Blood Ambush (26 page)
Authors: Sheila Johnson
76
Since the time when Barbara Roberts had given her video deposition, before her criminal trial was even held, she had not been kept apprised of developments in the civil suit. It was, naturally, not at the forefront of her priorities, since her very life was on the line with a capital murder charge hanging over her head.
Since she was not present for the civil trial, and had no legal representation there, she was unaware of the jury’s verdict until another inmate at Tutwiler Prison informed her that she was now $15 million in debt. This came as a crushing blow to Barbara, who had not heard any news about the outcome of the suit until that time. She felt helpless and “out of the loop” when it came to her legal affairs. She could do nothing but wait until she was given whatever information that came her way.
Meanwhile, the civil trial had stirred up all sorts of emotions among the readers of the
Rome News-Tribune
who had followed the case so closely from the time of Darlene’s murder through Barbara’s trial and Schiess’s guilty plea. Feelings had run very high among the community, and large numbers of people could count Darlene, Vernon, and their family, friends, or coworkers among their acquaintances. It seemed everyone had an opinion on the case, and was more than ready to weigh in with thoughts on the outcome of the civil trial, as opposed to the criminal cases. The comments posted by readers following the online articles reflected the wide variety of those opinions.
Rome News-Tribune
who had followed the case so closely from the time of Darlene’s murder through Barbara’s trial and Schiess’s guilty plea. Feelings had run very high among the community, and large numbers of people could count Darlene, Vernon, and their family, friends, or coworkers among their acquaintances. It seemed everyone had an opinion on the case, and was more than ready to weigh in with thoughts on the outcome of the civil trial, as opposed to the criminal cases. The comments posted by readers following the online articles reflected the wide variety of those opinions.
The posting began shortly after the verdict was released, beginning with someone who obviously did not feel things were as they might have seemed.
If only Vernon Roberts getting $30 million was truly justice, the first post read. The writer went on to say that if true justice would have been done, both [Vernon and Schiess] would have been held responsible for such a tragedy, not just a mentally ill woman on disability. The writer pointed out that Schiess would be getting out of prison in less than a month, Vernon would be rich—were he able to collect on his judgment—and Barbara was in prison for life. Does this sound like justice? the writer asked.
The post went on to describe Vernon’s marriage to his fourth wife, only months after his third wife was murdered by his second wife, whom, the writer claimed, Vernon had been having an affair with. The writer said he had prayed for justice and would have to rely on God for the ultimate justice. When they meet Him on their judgment day, they will not be able to buy or charm their way out of HIS wrath!
A supporter from the opposition immediately fired back: The Roberts were my neighbors, and your comment sucks!
The post went on to say that Vernon would probably never see a dime of money, so he would likely never be a millionaire. And, as to his marriages, So what if he married again! So what how many times he has been married?
Barbara deserved every day she would be spending in prison, the writer said, and claimed Barbara was the mastermind of the whole plot. And to the writer of the previous post: You apparently are one of her relatives or someone Vernon jilted. Get a life.
Obviously, it did not occur to the writer that painting Vernon in the light of someone who had possibly “jilted” women might not necessarily be seen as a good character reference for him.
The following morning, another person posted a long opinion and an answer to the other comments that had been posted previously.
I see from your comments you don’t know what really happened, said the writer. Barbara was not mental, the writer said, she was evil, and had stalked Darlene for a long time.
Even her family would not back her, the post said, because she was so evil. It went on to say that when Irene Comeaux had learned of Darlene’s murder, she suffered a fatal heart attack because she knew Barbara had killed Darlene. No one from Barbara’s family had attended her murder trial: her family had her number.
Another post stated that Vernon was not having an affair with Barbara, and said the judgment was to be awarded both to Vernon and to Darlene’s two children, with Vernon receiving $15 million and Darlene’s son and daughter receiving $7 million each.
Vernon does not get it all, the writer said.
Claiming to be a relative of Darlene’s, the writer said that no amount of money could replace her, and that Darlene had asked her sister to please take care of Vernon if anything were to happen to her. And, the writer claimed, Darlene’s sister was the person who introduced Vernon to wife number four, and he did not know her until after Darlene had been murdered. And as for the money: Vernon doesn’t really need it, but Darlene’s children certainly do. Darlene would be pleased with the monetary judgment, the writer said, because it would insure that her children and grandchildren would be taken care of IF it ever comes through.
The next posting answered, Heard from Darlene’s co-workers that she was indeed a fine person, but they didn’t feel the same about Vernon.
It was true, the writer said, that Barbara’s family didn’t support her, but it was not true that they testified on behalf of Vernon at the trial. The writer was glad to hear that Darlene’s children had been awarded part of the settlement.
As badly as Vernon talks about her and her kids, I know he wouldn’t have been generous with them, the writer ended.
Another person wrote a very long post on behalf of Schiess, saying that they had prayed for justice and truth for three years: Dr. Robert Schiess is the kindest man I have ever known. He had spent his life dedicated to his patients and his family, and had paid on two occasions for his surgical staff to go to San Salvador to aid poverty-stricken children in need of care. He also cared for an elderly patient in his home because she had nowhere else to go, the writer claimed.
He is not a perfect man, but would never have hurt anyone.
According to the post, Schiess had just started to date Barbara when they were hit by an uninsured drunk driver, leaving him with a severe head injury and damaged legs. Barbara was also seriously injured, and the writer said that Schiess was horrified that she had no family who came to help her. He paid for Barbara’s recovery, which, like his own, was very long and painful, and was forced to close his medical practice.
He became severely depressed when all he had worked for was taken away by the accident.
The writer claimed Schiess had told them repeatedly that he cared for Barbara and only wanted for her to be okay. But it was the writer’s belief that Barbara was a sociopath who lied easily and frequently.
Robert Schiess was set up, the post stated. It went on to claim that Schiess had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, “his retirement,” on lawyers, who told the writer not to speak to the press, since they had already decided Schiess was guilty and would twist whatever was said in his support. Others who read the post doubted seriously that Schiess’s retirement was in jeopardy, since he had transferred nearly $2 million into a Swiss bank account.
We were repeatedly told, the writer said, that this was not about truth and justice but based on the law. The post went on to claim that Schiess had been told in both the criminal and civil cases that he should assert his Fifth Amendment rights.
The writer also said that evidence had been discovered and should have been used in the trials, but, allegedly, it had been misplaced and overlooked. Schiess had received an anonymous letter while he was jailed, seeming to have been written by someone who knew a great deal about the situation.
We appreciate the courage it took to write it, the post said, we were advised that the information could not be used.
In the civil trial, the writer continued, the jurors had only seen the shell of a man who had devoted his life to helping others. Schiess did not see what happened and did not know most of the details until the civil trial, the writer claimed; he had been lied to repeatedly by Barbara Roberts. What happened was horrible, the post ended; it had devastated so many lives, and ended Darlene’s.
We will continue to pray for truth, justice, and healing for all.
The posting of comments on the civil trial finally ended, a couple of days later, with one final statement:
Well, I have met Vernon before, and he reminds me of a snake oil salesman. I have never met anyone so full of himself.
The writer said that Vernon did not deserve one dime, and claimed he was a suspect in the murder until he “charmed his way out of it.” Vernon’s fourth wife had been riding around in Vernon’s Corvette three days after Darlene’s funeral, the writer claimed, and alleged that the woman had given up custody of her nine-year-old son to move to Florida with Vernon.
But you are right, the post ended, when Judgment Day comes you won’t be able to charm your way out of things then. I feel very sorry for the family, and I’m praying for them every day.
Even after the conclusion of the civil trial, it seemed that there was still a very high level of emotion involved on all sides of the case. Those strong feelings were not likely to change soon, not in a community where so many people knew so much about all of those involved in the case of Darlene Roberts’s murder. Years after its resolution, there will still be friends, relatives, and acquaintances of all the parties who will be ready to argue their opinions on who was guilty and who was not, who received due punishment and who did not, and who did or did not speak the truth ... if they spoke at all.
The only point that will never be argued by either side is this: Darlene Roberts, admired and respected by her coworkers and loved dearly by her friends and family, lost her life in a truly horrible manner, and she did absolutely nothing to deserve such a cruel, tragic end.
77
When Barbara Ann Roberts began her term in Tutwiler Prison for Women, she found herself in an institution named for the woman who was responsible for early prison reform and improvement in a state known for its harsh early correctional methods.
Julia Strudwick Tutwiler, born in 1841 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was a student in the first year of Vassar College when the school opened in 1861. After completing her education there, she then studied with professors of classical languages at Washington and Lee University. She studied abroad in France at the Sorbonne and at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses in Kaiserworth, Germany. When she returned to Alabama, she was on the faculty of the Tuscaloosa Female College, became the coprincipal of the Livingston Female Academy, and principal of the Alabama Normal College.
Tutwiler first gained nationwide attention when she exerted considerable pressure on the officials of the University of Alabama and got ten of her Livingston graduates admitted to the university, the first women to attend there. From that time on, she was often referred to as the “mother of coeducation in Alabama.”
Tutwiler’s influence also came to bear when she was instrumental in the establishment of the first Alabama Girls’ Industrial School (AGIS). Begun in October 1896, it eventually became the highly respected institution known now as the University of Montevallo.
One of Tutwiler’s top priorities, however, was her constant crusade for prison reform within the state. She lobbied incessantly to separate male and female prisoners and young juveniles from older “career” criminals. She also pressured state authorities for improvement of prison sanitation and for providing of religious and educational resources for prisoners. To the great benefit of young convicts in the state, she managed to bring a Boys’ Industrial School into being, and she succeeded in her efforts to get laws passed requiring prison inspections.
Julia Tutwiler died in 1916, and in tribute to her constant efforts to improve the lot of women in prison, the state named its first women’s facility—Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women—after her. Prior to that, an older version of the prison had existed with primarily female inmates, but the 1942 construction was the first institution built expressly for women prisoners.
The prison cost $350,000 to build using inmate labor, and it was intended to hold four hundred women prisoners in two cell blocks for white inmates and five for black inmates, with separate dining rooms. There was one notable fact to be reported: the prison’s first warden, a woman named Nell Farrar, headed an all-woman staff, which was the first time for such a staff in the nation.
These accomplishments were all well and good, but if Julia Strudwick Tutwiler could have seen the prison named after her when it neared meltdown at the start of the twenty-first century due to extreme overcrowding—with over a thousand prisoners in the facility built to house four hundred or less—she would have no doubt been bitterly disappointed.
78
In December 2002, U.S. District judge Myron Thompson, after a visit to the facility and a thorough review of the situation, declared that conditions in the prison violated the Constitution. Four months later, there were still 992 women housed in Tutwiler’s dorms, and little else had changed. There were unoccupied inmates standing around, lining the hallways. Others tried to sleep on their bunks, with the noise around them at times rising to levels that would make sleep impossible under most conditions.
Ill inmates were packed the hallway to the medical unit, lying on cots waiting and hoping for their turn at treatment. They were jammed into crowded classrooms and rehab sessions like sardines into a tin. A judge-ordered twelve-month drug-treatment program, similar to those in other state prisons, might or might not make it into existence; in the meantime, some inmates had to start breakfast at 3:40
A.M.
in order for everyone to be fed on time.
A.M.
in order for everyone to be fed on time.
There was no air-conditioning at the prison, and the inmates had to rely on fans when temperatures inside the buildings soared to the high eighties in the hot, humid central Alabama summers. There were holes worn through the floor tiles, and most of the exercise yard was a bare dirt surface. There were problems with the prison’s equally overcrowded population of roaches and spiders, whose only extermination threat came from the inmates, who stepped on them or swatted them at every opportunity.
It is a decrepit, dismal place,
a representative of the Southern Center for Human Rights reported.
a representative of the Southern Center for Human Rights reported.
The warden at that time even admitted that she could not see how the prison could continue to operate under such harsh conditions.
“We’re going to need some relief,” she said.
The following year, in 2004, a settlement was filed in the case that had been brought about by the federal lawsuit brought by inmates and ruled on by Judge Thompson, who had called the prison a “ticking time bonb” following his visit in December 2002.
Some media sources cheered the settlement, claiming that the state’s female inmates would soon have fewer insect infestations in the dorms, more fans and showers, and additional ice machines. But investigators from the Southern Center for Human Rights remained skeptical.
“The place is a dump and the changes being made by the lawsuit are minimal,” said one investigator, and an attorney for the Southern Center said the changes might improve conditions, but would certainly not make the prison a comfortable place to serve out a sentence.
The agreement called for the prison to be monitored for four years by a doctor, a mental-health expert, and attorneys and advocates from the Southern Center to be sure the prison was in compliance with the rules.
One of the primary points of the agreement was an effort to reduce the population at the prison, which would necessarily take place over a period of time. The medical issues addressed included the statement that
sick call shall not be conducted between midnight and 6
A.M.,
and when women entered the prison, they would have to be allowed to continue taking their prescription medications. It would be required that a licensed dentist be on staff, and he or she would provide dentures when necessary. Improved hepatitis treatment, infection control, and specialized care for the mentally ill population, the elderly, and the terminally ill patients would be required.
sick call shall not be conducted between midnight and 6
A.M.,
and when women entered the prison, they would have to be allowed to continue taking their prescription medications. It would be required that a licensed dentist be on staff, and he or she would provide dentures when necessary. Improved hepatitis treatment, infection control, and specialized care for the mentally ill population, the elderly, and the terminally ill patients would be required.
There were entire sections of the settlement that dealt with pest control, heat issues, and doubling the number of ice machines operated at the prison.
The investigator who called Tutwiler “a dump” remained very dubious about the amount of change that would eventually take place at the facility.
“Until Alabama passes genuine sentencing reform, the prison is going to continue being a warehouse,” the woman said. She believed that sentencing reform was a better answer and a more reliable means of correcting the problems caused by the overcrowding.
One of the inmates in Tutwiler might have agreed with the investigator, but the settlement had unfortunately come too late to give her any hope for improved conditions. The prisoner suffered from severe mental illness and had been often left alone and untreated. She committed suicide earlier in the year.
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