Details of deaths in MCSO custody remain elusive

The Marion County Jail is shown at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has provided, unprompted, records of three cases of deaths in custody at the Marion County Jail that are under active investigation.

However, within each of the three Death in Custody Questionnaires, every piece of information is redacted. This includes the decedent’s name, gender, race, ethnicity, birth year, date and time of death, location of death, type of facility where the death occurred, department or agency detaining the deceased, and the manner and circumstances of death.

All three deaths are being investigated by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail’s operation.

In the reports, discrepancies between records provided by the MCSO and the state have been noted. The “Gazette” has made the same records requests to the MCSO and the FDLE, records provided by the two agencies has differed.

In January, the “Gazette” received seven Death in Custody Reporting Act records from FDLE, in response to a request for all DCRA reports the state received from MCSO over the past five years.

When the “Gazette” requested from MCSO all the DCRA reports it had filed with the state, the agency provided 28 reports. Missing were DCRA reports on the deaths of Corey Merchant, who died at the hands of another inmate at the Marion County Jail; and for Patrick Wolfgang, who died before being transported to the jail.

The “Gazette” asked the Fifth Circuit State Attorney’s Office which cases of deaths in custody it had investigated since 2021, from every law enforcement agency within Marion County. The State Attorney’s Office answered staff has investigated the deaths of Scott Whitley, Dennis Digenova and Patrick Wolfgang.

Wolfgang was arrested by MCSO and died in the back of a MCSO vehicle while being transported to the hospital, according to the reports obtained from the State Attorney’s Office.

Corey Merchant died in custody days after a violent altercation with another inmate in the Gulf Pod of the Marion County Jail. No DCRA report was filed to FDLE for Merchant’s death, as MCSO said it did not classify Merchant as “in custody” at the time of his death.

“I was advised that Merchant was out of custody when he passed so he is not considered an inmate death. Therefore, there is no report,” wrote MCSO records specialist Taylor Gonzalez.

According to MCSO’s policy on news media relations, deaths in custody are considered a “newsworthy situation,” which would immediate notification of the agency’s public relations officer. Of the 30 deaths in custody since 2021, MCSO’s public information team has only notified the “Gazette” of two of those deaths in custody.