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What Investigators Did And Did Not Do To "Fix" Megan Rondini's Rape Case For "Sweet T"
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on August 8, 2017
Posted: 10:19 a.m. CST
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on August 8, 2017
Posted: 10:19 a.m. CST
Last night, I published the unedited July 2, 2015, audiotaped police "interrogation" of Terry Jackson "Sweet T" Jackson, Jr., who is the man Megan Rondini accused of raping her. For the first time ever, the public heard Sweet T's defense against Megan's rape charge in his own cold, detached, and self-centered words.
The Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Department has claimed that it conducted a full, complete, and objective investigation in Megan's rape case. The undisputed and overwhelming evidence to date flatly contradicts this false claim.
Sheriff Ron Abernathy, who is a friend and political beneficiary of the powerful and influential Bunn family, ordered investigators to "script" Megan's rape case. As a result, investigators performed the bare minimum work necessary to open and close a "Special Inquiry" incident report. Additionally, they afforded Sweet T special treatment that is not accorded to ordinary felony suspects.
This is what investigators did and did not do to "fix" Megan's rape case for the benefit of Sweet T:
1. They failed to secure and freeze the crime scene on their first visit to Sweet T's residence.
2. They allowed Sweet T a two-hour window of opportunity to hide, alter, and/or destroy evidence at the scene after he knew they were conducting a rape investigation in a case where he was the designated "suspect".
3. They gave Sweet T a two-hour window of opportunity at the scene to coordinate and collaborate his storyline with close friend and fellow witness, Jason Barksdale. Jason was with Sweet T when he picked up Megan outside of Innisfree Irish Pub. Barksdale remained in the company of Megan and Sweet T for the rest of the night.
4. They cuddled Sweet T during his tape-recorded "interrogation" at the scene, and even laughed with him while asking questions. They never grilled him with tough questions.
5. They kept the interview short (i.e., 6 minutes and 32 seconds) to minimize any inconvenience to the rape suspect.
6. They did not confront Sweet T about the glaring inconsistency between his first version of the events (i.e., he had not brought Megan to his house) and his tape-recorded version (i.e., he brought Megan home and they had "consensual sex"). In fact, this contradiction was never mentioned in the tape-recorded "interrogation" at the scene.
7. On July 6th, they supplied the Sweet T with a suggested answer for the inconsistency between his first statement that he did not bring Megan to his house and his second statement in which he acknowledged bringing her home to have "consensual sex".
8. They afforded Sweet T a five-day 4th of July holiday weekend with his lawyer to get his "scripted" storyline straight.
9. They did not test Megan's rape exam kit or her urine sample even though her account of the sexually encounter strongly suggested a drug-facilitated rape.
10. When investigators visited Megan's apartment after her interview, they did not collect or test the three drink glasses located on the kitchen counter for the presence of finger prints or a "date rape" drug. Remember, Sweet T acknowledged that he and Jason Barksdale had drinks at Megan's apartment, but he was evasive on whether Megan had a drink. There were three glasses on the counter, not two. Megan had no recollection of being at her apartment with Sweet and Barksdale. Yet, Sweet T said she was "outgoing", "friendly", and "flirtatious". According to Sweet T, Megan wanted to go to his house to have sex with him.
11. They did not conduct any type of investigation to determine whether Sweet T had used a "date rape" drug on Megan after he admitted to having unprotected sex with a total stranger that he met only an hour or two before the sex act.
12. They conducted no investigation to determine whether Sweet T had any connections to Tuscaloosa's thriving "date rape" drug trafficking trade.
13. They did not asked Megan for a hair sample for forensic testing. They did not ask her to allow them to obtain and test fluids from the vitreous humor area of her eyes and tear ducts to see if these fluids contained trace amounts of the "date rape" drug known as GHB.
14. They did not ask Sweet T any questions about the other reported rape cases where he was designated as the "suspect" and "date rape" drugs were suspected.
15. They supplied Sweet T with an answer for the inconsistency between his first statement that he did not bring Megan to his house and his second statement that he brought her home to have "consensual sex" with her. Sweet T adopted this answer and made it his own.
16. They transformed Megan from the "victim" of a reported rape into a Mirandized "criminal suspect" for acts Megan took in escaping the scene of the alleged crime.
17. After Megan's February 26, 2016, suicide, the Sheriff's Department, along with District Attorney Lyn Head, presented the "scripted" version of Megan's rape case to a local grand jury as a prophylactic measure to protect themselves in the event they became the subjects of an investigation into their misconduct in "fixing" this rape case for Sweet T.
18. In clearing Sweet T of Megan's rape charge, investigator Josh Hastings pointedly told this rape suspect: "The way I look at, man, if it was me on the other side of it, I would want you to do the same for me." These are the code words for a law enforcement "fix" in a criminal case.
The investigators and district attorney truly thought the real truth in Megan's rape case had died with her. They were wrong.
Justice has been delayed in Megan Rondini's rape case by law enforcement obstructionism and prosecutorial misconduct, but it will not be denied.
The public is thirsty for criminal justice in Megan Rondini's case. Some people have to go to jail for what they did to Megan.
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