The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office will take the lead investigating the controversial death of a 31-year-old father in the Duval County Jail in April, according to State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office.
The scope of the federal investigation into the death of Charles Faggart is unclear, and Nelson did not say what conclusions her own office has drawn about the case. This latest development happened “after consultation” with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she said.
The FBI refused comment.
Faggart arrived at UF Health from the Duval County Jail on April 7 in a badly, and perhaps fatally, injured condition. Originally booked days earlier on two misdemeanor charges, it remains unclear why Faggart was in such a poor state. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has said sparingly little about the case, though in its immediate aftermath Sheriff T.K. Waters stripped nine jail staffers of their corrections authority. Those officers have since been reassigned.
The Medical Examiner’s Office finished a report about Faggart’s death over the summer, but its contents remain a secret.
The attorney representing Faggart’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nelson’s office generally conducts criminal investigations into alleged criminal acts by JSO officers. Her office has worked “in parallel” with the FBI on the Faggart case, her office said. In the days after Faggart’s death, Waters said he’d asked the FBI for its assistance, though he did not say what he expected from federal investigators.
It’s exceedingly rare for federal prosecutors to deeply scrutinize JSO, an agency that has come under fire from local criminal-justice advocates repeatedly in recent years both for its allegedly brutal handling of suspects and conditions in its aging jail.
Faggart’s family believe he was beaten to death.
Although JSO sometimes rolls out information about investigations quickly, in the Faggart case, the agency has been reticent.
More than 24 hours after Faggart had arrived at UF Health unresponsive and bloodied, Waters called an evening press conference to deliver the news 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.
Key elements of that document, which was written by one of the jail guards Waters stripped of duty, were contradicted by reams of UF medical records that detailed Faggart’s extensive injuries. Doctors found no fentanyl in his system, even though the police report claimed Faggart told the guards he’d taken the drug. Doctors also did not believe he’d suffered a seizure, which a guard says he witnessed.
Medical staff also removed a barb from a stun gun in his back – JSO has not previously disclosed that Faggart was stunned – and noted multiple fractures on his face and ribs, bruises throughout his body, and serious damage to his kidneys and liver.
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.
