porter went much further than just that of my partner at the prison. He was also a loyal and dedicated husband and a devoted father to his two toddlers.
Then, hard economic times hit state employees. Because of seniority, layoffs were inevitable for most, if not all of the newly hired prison staff. That was, unless the tenured staff voted to reject a previously approved four percent pay increase.
The result of that employee vote was not surprising. The new officers, with little to no seniority, and no voting rights, were expendable in the eyes of the majority of the “old school” prison staff.
I could tell Officer Cedric Porter was heartbroken. However, Officer Porter was presented with another opportunity as a prison guard if he should be willing to relocate to a relatively new maximum security prison in Northern Nevada. Ely State Prison, a newly built institution, was experiencing severe staffing shortages. This was most likely due to this prison and the township of Ely, Nevada already having infamous reputations.
Officer Porter and I discussed this offer that management in the personnel division had offered him. Officer Cedric Porter was all for it. I was against this move. I formally advised Officer Porter that relocating to Ely, Nevada would be most likely putting not only himself, but his family in potential danger. I believed I had sufficient reasonable cause to make this allegation against the suspected racial prejudice practices of Ely, Nevada.
I specifically remember telling Officer Cedric Porter, “This township is not ready for an Afro-American man to live there, much less, your wife being Caucasian and your children being of mixed ethnicity.”
I also brought to his attention the fact that a previous black warden who had been reassigned to the Ely State Prison from Southern Nevada did not bring his family up to that community. This warden chose to live on prison grounds where a cross was still burned, at the entrance to this institution by white supremacists.
Officer Cedric Porter rejected my advice by stating, “I’m not scared of anyone. No one will keep me from supporting my family.” A tactful argument ensued between the two of us. Before I knew it, Officer Cedric Porter, his wife and children were gone to their new location in Ely, Nevada. There had been no goodbyes.
The following months had passed by. I had heard nothing from Officer Cedric Porter. At this point, I had to assume that Officer Porter and his family were doing well in Ely, Nevada. I thought, momentarily, maybe I had been wrong in my judgment towards the township of Ely, Nevada. But, that was short-lived.
Part 2
Then, a shocking moment.
At the Southern Desert Correctional Center, I walked into the muster room, as normal, to check-in with my supervisor and receive my post assignment for the day. From behind me, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and it was Officer Cedric Porter. I almost didn’t recognize him. He had lost a great deal of weight. His skin was now crusted and flaking. His face was gaunt. He looked terrible, and extremely sick.
I listened as my supervisor told Officer Cedric Porter that he could not work the prison yard. However, temporarily, Officer Cedric Porter was assigned to a perimeter guard tower where he would have virtually no staff or inmate contact. I wondered, “Just what in the world is going on here?” Officer Porter and I walked out of the muster room together. But, Officer Cedric Porter was not physically able to climb the multi-tiered stairs in reaching the top of his assigned perimeter tower. So, I put Officer Porter over my shoulder, like a slinky, and carried him to the top of his gun tower post.
This was repeated for the next several weeks until Officer Cedric Porter became too sickly to even make the long drive to work. Two days later I was informed that Officer Cedric Porter had been admitted to the AIDS ward in a local community hospital.
I went to see Officer Porter. I knew the moment I saw him, at best, he only had a few days of his life remaining. I asked Officer Cedric Porter if he desired to give me a “death bed statement”. He replied in a now slightly slurred and docile toned voice, “Yes, I would.” The following is Officer Cedric Porter's death bed statement that I received from him, in person.
“At Ely, I was working in the lock down unit. The other officers would have nothing to do with me. You were right. Everyone up there in Ely hated me, just because I was black. A call came over the radio that a white supremacist gang fight was taking place down on one of the cell blocks during exercise time. I was responding to the scene on foot with three other officers. However, when I arrived at the scene, all the other officers had disappeared. The inmates dragged me over to a cell door where the food flap popped open. The inmate inside this cell grabbed hold of my arm and pulled it through the food flap. He slit my arm with a syringe. The inmate then let me go. All of the other inmates in the exercise rotunda had disappeared too. Electronically, from the officer’s unit control panel, all cell doors were now secured. I really had no idea as to the identities of the inmates who initially attacked me, other than that they were all Caucasian. My arm was bleeding profusely. No one would help me. On my own, I got down to the institutional infirmary. The on-duty nurse began treatment. I filed the entire required incident and on the job injury reports. A short time later I got very sick. My request to draw workman’s compensation benefits were denied. Prison management determined that my sickness was not that of an inmate attack from an AIDS infected syringe. Their contention was that my sickness was derived from a promiscuous lifestyle.”
I had heard rumors from the "prison grapevine”, that the practice of “wife swapping” was commonplace in the community of Ely, Nevada. However, I have never attained any credible proof to substantiate this.
Additionally, it would be difficult to believe any one in this racially biased community of Ely, Nevada being willing to "sexually swap" partners with Officer Cedric Porter and his wife, a racially mixed couple.
However, since the alleged "wife-swapping" could have taken place in Las Vegas before Officer Cedric Porter and his wife had relocated to Ely, Nevada, prison management failed to produce any shred of supporting evidence. This left an extremely wide gap in this state agency's credibility.
Part 3
So, moments before Officer Cedric Porter had passed away, I gave him my word that I would do everything that is within legal reason to bring those officers and inmates with ties to white supremacy to justice. However, the days, weeks, months, years, and now, approaching the twenty-five year mark of Officer Cedric Porter's death, are about to pass with still, no evidence conclusive enough to bring this incident to trial.
Although, I have in the past made contact with several staff witnesses who worked at the Ely State Prison at the time of the unproven attack on Officer Cedric Porter. They each supported Officer Cedric Porter's claims, but refused to say anything on the record for fear of reprisals. Ironically, each of these potential witnesses resigned their career positions and, overnight, seemingly vanished.
The Link That Provides Some Corroborating Evidence
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/may/25/corruption-allegations-against-prison-guards-shado/
Without doubt prison authorities have effectively suppressed the Officer Cedric Porter allegations. Even though murder has no statute of limitations, I’ve now all but given up on the utterly hopeless venture to obtain admissible evidence on Officer Cedric Porter's behalf.
So, recently, I contacted Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's office. I was only asking that Officer Cedric’s Porter's death be reflected as, “His life was lost in the line of duty”. But, this request was also firmly denied. Odd isn't it that the Acting Director of the NDOC who responded to Governor Sandoval's inquiry into this matter turned out to be the warden of Ely State Prison when, allegedly, the Officer Cedric Porter incident took place.
I have to believe, as well as should his children, that beyond a reasonable doubt, Officer Cedric Porter gave his life, not only in the line of duty, but also in the pursuit of supporting and caring for his family.
For, Officer Cedric Porter was a dear friend of mine and I knew him, both on and off-duty, to be an honorable man.
Now, after over twenty years of service, I became well acquainted with the inside and secretive operations of the Nevada Department of Corrections, their union, and their powerful cliques. For, there is substantial proof the NDOC (Nevada Department of Corrections) is a predominately corrupt state agency that is more than well capable of violating a person's human rights. I strongly believe to this day, despite lack of physical evidence, that a group of domestic terrorists employed by, promoted by, and protected by the Department of Corrections, in a conspiracy with white supremacist inmates, did murder Officer Cedric Porter.
Within the NDOC, there can be no real successful attempts at reform. Because, the shame of this scandal runs so deep in the alleged hate crime / murder of sworn law enforcement officer, Cedric Porter, that this horrific incident of human rights violations will forever hold a dark cloud over any attempts of state agency credibility and authenticity.
As the author of this story, I am a former Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, who was the Director of Far East Prisoner Security. In addition, I was also a certified Nevada State Academy Training Instructor. And, I am a retired Nevada State Peace Officer III, in good standing.
In both the olden and present days of prisons, felonies being committed are virtually normal daily occurrences behind the walls, fences and razor wire of our penal institutions. And not just by inmates, but by some of the prison officers, as well.
This is the story of Officer Cedric Porter. He was once my corrections partner and my best friend.
I remember Cedric’s first day on the job in the early 1990's at the Southern Desert Correctional Center. He was not in the norm of a typical “old school” looking prison guard. Cedric was intelligent, hardworking, well groomed, and had a gleaming personality.
But, Cedric was an actual product of an internal battle that I had waged against some other powerful, influential and unified old world prison staff. The process of new management hiring minorities was certainly not met with open arms from a significant portion of Caucasian officers.
In retaliation, Caucasian officers, through their local union, filed a” reverse discrimination” lawsuit against management’s fresh hiring practices of minorities. But, this lawsuit was never to be heard from within the judicial system.
Officer Cedric Porter and I worked together for some months. We were, "per se", the perfect “salt and pepper” team. My respect for Officer Cedric Porter went much further than just that of my partner at the prison. He was also a loyal and dedicated husband and a devoted father to his two toddlers.
Then, hard economic times hit state employees. Because of seniority, layoffs were inevitable for most, if not all of the newly hired prison staff. That was, unless the tenured staff voted to reject a previously approved four percent pay increase.
The result of that employee vote was not surprising. The new officers, with little to no seniority, and no voting rights, were expendable in the eyes of the majority of the “old school” prison staff.
I could tell Officer Cedric Porter was heartbroken. However, Officer Porter was presented with another opportunity as a prison guard if he should be willing to relocate to a relatively new maximum security prison in Northern Nevada. Ely State Prison, a newly built institution, was experiencing severe staffing shortages. This was most likely due to this prison and the township of Ely, Nevada already having infamous reputations.
Officer Porter and I discussed this offer that management in the personnel division had offered him. Officer Cedric Porter was all for it. I was against this move. I formally advised Officer Porter that relocating to Ely, Nevada would be most likely putting not only himself, but his family in potential danger. I believed I had sufficient reasonable cause to make this allegation against the suspected racial prejudice practices of Ely, Nevada.
I specifically remember telling Officer Cedric Porter, “This township is not ready for an Afro-American man to live there, much less, your wife being Caucasian and your children being of mixed ethnicity.”
I also brought to his attention the fact that a previous black warden who had been reassigned to the Ely State Prison from Southern Nevada did not bring his family up to that community. This warden chose to live on prison grounds where a cross was still burned, at the entrance to this institution by white supremacists.
Officer Cedric Porter rejected my advice by stating, “I’m not scared of anyone. No one will keep me from supporting my family.” A tactful argument ensued between the two of us. Before I knew it, Officer Cedric Porter, his wife and children were gone to their new location in Ely, Nevada. There had been no goodbyes.
The following months had passed by. I had heard nothing from Officer Cedric Porter. At this point, I had to assume that Officer Porter and his family were doing well in Ely, Nevada. I thought, momentarily, maybe I had been wrong in my judgment towards the township of Ely, Nevada. But, that was short-lived.
Part 2
Then, a shocking moment.
At the Southern Desert Correctional Center, I walked into the muster room, as normal, to check-in with my supervisor and receive my post assignment for the day. From behind me, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and it was Officer Cedric Porter. I almost didn’t recognize him. He had lost a great deal of weight. His skin was now crusted and flaking. His face was gaunt. He looked terrible, and extremely sick.
I listened as my supervisor told Officer Cedric Porter that he could not work the prison yard. However, temporarily, Officer Cedric Porter was assigned to a perimeter guard tower where he would have virtually no staff or inmate contact. I wondered, “Just what in the world is going on here?” Officer Porter and I walked out of the muster room together. But, Officer Cedric Porter was not physically able to climb the multi-tiered stairs in reaching the top of his assigned perimeter tower. So, I put Officer Porter over my shoulder, like a slinky, and carried him to the top of his gun tower post.
This was repeated for the next several weeks until Officer Cedric Porter became too sickly to even make the long drive to work. Two days later I was informed that Officer Cedric Porter had been admitted to the AIDS ward in a local community hospital.
I went to see Officer Porter. I knew the moment I saw him, at best, he only had a few days of his life remaining. I asked Officer Cedric Porter if he desired to give me a “death bed statement”. He replied in a now slightly slurred and docile toned voice, “Yes, I would.” The following is Officer Cedric Porter's death bed statement that I received from him, in person.
“At Ely, I was working in the lock down unit. The other officers would have nothing to do with me. You were right. Everyone up there in Ely hated me, just because I was black. A call came over the radio that a white supremacist gang fight was taking place down on one of the cell blocks during exercise time. I was responding to the scene on foot with three other officers. However, when I arrived at the scene, all the other officers had disappeared. The inmates dragged me over to a cell door where the food flap popped open. The inmate inside this cell grabbed hold of my arm and pulled it through the food flap. He slit my arm with a syringe. The inmate then let me go. All of the other inmates in the exercise rotunda had disappeared too. Electronically, from the officer’s unit control panel, all cell doors were now secured. I really had no idea as to the identities of the inmates who initially attacked me, other than that they were all Caucasian. My arm was bleeding profusely. No one would help me. On my own, I got down to the institutional infirmary. The on-duty nurse began treatment. I filed the entire required incident and on the job injury reports. A short time later I got very sick. My request to draw workman’s compensation benefits were denied. Prison management determined that my sickness was not that of an inmate attack from an AIDS infected syringe. Their contention was that my sickness was derived from a promiscuous lifestyle.”
I had heard rumors from the "prison grapevine”, that the practice of “wife swapping” was commonplace in the community of Ely, Nevada. However, I have never attained any credible proof to substantiate this.
Additionally, it would be difficult to believe any one in this racially biased community of Ely, Nevada being willing to "sexually swap" partners with Officer Cedric Porter and his wife, a racially mixed couple.
However, since the alleged "wife-swapping" could have taken place in Las Vegas before Officer Cedric Porter and his wife had relocated to Ely, Nevada, prison management failed to produce any shred of supporting evidence. This left an extremely wide gap in this state agency's credibility.
Part 3
So, moments before Officer Cedric Porter had passed away, I gave him my word that I would do everything that is within legal reason to bring those officers and inmates with ties to white supremacy to justice. However, the days, weeks, months, years, and now, approaching the twenty-five year mark of Officer Cedric Porter's death, are about to pass with still, no evidence conclusive enough to bring this incident to trial.
Although, I have in the past made contact with several staff witnesses who worked at the Ely State Prison at the time of the unproven attack on Officer Cedric Porter. They each supported Officer Cedric Porter's claims, but refused to say anything on the record for fear of reprisals. Ironically, each of these potential witnesses resigned their career positions and, overnight, seemingly vanished.
The Link That Provides Some Corroborating Evidence
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/may/25/corruption-allegations-against-prison-guards-shado/
Without doubt prison authorities have effectively suppressed the Officer Cedric Porter allegations. Even though murder has no statute of limitations, I’ve now all but given up on the utterly hopeless venture to obtain admissible evidence on Officer Cedric Porter's behalf.
So, recently, I contacted Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's office. I was only asking that Officer Cedric’s Porter's death be reflected as, “His life was lost in the line of duty”. But, this request was also firmly denied. Odd isn't it that the Acting Director of the NDOC who responded to Governor Sandoval's inquiry into this matter turned out to be the warden of Ely State Prison when, allegedly, the Officer Cedric Porter incident took place.
I have to believe, as well as should his children, that beyond a reasonable doubt, Officer Cedric Porter gave his life, not only in the line of duty, but also in the pursuit of supporting and caring for his family.
For, Officer Cedric Porter was a dear friend of mine and I knew him, both on and off-duty, to be an honorable man.
Now, after over twenty years of service, I became well acquainted with the inside and secretive operations of the Nevada Department of Corrections, their union, and their powerful cliques. For, there is substantial proof the NDOC (Nevada Department of Corrections) is a predominately corrupt state agency that is more than well capable of violating a person's human rights. I strongly believe to this day, despite lack of physical evidence, that a group of domestic terrorists employed by, promoted by, and protected by the Department of Corrections, in a conspiracy with white supremacist inmates, did murder Officer Cedric Porter.
Within the NDOC, there can be no real successful attempts at reform. Because, the shame of this scandal runs so deep in the alleged hate crime / murder of sworn law enforcement officer, Cedric Porter, that this horrific incident of human rights violations will forever hold a dark cloud over any attempts of state agency credibility and authenticity.
As the author of this story, I am a former Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, who was the Director of Far East Prisoner Security. In addition, I was also a certified Nevada State Academy Training Instructor. And, I am a retired Nevada State Peace Officer III, in good standing.
Return To Main Page
www.bradleychapline.com/
www.bradleychapline.com/