[3][4], On January 12, 2004, 27-year-old Terrance Williams went missing in Naples, Florida. The plaintiff intended to ask for a new trial and continued to work on the lawsuit, even traveling to Cedar Rapids and taking Calkins' deposition on Dec. 8, after the arbitration decision was made. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, whose firm isrepresenting Terrance Williams family, said his team is pursuing other avenues for justice, including sharing information with the U.S. Department of Justice in hopes the agencywill open a federal investigation. Williams was Black. The lawsuit was sent to a neutral party or non-binding arbitration that found no evidence that incriminated Steve in Terrances disappearance, though the arbitrator found Steve uncooperative. After Calkins had the vehicle towed, he performed a warrants check on Williams, according to the lawsuit. Both men were declared dead after five years of being missing. The cases remain open investigations. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She was shot in the temple, and was braindead, removed from life support a week later. Calkins defended his misstatements to the operator, telling investigators that he was just "joking around" with a coworker. The inspiration to join the cause was after watching ID's "Disappearance." In 2004, witnesses believed that Calkins took Williams into custody, near a cemetery in Naples, Florida, but Calkins denied that. Deposition is one of those things where you use each one of your legal senses., More coverage: What to know about missing Collier men Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos. Only Johnny wasn't in bed. The only other person at the mansion was her brother in law. Williams' mother, Marcia Williams, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in 2018, Subscribe to the Public Safety newsletter. Feb. 28 marks five months since Hurricane Ian ripped through Southwest Florida, destroying lives, homes, and businesses. A wrongful death lawsuit against a former Collier County deputy returned to court Tuesday. Connect with her at jzeitlin@gannett.com or on Twitter @JanineZeitlin. Officer Steve Calkins also arrived. Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos: Missing or Found? Al Sharpton of the National Action Network and Ben Jealous of the NAACP also joined Perry in raising awareness of the case. He was last seen getting into the patrol car of former Collier County sheriff deputy Steve Calkins. All westbound lanes on State Road 82 are []. In 2018, Tyler Perry enlisted Ben Crump a civil rights attorney famous for representing families of Black victims of police violence to launch a wrongful death lawsuit against Calkins on behalf of Marcia Williams. "I remember flipping through channels one day and I came across this story and I was shocked and outraged at what I was seeing," Tyler Perry says on "Never Seen Again." Since civil lawsuits dont require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, its impossible to say whether O.J. During an internal investigation Calkins failed a polygraph test pertaining to contact with Terrance Williams and ultimately refused to cooperate . The case got further complicated when the Miami Mexican Consulate informed Marcia that a Mexican immigrant, named Felipe Santos, went missing in a similar fashion after he was arrested by Steve in October 2013. Thinking Johnny had overslept, his parents went to wake him. The judge on Tuesday denied the defenses motion for the case to be dropped. Two years later, in December 2020, Calkins was compelled as part of the civil suit to sit for a four-and-a-half-hour deposition, excerpts of which are included in the Paramount+ series "Never Seen Again." There have been no verifiedsightings of the men since, according to the Collier sheriffs office. He maintains a low profile and has refrained from making details of his private life as well as his current location public knowledge. This lawsuit is going to formally say what people for the last 14 years have been informally saying, that he intentionally murdered Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos.. He is married and has three children. Despite not calling in the stop, Calkins drove off with Williams in the back, and later returned alone with the mans keys to move the car. However, further investigation revealed that phone and surveillance records did not back up Calkins's story: there was no sign of Williams or Calkins on surveillance footage from the Circle K, and the phone records from Calkins's cell phone showed no call to the Circle K.[7] Circle K employees were interviewed, and no witnesses could be found to place Calkins or Williams there. No one pursued it and dude just dipped town. An incident caused the Habitat for Humanity retail store to close on Wednesday. But late in December, Crump did file a motion for the judge to reconsider the arbitration as the final judgment and asked for a new trial. The arbitration was unsealed and entered into judgment which translated to Steve being found not guilty and that Marcia would receive no damages on her claims. He was fired from the Collier County Sheriffs Office in late 2004 following an internal investigation that found he was deceptive in a polygraph and gave inconsistent statements about Williams disappearance. My God, its long overdue that he answers questions, Crump said, standing next to Terrance Williams mother, Marcia. Steve claimed that he had dropped him off and came back to check the glove compartment for the car papers but could not find them. What is equally surprising is that 50% were black men, women and children, so its a dynamic not known to many Americans, he said. Calkins has long been publicly quiet on the disappearances. The FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were looped into the investigation as investigators used various techniques, including placing a hidden GPS device in Stevens car as well as cadaver dogs. In separate incidents, both men were last seen after having been arrested by Deputy Steve Calkins, who claimed he had changed his mind about the arrests and dropped the men off at Circle K convenience stores. Marcia Williams appealedto aFlorida appellate court. He walks away a richer murderer. He stopped talking to Collier sheriffs investigators after he was fired in late 2004 following an internal investigation that found Calkins was deceptive in a polygraph and gave inconsistent statements. Other restrictions may apply. Steve was fired in 2004 on the grounds of being uncooperative with the investigation and providing conflicting statements. Calkins, a former Illinois farmer, was a seventeen-year veteran road deputy with a clean disciplinary record who had worked for the Sheriff's Office since 1987. [1] The disappearances were covered by multiple television shows, such as the Investigation Discovery series Disappeared. On the other hand, people from the cemetery witnessed him putting Williams in the back of his patrol car. Williams was never arrested or charged. Reporter covering state and federal courts. Not even shamed publically, because police withhold his identity. DecadentEx. He was last seen on a surveillance footage in the Var, and was never ever heard of again. And to this day Deputy Steve Calkins is a free man. What did you do? However, the investigating team did not find any foul play. For example, he said he didn't know Williams' last name but conducted a warrants check with Williams' full name and date of birth. This contradicts Calkins's earlier statement that he never knew Williams's last name or any other personal details. On January 12, 2004 Corporal Steven Calkins pulled off to the side of the road to investigate a white Cadillac that was having engine issues. "I went to the cemetery and I spoke with the workers there," recalls Marcia, "and they told me that a cop put him in the back of his cruiser and drove away with him.". Calkins had long been silent on the disappearances. Steve Calkins has reached the age of 67 at the current date, where his exact date of birth is still missing from the web. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. According to the Fort Myers Police Department, a pedestrian was transported as a trauma alert from the crash on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and French Street. Collier County EMS says they transported one person to the hospital with an abdominal injury. He told investigators several different stories about how he received the injury. u/mcwjdw33. He was named that because sketches of the victims would often be found near their bodies. But although he was fired and named as a person of interest, he refused to appear before a grand jury, was not charged with a crime and subsequently moved to Iowa, where the lawsuit says he currently lives. Mexican immigrant Felipe Santos had gone missing three months prior, after Calkins claimed he dropped him off at another Circle K, approximately four miles from the location where he claimed he dropped off Williams. Benjamin Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the family of Terrance Williams, said the legal filing was the culmination of more than a decade of investigative work with the cooperation of the Collier county sheriffs office, and would compel Calkins to explain his actions in a formal deposition. During this sworn testimony, Calkins explains not having taken Terrance Williams to jail with the memory that the young man "seemed like a really nice guy." In separate incidents, both men were last seen after having been arrested by Deputy Steve Calkins, who claimed he had "changed his mind" about the arrests and dropped the men off at Circle K convenience stores. The victims' families are being represented by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. And the last person Felipe was seen with was Deputy Steven Calkins. "They blew the telephones up," she recalls. His motion states his office changed filing practices during the coronavirus pandemic and the motion inadvertently wasn't filed by the deadline. pic.twitter.com/mJG0bJi6X2, FACTUAL OPINIONS OF DRED (@FACTUALOPINION0) May 11, 2021. The next morning, another Indigenous man named Rodney Naistus was found frozen to the ground near where Night was dropped off. Judge denies motion to dismiss lawsuit against former Collier County deputy, Incident prompts closure of Charlotte County Habitat for Humanity retail store, Last day to contribute to March to a Million Meals 2023, Teenage DeSoto County Fair shooting suspect to be tried as adult, March begins with sunny Wednesday, highs in the 80s, Sanibel shops damaged by Hurricane Ian, open at Bell Tower, Collier County deputies seek man connected to distraction theft suspects, Woman accused of killing Charlotte County deputy in DUI crash denied bond for second time, Deputies investigating deadly crash, unrelated shooting in Collier County, Deputies investigating shooting at Collier County Waffle House, Red Tide impacting Collier County beachgoers, Blood drive benefiting Lee County community at Fort Myers ice cream shop on Wednesday, Pedestrian trauma alerted in Lee County multi-vehicle crash, Suntex changing the Fort Myers Yacht Basin. The lawsuit gained national attention when it was filed because it involved Crump and actor and film director Tyler Perry, who commented on the case on social media and in People magazine, according to the Naples Daily News and other outlets.
