Hugging and crying together, the family members of Cordney Buck, 30, met in front of the St. Louis County Justice Center on June 14 demanding answers about Buck’s reported suicide in his cell on May 2.
“Nothing anyone can say or do can will bring my son back,” said his mother Cynthia Buck, who had a stroke after learning about his death, “but at least a change in policy may prevent another mother from feeling as insignificant and alone as I felt.”
Buck said the Clayton Police Department has not kept the family informed of the investigation, and the lack of transparency breeds mistrust in the community. The family also questioned why they were not able to see his body until a day before his funeral on May 12.
Police completed their investigation into his death on June 15 and concluded that Cordney died of fatal asphyxiation, according to the police report obtain by The St. Louis American. However, public officials’ statements to The American about Cordney’s death seem in conflict with one another.
On April 29, Maryland Heights police officers arrested Cordney at the St. Louis Bread Co. in West Port Plaza, where he allegedly crawled into a stall of the restaurant’s women’s restroom while someone was using it, according to the Post-Dispatch. Prosecutors had not yet filed charges in the case at the time of his death.
The Justice Center held him because of a warrant out of Collinsville for failing to register as a sex offender, said Lt. Mark Smith, of Clayton Police.
The family’s attorney, Jerryl Christmas, said his charges are not what the family questions but how he died and how he was treated in the Justice Center.
On May 2, Cordney attended a court hearing where he waived extradition – meaning he agreed to be transferred to Illinois to face charges for the warrant. At approximately 10 a.m. on May 2, a corrections officer brought him back to his cell on the 8th floor, which also includes solitary confinement, said Justice Center Director Herbert Bernsen. Cordney was not in solitary confinement but was alone in the cell, Bernsen said.
At 10:32 a.m., Corrections Officer Danielle Smooth found him “faintly breathing” on the ground with a brown towel wrapped around his neck, according to the report. Medical personnel were not able to revive him.
Medical examiner Mary Case completed her autopsy report on June 7, she told The American, and declared that it was a “hanging.” The towel cut off the circulation of the blood to the brain, she said.
However, Bernsen told The American that it was not a hanging because there was no place he could have hung the towel – and he was found on the floor. It appeared that he strangled himself with the towel, which all inmates are given, Bernsen said.
“We have taken measures to reduce the possibilities to attach anything to hang,” he said. “We’ve changed all the vents so you cannot fasten anything to them. We’ve removed all the shelves so people can’t hang from shelves.”
The American questioned Case again about her conclusion and she said, “That was not the information I was given.”
She also said that if he strangled himself, there would have been marks on his neck.
“There were no marks,” she said.
Smith of Clayton Police said that the towel was wet, which would have helped him tighten the towel.
“He may have pulled at both ends around his neck,” Smith said.
Christmas said that would be highly unlikely, because Cordney would have passed out before the situation became fatal.
Correction officers who responded stated that the towel around his neck was “difficult to remove,” according to the report.
Case also found small contusions or bruises on the back of his head, as well as on the right temporal lobe, according to the report.
“She believed those contusions may have been the result of [Cordney] falling to the floor and striking his head once he became unconscious from the lack of oxygen circulating to his brain,” the report stated.
Bernsen said there are no video cameras in the area where Cordney was being held, and few cameras in the facility are meant for recording. Most are for security guards to view who is coming into an area before granted permission, he said.
Smith said that there were no inmates who could have seen him because the only way to look into his cell is through a window. Police interviewed one inmate who heard Cordney “making unusual statements” on the way to his court hearing, Smith said, and a corrections officer heard the remarks as well.
According to the report, Cordney did not want to leave his cell for the hearing because he wanted to “speak with God.” He also made statements such as “God is with us” before being placed back in his cell.
Christmas said that those statements could have meant that Cordney simply wanted to pray, not commit suicide.
When he arrived at the Justice Center on April 30, nurses assessed that he did not have a history of mental illness and he refused psychiatric care. He has no history of suicide cautions in his previous incarcerations, the report stated.
Both Smith and Bernsen said they had no knowledge of any altercation between Cordney and the guards.
However, after Cordney’s death, the family received a phone message from an inmate who said that Cordney did have a confrontation with a guard over a cigarette. Christmas said that he has not been able to get in touch with the 20-year-old since he left the message. The message also said that the incident occurred on the fourth floor, and Cordney was then moved to the eighth floor into solitary confinement.
The American also reached out to the man and has not received a response.
Both Smith and Bernsen said that there is no record of Cordney being on the fourth floor. Bernsen said that he was put into a cell on the eighth floor 12 hours after arrived at the justice center and remained there.
However, Christmas asked, “Why would he be sent directly to the 8th floor when he arrived?”
After The American’s reporting had uncovered the discrepancy between the medical examiner’s and the corrections director’s respective explanations of Buck’s death, the Clayton Police Department amended its investigative report and sent the new version to The American. The new version stated that “based on the entire investigative report and other information she received today,” the medical examiner “amended the Cause of Death to read: Neck Compression by Cloth Ligature (towel). The manner of death remains a suicide.”
Grieving family
“He was a father,” said Brandi Beaver, Buck’s sister, at the June 14 press conference. “He had two kids. His kids were his world. There is no way he would leave them.”
Beaver said that Buck was the glue that held the family together, and suicide was out of character for him. Beaver remembers the day that her mother received the phone call from Bernsen while she was at work.
“She was barely making it through the tears to tell me,” she said. “One of her co-workers had to take the phone and tell me what happened. This was the hardest day of my life.”
Cynthia said that receiving the news via phone was “extremely impersonal.”
“I find it downright unacceptable,” she said. “If I had been driving when I received the call, I may have had an accident.”
Bernsen said that he relayed his regret to Cynthia that her son died in their custody.
“I know it’s not ideal, but my concern is that I don’t want the family to find out from another source, like an inmate or media,” he said. “I’m willing to try to work out a solution that would be better – that would be timely and in person.”
The family also didn’t understand why they could not see Cordney’s body until almost two weeks after he died.
Bernsen said when there is an investigation, the body goes straight to the medical examiner. It would be difficult for the facility to arrange security for the family to view the body before that happens, he said. The medical examiner’s office is not a viewing facility, Case said. Even if they need someone to identify a body, then they only show the deceased on a monitor, not in person.
Christmas said he plans to meet with the family about the report’s finding.
“Something just doesn’t add up,” he said.
Follow this reporter on Twitter @RebeccaRivas.
