(UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Sheriff Danny Dominguez of the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office in Texas. He clarified to me that he arrived at the Cibolo Creek Ranch at 1:35pm on February 13, 2016, not at 12:35pm as the “offense report” cited below indicates. This time makes sense in the chronology of events he describes and though it may be a minor point in the grand scheme of things it’s important that the historical record be accurate, particularly in cases like these.)
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia, died nearly two weeks ago (either Saturday February 12 or Sunday February 13) at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas. The “offense report” relating to Scalia’s death has just been released by the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office.
Read it here.
While the media has focused on the additional details in the report describing Scalia’s room and his position in bed, I noticed a strange inconsistecy in the earlier portion of the report.
According to the sheriff, he received two calls from the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office in Marfa, Texas. The first at 12:14pm on February 13 informing him that John Poindexter from the Cibolo Creek Ranch had called seeking the U.S. Marshall Service phone number. A second call to the sheriff at 12:35pm was again from the Sheriff’s office in Marfa, this time with Poindexter on the line, wanting to talk to the sheriff, which he did. Poindexter refused to give the name of the deceased so the sheriff got in touch with U.S. Marshall Ken Roberts who contacted Poindexter. “At approximately 12:50 P.M.” the sheriff called Roberts back, was told that Roberts and his agents were responding to the Cibolo Creek Ranch, and the sheriff stated he would meet them there.
Leaving right after this in his patrol vehicle, the sheriff also contacted his Chief Deputy Joel Nunez to contact “JP [justice of the peace] Bishop” who turned out to be out of town. The sheriff then contacted County Judge Guevara, asking “if she could do an Inquest”. She agreed and the sheriff told her that after arriving at the ranch he would advise her of the situation.
The very next line of the report reads: “At approximately 12:35 P.M. on 02-13-2016 I arrived at the Cibolo Creek Ranch and was met by Ranch manager George Vanetten.”
Since the sheriff first spoke to Poindexter at 12:35pm (at least according to the report), it doesn’t make sense chronologically that he could have also arrived at the ranch “at approximately 12:35 P.M.” I assume this is just a sloppy mistake, but at the very least it’s one that should be corrected for the sake of an accurate historical record.
(See Above)
Millions of Americans were surprised that no autopsy was conducted on Justice Scalia. Given the momentous judicial decisions facing the Supreme Court in the final year of President Barack Obama’s Administration, wanting to know the exact cause of Scalia’s death shouldn’t be dismissed as conspiratorial.
http://nypost.com/2016/02/15/detectives-question-lack-of-autopsy-in-scalia-death/
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/18/opinions/justice-scalia-no-autopsy-melinek/index.html