A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office sergeant deemed the arrest of a heart transplant recipient for a low-level misdemeanor as not “the strongest,” yet advised against reversing it, internal investigation documents show. Days after his release without crucial medication, the man died when his body rejected his heart.
The Sheriff’s Office cleared the arresting officer, but the investigation also showed the officer had called his supervising sergeant to ask if he could defer arresting Dexter Barry until the State Attorney’s Office had a chance to weigh in.
The sergeant, R. A. Goldstein., told Officer Jacob McKeon that since he had already handcuffed Barry, he shouldn’t reverse the decision, even if Barry had a heart condition.
This stance was taken despite Goldstein later acknowledging the arrest’s shaky grounds. Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and current law professor, disagreed with such inflexibility. Officers, he said, need to be able to take in new information and adjust accordingly.
“There is no magic ‘point of no return’,” Stoughton said. “An officer who has made an initial decision to effect a custodial arrest can legally continue the arrest process or change their mind and find a different way to resolve the situation.”
McKeon arrested Barry on Nov. 18, 2022, after Barry’s neighbor called 911 to report the men got into an argument about Wi-Fi access. A fight never occurred, but Barry was arrested on a simple assault charge after he admitted he told his neighbor “don’t make me f— you up” if he didn’t get off or pay for their shared Wi-Fi.
Barry spent 57 hours in JSO’s care and was released on Nov. 20. He died three days later after he collapsed in his living room. A private autopsy ordered by his family determined he died of a cardiac arrest after his body rejected his heart. Records confirm Barry never received his life-sustaining anti-rejection medication when he was jailed.
JSO opened an internal investigation into the arrest on May 15, 2023, as a result of The Tributary’s earlier reporting. Investigators interviewed McKeon and his supervisor, Sgt. Goldstein, in June last year. McKeon resigned seven days later, though he said it wasn’t because of this arrest.
About four minutes into his conversation with Barry, McKeon cuffed the 54-year-old and told him, “You’re being detained. You’re not being arrested.” Soon after, he added, “At this point in time, I do not believe you’re going to jail.”
McKeon then asked Barry if he had any disabilities in the event that he does go to jail. Barry told him he had a heart transplant and bad vision. About 11 minutes after his initial contact with Barry, McKeon told him that he was actually arresting Barry. The body camera footage doesn’t explain why McKeon changed his mind.
The conversation between McKeon and the neighbor is redacted, but according to the 911 call the neighbor made, he reported that “my life has been threatened by somebody who lives, like, three doors down from me, and I need an officer out here immediately.”
Once he knew he was going to jail, Barry told McKeon at least seven times that he had a transplanted heart and that he needed anti-rejection medications.
Barry was confused about why he was being arrested since no violence occurred. McKeon told him a verbal threat qualified as simple assault, and McKeon said he feared the men would fight later if Barry stayed. Barry promised he didn’t plan to hurt the man and said he would take his medications and stay somewhere else for the night, but McKeon declined.
McKeon made four phone calls after the arrest, two to unknown recipients. The other two were to Sgt. R.A. Goldstein.
Goldstein told investigators he couldn’t recall details about the calls, but he remembered the arrest “was not the strongest arrest.” Still, he told McKeon that “a criminal offense had been committed.”
He said the initial phone call with McKeon centered around the officer’s belief that future violence between Barry and his neighbor was possible. Therefore, Goldstein supported the arrest.
The final phone call, Goldstein said, was about Barry’s medical condition. McKeon asked if he could issue a State Attorney’s Office card to the neighbor, which would have meant that instead of arresting Barry, the state attorney would’ve followed up with the neighbor to determine if charges should be filed.
Goldstein said he thinks he told McKeon that since he already made the decision to arrest Barry, it would have been improper to unarrest him. Goldstein told McKeon to make sure personnel at the jail were aware of Barry’s needs.
Stoughton, the former Tallahassee police officer who is now a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said there is “nothing inappropriate or unethical about ‘unarresting’ an individual on a non-violent misdemeanor charge.”
When an arrest for a low-level arrest can create more problems than it solves – like an arrestee being a caretaker or having medical issues – it’s not uncommon for officers to “unarrest” someone, Soughton said.
According to body camera footage worn by a different officer, McKeon is overheard at the jail telling staff about Barry’s medication.
The internal affairs investigation determined that McKeon and Goldstein acted appropriately, determining that Barry’s heart condition didn’t exempt him from the misdemeanor arrest.
The department forwarded the investigation to the JSO liaison with Armor Correctional Health Services to investigate what happened to Barry in the jail and if there were any issues obtaining the anti-rejection medication before Barry’s release.
Whether or not Armor did its own investigation is unknown. Any response to JSO by the company was not included in the internal affairs investigative file, and record requests filed with the company have yet to be fulfilled.
However, records from the jail show that Barry’s medications were ordered, but not received before he left the jail.
A spokesperson from the for-profit company said last year that Barry was evaluated by medical staff within eight hours of his arrival. The statement also said that the anti-rejection medication “was ordered and takes 48 hours at a minimum to be located and an additional 8-12 hours to be received by the jail and then administered. By the time that highly specialized medication was available, the individual was released from custody.”
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters ended the contract with Armor Health in September and signed a new contract with NaphCare, another private, for-profit company.
