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Northern Neck Jail inmates say lack of medical treatment led to ailing podmate's suicide Date published: 1/5/2008
BY FRANK DELANO Until his suicide last month, James C. Landman, 68, was the oldest of the 26 inmates in one of the prisoner pods of the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw. He was also suffering from cancer. According to his friends and podmates, a lack of medical care at the jail contributed to Landman's death. "We called him 'Pops.' He was like a granddaddy to everybody. Everybody liked him. He was an old bartender, an Army veteran, a seafood dealer, a hustler. He didn't seem like a bad guy," said Joseph M. Powell Jr. of Colonial Beach. Powell, 41, has been jailed since April awaiting trial on five Westmoreland County felony charges. Landman arrived in the pod Aug. 19 after an auto accident in the county. The deputy who responded to the accident charged him with drunken driving. It was Landman's fourth DUI charge. The deputy also found a warrant for Landman's arrest issued in 1999. Back then, Landman had served almost a year in the jail for signing his father's name to another DUI ticket. When he got out, he failed to report to his probation officer to start a year of supervision and alcohol treatment. In September of this year, Landman was sentenced to six months in jail for violating the terms of his parole. He would have been released next month. Friends of Landman said that during his eight years on the run, he lived at various times with his family in Maryland, a brother in Arizona, a friend in Florida and friends in the Westmoreland fishing community of Chatham Village. "He was as good a guy as you could meet. He'd give you the shirt right off his back," said Lee Hundley of Chatham Village. 'he was in a lot of pain' Hundley said Landman loved Cadillacs, old cars and NASCAR races. When Landman was in Chatham Village, Hundley said that he worked at a transmission shop, as a painter and handyman and as a bartender at the Coles Point Tavern.
Date published: 1/5/2008
Mr. Landman made the choice to live the lifestyle that he did, and living that type of lifestyle, he put himself in jail. One should seek help in something else besides consumption of alcohol. It is a shame that this man lost his life this way, but maybe those who abuse alcohol and drugs can learn from this sad situation. With Mr. Landman having as many drunken driving convictions as he had, it would appear to a normal thinking person he had an alcohol abuse problem and also a disregard for the law problem.
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-10-07-0134.html
The man was in jail awaiting trail; in our society, our constitution provides that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Once the accused is found guilty, regardless of the crime, the person is due adequate health care. That's why it's called a jail & not a concentration camp.
They may be criminals but they are still human beings. Have a little compassion. No one deserves to be driven to the point of suicide.
...and isn't the least bit one-sided. I mean, they really bought into this whole story by the CRIMINALS but haven't waited for the investigation to conclude. Nice FLS.
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