Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Inside The OIG Interview: The Warden's Statement Detailing The Death Of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 20) (4/21/26)

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Inside The OIG Interview: The Warden's Statement Detailing The Death Of Jeffrey Epstein (Part 20) (4/21/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're getting right back to
• 0:06
  the warden from mcc and his interview with the olig inspectors. Question, now,
• 0:13
  was that did they ever did the facilities manager, captain
• 0:16
  whomever ever explain to you how bad the system was
• 0:20
  and that it kept on shutting down and stopping, you know,
• 0:23
  cameras weren't recording. Answer. I mean, we would have had
• 0:26
  incidents where, you know, something would happen and we tried
• 0:29
  to go back and find the tape and we couldn't,
• 0:32
  so it would break down. They would fix it. So,
• 0:35
  I mean we did have issues like that before, but
• 0:37
  it was the age of the cameras. You know, we
• 0:41
  had infrastructure issues. Question because, yeah, the contact claims that,
• 0:45
  you know, like he had been I mean he's a
• 0:48
  very soft spoken person, but like basically screaming at the
• 0:52
  top of his lungs as much as a very soft
• 0:54
  spoken person can. We need to fix these things. This
• 0:58
  is a continual problem. Answer. So here is what it is.
• 1:01
  We don't have the money readily available at an institution
• 1:04
  to fix it. That money comes from what we call
• 1:07
  buildings and funds, which is funded by Congress, so you
• 1:11
  would have to talk to somebody in the region about
• 1:13
  what the regional budget is. But other institutions have issues
• 1:17
  going on. Question. But being that we have all these
• 1:21
  cameras already on site and they had already done the
• 1:24
  wiring for you know, at least six months prior to that. Answer, well,
• 1:28
  not all the wiring. He gets cut off by the investigator. No, No,
• 1:34
  I'm just saying like that. I'm just trying to get
• 1:36
  a fuel for what the plan here and who was responsible? Answer? Well,
• 1:41
  the plan was to get the manpower to get it installed.
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  But at the time we only had one person, which
• 1:46
  was redacted, So one person can't right. But even the
• 1:51
  TDY staff came, they did help, you know. But then
• 1:55
  we also had other TDY staff that were coming in
• 1:58
  for because of our having issues. Question. Well, that's what
• 2:03
  redacted told us, that the TDY staff that was assigned
• 2:06
  for him, sometimes we're getting put on custody posts. Do
• 2:10
  you know if that is accurate or not? Answer? We
• 2:13
  might have had to do it a time or two
• 2:15
  because we wanted the staff. Question and whose responsibility were
• 2:19
  the cameras to make sure that those things were going
• 2:22
  to be operational and working properly. Answer, well, it's not
• 2:26
  a matter of who is responsible. It's like working on
• 2:29
  getting it installed. So there was no deadline as far
• 2:33
  as you know, okay, when they had to be up,
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  you know, they just had to be installed. Question Okay,
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  because we were told that the cameras are the captain's baby,
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  is that accurate? Answer? No, No, it's not, Hayes, that
• 2:45
  can't be true. Captains don't know how to install that question. No, No,
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  not to install them, but to make sure that they're
• 2:53
  operational and to get the right people to actually get
• 2:56
  it done. Hayes, that can't be right either, because how
• 3:02
  the fuck would you know who the right people are?
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  Question because we were told is that this is constantly happening,
• 3:10
  whereas the cameras would stop working and then nothing would
• 3:13
  be recorded. The only way you can find out what's
• 3:16
  happening is to physically check the DVR recording to see
• 3:19
  if there has a light on it, or if you
• 3:21
  try to attempt to rewind and you're unable to because
• 3:25
  everything is still live monitored feed showing, so you can't
• 3:28
  tell just by looking at the cameras. It's only when
• 3:30
  you try to rewind them that you can say, oh
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  my gosh, they're not recording, answer right, But that it
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  wasn't just as simple as that. I mean, there were
• 3:39
  technical aspects of it that you had to check to
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  see if the cameras are working or not. Question oh absolutely,
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  answer right, and the captain basically looking to see if okay,
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  is the screen up and then is it recording. But
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  there were some instances where the hard drives weren't working,
• 3:58
  and you don't know that until you get deep into
• 4:00
  into the system. So I wouldn't know, like the fact
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  that the only way that we would know if the
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  hard drives were not working is by going in to
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  check the video, and the video there is no videos
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  that they can pull back. That's when they know that
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  the hard drive stop recording, stop recording, and then and
• 4:19
  then look at them. But then this is you know,
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  there was other technical aspects of that. You know, Hayes
• 4:29
  jumps in again, I can't imagine that the captain would know.
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  I sure Azelle wouldn't question. So I guess knowing though
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  that this was like a reoccurring problem and that the
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  fact that well, what we didn't say is it seems
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  it appears that the cameras actually stop recording all the
• 4:45
  way back in July and for half of the institution.
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  Who should have made sure that the camera system was
• 4:51
  replaced and that we had operational camera systems in there?
• 4:55
  Answer well, the centralized area. And I don't know where
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  the breakdown was. So if it centralized area, then it
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  would be, you know, within our facility department. They have
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  access to it. Question well, the camera you're asking where
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  the cameras are? Answer no, no, the com room. Question yeah,
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  the com room where these recorders were. We're all in
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  the SIS secured area. Answer by the word and right,
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  the actual cameras. But where if you go out where
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  and I don't know the word, what's the word? Where
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  your centralized main area is for the whole system. Yeah,
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  that SIS area has the cameras. Question not the control room,
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  but it's the back around where it's a locked door
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  within the SIS lock room where the actual DVR recording
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  and rack is and everything. Question Yeah, yeah, that's is
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  that what you're talking about? Answer that? But there is
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  also another should be another area in the institution just
• 5:54
  for the communications where everything comes into. So I don't
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  know if that was back there or whatever. But our
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  Facilities department. You know, their communication guys check that if
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  there is something intricate with it. Question now, so, was
• 6:08
  either mister redacted or mister adacted? How do you pronounce
• 6:11
  his name? Redacted? Was redacted? Or a captain redacted? Were
• 6:15
  either of them expressing the need to you at all,
• 6:18
  to hey, we need to get these things fixed. Answer?
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  I mean the request had been sent up. Question yeah? Yeah,
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  answer so yeah. Question and these were all on site.
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  Answer right, so yeah, I mean we were going through
• 6:32
  the process of getting the system up and running. Answer,
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  But there was no set schedule for when it was
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  actually going to be completed. Answer no, because we had
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  to tdy people. Sometimes we got them in, sometimes we
• 6:46
  couldn't get them in. And then towards the end, you know,
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  boil down the money with getting people in to come
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  fix them. Question and when the people are TDY do
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  you when you say boiled down the money, does that
• 6:57
  come out of MCC's pot. Answer It comes out of
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  our budget. It comes out of budget, it comes out
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  of the region sometimes gives it plus on top of that,
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  we were for TDHY to come to our correctional post
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  because we were so short. Question all right, so what
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  would you say, is the main reason then that the
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  cameras were on site but not installed lack of manpower
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  and funding? Answer well, manpower to get it in and
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  then it kind of boiled down to funding, you know,
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  to keep TDY people to get it done. Hayes. But
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  do you have money you can really keep the TDY people.
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  You don't have money, you can't keep them, you know.
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  Question But again there was no one there that's actual
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  set schedule of it will be operational by the end
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  of this calendar year or anything like that. Answer no,
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  question that wasn't discussed. Answer that wasn't discussed. We were trying,
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  you know, doing the best we can with the hand
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  that we were held. Question okay, and Monday morning quarterbacking
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  that should it been discussed or planned ahead that these
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  cameras be installed? Answer what I don't understand the question.
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  Question well, being that there is, it would seem that
• 8:10
  there was potentially around two weeks and no cameras and
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  in the shoe no cameras aside from the one outside
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  of ten South. Answer right, question that we're recording. But
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  it was according to the you know, according to the
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  facilities as well as the Contech they said it was
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  very well known that this continually happened, and that the
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  contact guy continually had to rebuild hard drives because they
• 8:33
  kept crapping out and not recording. Answer. I mean, it's
• 8:40
  an antiquated system. So when you go down, yeah, obviously
• 8:43
  you go fix it. But nobody knew until after the
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  fact that you you know that you had a system
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  that was out for two weeks, you know, I mean
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  you go to any other any other institution, the cameras
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  go down, and when the system breaks, somebody discovers it
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  and they fix it. But as far as getting the
• 8:59
  new system up, we were working on it. Question, Okay,
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  you want to follow up with any of that? The
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  next investigator pipes in. You mentioned no one knew, but
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  the problem was, according to the CONTEC, the system failed,
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  the motherboard had to be replaced. They had a failure,
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  and then, of course no one checked it until the
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  eighth August eighth, when the aw and the lieutenant went
• 9:22
  in and they tried to review video. Now, being that
• 9:25
  they identified the system wasn't working that day, how soon
• 9:29
  should it have been fixed? Answer? What do you mean
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  when they write this is two days before that? The
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  investigator pipes in that epstein was found. If they identified
• 9:42
  on the eighth that, hey, listen in, the camera isn't working,
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  it's technically not recording. How much of a priority is
• 9:49
  it to make sure that those cameras are up and
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  running immediately? Answer, it's a priority. So what happens is,
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  and we have run into this before, the part Sometimes
• 10:00
  the parts weren't readily available, so you have to go
• 10:03
  somewhere and call for parts. And depending on where it's at,
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  it could be in California or whatever. So you got
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  to see how long it takes to get that part. Question.
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  My understanding is that it was the hard drive that
• 10:15
  they needed, right, and the hard drive was sitting with
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  the computer service. The other investigator. Yeah, on the eighth
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  they weren't able to get it the warden, I don't
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  know question, And on the ninth they got it. But
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  then he claims that he wasn't able to gain access
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  to the room because it was an SIS shop and
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  he needed to go until later in the day and
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  they were gone. And on the tenth he gets cut
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  off by the warden. We have emergency keys to get
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  into any area of the institution. So if he's saying
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  he couldn't get into the SIS office. You got the captain.
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  You know, we got the text that working there. We've
• 10:52
  got their glasses behind what we call in control center,
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  behind the box. You know, we can get that box open.
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  So he said that the only way to be able
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  to get into it is if he broke the glass. Answer,
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  he can break the glass. Question it's okay that he
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  would have done that? And then should he have answer? Yeah,
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  if he couldn't reach you could just well he should
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  have gone to the captain or somebody and said, hey, cap,
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  I need to get into your SIS office. Question. Do
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  you think it's at all acceptable if new on August
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  Day that these cameras were down, that he didn't actually
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  start working on it, or at least I guess he
• 11:28
  was working on getting the parts but then got the
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  parts again on the sometime on the ninth, claims he
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  didn't work on it because he couldn't get into the office,
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  so he was going to work on it on the
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  tenth on that Saturday. So the question that I would
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  pose to you is did he notify anybody that he
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  couldn't get in there? Did he make any attempt to
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  contact the captain or anybody to say, hey, I need
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  to get into that office to get a part to
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  do it. Because if he had told the captain that,
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  the captain would have got the office open for him. Question. Yeah,
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  I agree with you. It's he says that the MCC
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  was a different so that any other BOP institution in
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  the country that would have happened. With his experience taught
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  him that at the MCC, basically it could wait until tomorrow. Warden.
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  So that's his opinion. But again I'm going to pose
• 12:19
  a question who did he bring the issue up to,
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  because my thing is, if you know it's an emergency
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  and it's a situation, to say this is the MCC
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  is a cop out question? And is it would that
• 12:32
  be classified as an emergency the warden? If the cameras
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  are down, yeah, question, that's an emergency, So Warden, let's
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  get them back. He should have gotten in there, and
• 12:47
  he knows he could have gotten into the room because
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  you can we can break if he said that stuff
• 12:52
  was sitting in there, whatever room he said it was
• 12:54
  in there, guess what, you can break the glass. You
• 12:56
  can break the glass after hours if you need to,
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  and it's an emergency to get in into the area. Question.
• 13:03
  So his claim is that he has rebuilt these things
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  so many times, and everyone knew that these cameras needed
• 13:10
  to be reinstalled, and he had been saying that they
• 13:13
  needed to be reinstalled, and now he's being looked at
• 13:15
  as the fall guy. The warden, I don't this is
• 13:21
  not an issue of being the fall guy. Question right, Warden.
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  So let's take every issue we just talked about. We
• 13:27
  talked about the camera project that we were working on.
• 13:30
  We were getting the people in there to work. So
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  now let's talk about the specific issue that you were
• 13:35
  talking about. He did not notify anybody to get into
• 13:37
  that room to get that part. That part was to
• 13:40
  fix the current system. It had nothing to do with
• 13:43
  this new system coming in. This is he's saying that
• 13:47
  this was a part that we needed to fix to
• 13:50
  get put in to deal with the current system. Now,
• 13:54
  what about the fact that Lieutenant Redacted as saying both
• 13:56
  she and the aw knew that the cameras were down
• 13:59
  on August Day. They told Redacted to fix them, and
• 14:02
  they also notified Lieutenant redacted, so that she not only
• 14:05
  notified the captain, but wrote a memo and provided it
• 14:09
  to them about the cameras being down on the eighth.
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  So at that point, what are the responsibilities of the
• 14:15
  captain and the aw Answer? So, what the captain does
• 14:19
  is he notifies facilities where redacted works for and says, hey,
• 14:23
  the cameras are broken, you need to fix them. Answer,
• 14:27
  so should the captain have on the ninth ensure that
• 14:29
  those things were fixed? Answer? Well, I don't know what
• 14:32
  conversation he had with facilities to say we are getting
• 14:35
  you know, was it being fixed or not? Question? Well,
• 14:41
  the ninth is a Friday, so the eighth is when
• 14:43
  we were told that he was told, informed and learned,
• 14:47
  So we have all Friday on the ninth to make
• 14:49
  sure it's done. On the tenth, unfortunately, is when we
• 14:53
  know the severity of the issue. The other investigator, but
• 14:56
  that's my point. You knew that, okay, you were made
• 14:58
  aware that the cameras needed to be fixed. Okay, So
• 15:01
  your answer, what you're saying is I couldn't get into
• 15:04
  a certain area. So but my question is should the
• 15:09
  A and W or the captain have followed up with
• 15:11
  that to make sure that it was actually being done?
• 15:14
  Answer to them, I don't know, you know, I don't
• 15:17
  want to make the assumption, because I don't know, there
• 15:19
  could have been some follow up. I don't want to
• 15:21
  speak on it, but you know, if he had told
• 15:23
  them something on the eighth, you know, I don't know
• 15:25
  the conversations that were taking place between them, like where
• 15:30
  is that? And what is he saying? Right now? I'm
• 15:33
  responding to what he is saying and to make sense question, Yeah, no,
• 15:37
  I would just think that, you know, being a captain
• 15:39
  or an A and W would be WHOA, the cameras
• 15:42
  are down in the institution, Well, let's make sure that
• 15:45
  those things are back up, so they would at least
• 15:47
  check back in on the ninth and say, hey, where
• 15:50
  are we on this thing? The warden. But then I
• 15:54
  don't know, you know what the conversation was. I don't
• 15:56
  know if on the ninth weredacted even came to work
• 16:00
  question right answer, I don't know. He could have said, oh, well,
• 16:03
  I'm not going so I don't know. I don't want
• 16:06
  to speculate on that part. Question. Yeah, yeah, no, that's
• 16:10
  what we're trying to tell you. We know he was
• 16:13
  there on the eighth, he couldn't get the parts. On
• 16:16
  the ninth, he got the parts, but then he said
• 16:18
  he tried to get into the SIS office and he
• 16:21
  was told by the lieutenant it wasn't an SIS tech
• 16:25
  because there were only two people there. It was somebody
• 16:28
  that monitored the telephones. I think he's now retired. Tay.
• 16:33
  Answer Tay, Yeah. Question. Tay was there and he said,
• 16:36
  I'm getting ready to leave and he can't come in
• 16:38
  here without me, And then he said I didn't have
• 16:41
  access to the room after that. So the plan was
• 16:44
  to come in on the tenth, the Saturday, because I
• 16:46
  was coming in anyway, and that's when I was going
• 16:48
  to work on it. Answer by the warden. He's the
• 16:52
  calm shop. He can go anywhere where there are computers. Question,
• 16:56
  So that is not an acceptable answer that he provided.
• 16:59
  Question or answer. I don't understand the answer. Question Okay answer.
• 17:04
  It's because that room is not in where the SIS
• 17:06
  shop is. That's the phone monitor room. That's the camera room,
• 17:10
  and the key for the camera room is now. I
• 17:12
  think it's only the SIS lieutenant and the SIA that
• 17:17
  has keys for it. Question and that's what the SIS
• 17:22
  office said. They said that he gets cut off by
• 17:25
  the warden. So the phone monitor is in the SIS,
• 17:28
  but he draws keys to get into that room. So
• 17:31
  the room is all and you can draw keys to
• 17:33
  get into the room. Investigator, When you draw keys, what
• 17:38
  do you mean? Answer? Well, you get them from control center,
• 17:41
  you know. Question Well, we were told by Lieutenant redacted
• 17:47
  the only way to get them is to break the glass,
• 17:50
  which could have done but gets cut off by the warden.
• 17:53
  You could have broken the glass and that time of
• 17:56
  eight o'clock, the captain is there. The security controls all
• 17:59
  the keys in the institution. Is there. You can go
• 18:03
  to them and say, hey, I need the key. Question now,
• 18:08
  did either of the captain or the A and W
• 18:10
  in form you of the issue? Answer? No, I don't
• 18:14
  recall anything about the issue. Question should they have? If
• 18:18
  it was a Thursday they found out and it was
• 18:21
  all you weren't here for that? Answer? I wasn't there
• 18:26
  on Friday. Question Okay, answer I wasn't there on Friday.
• 18:30
  Question you weren't even there on Friday? Yeah, so you know,
• 18:35
  he gets cut off by the investigator. So I'm sorry.
• 18:38
  Can you remind me who was acting in your stead
• 18:40
  on Friday? The warden? I believe it was redacted? I think.
• 18:46
  Question so you weren't even there? Answer? Yeah, question our
• 18:50
  understanding is I think Captain was in the institution too
• 18:53
  at about eight pm on Friday. Could redact it have
• 18:57
  been to any time during that period? Answer he could
• 19:00
  have been. I mean, just you can't if it's an
• 19:02
  emergency to get something for I don't understand. Yeah, question no,
• 19:10
  you can. You can get in there, so I don't know.
• 19:14
  Question right, especially in the shoe. Heyes, right, especially in
• 19:18
  the shoe. A right, folks, Wh're gonna wrap up right
• 19:20
  there and in the next episode dealing with the topic,
• 19:22
  we're gonna pick up where we left off. All the
• 19:25
  information that goes with this episode can be found in
• 19:28
  the description box.