July 13, 2021 • 37 mins
A rocky relationship begins between the podcast and St Louis County PD. A twisty turny pursuit of Danyé's ex-girlfriend ends in surprise.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide or self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline to seven three eight two five or text the
(00:26):
Crisis text line at seven one seven four one. Previously
and after the uprising they feel like we don't appreciate
law enforcement here. Therefore, it has an adverse effect of
certain cops not being as dell asy when it comes
to straight up and down police work. Why the fund
(00:47):
are you grab like an animal? Lazy voices with the
heart and soul of the resistance. You can't talk about
fergus Man without talking about the law's voices. And that's
just a real that's just real, real talk. He wars
my clothes us. I'll leave out the door last night
because I was sitting kids. Do you know about what time?
(01:08):
That was about nine o'clock, carf, No, he didn't leave
in the clock. Does things as well? His calls that
we his calls that I found using the equasions and
the real motipucts that it probably was about was three
and a half hour time because when he was found.
So you're putting out roughly about four thirty am. Yes,
(01:40):
what you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict Officer Wilson. A young man
found hanging from a tree in October. His mom believes
some and murdered her son, targeting him. Don Ye became
(02:05):
an activist in the wake of the shooting death of
Michael Brown by a white police officer. That's why Melissa
mckinneons wants St. Louis County police to dig deeper to
her son's death. He was not suicidal. This is after
the uprising the death of Donye Dion Jones. You understand
(02:32):
where this would be problematic, right, I mean, well, what
is the concern exactly? Can you see where an officer
would be very troubled and concerned with being contacted on
a personal number by an out of state area code.
Why a reasonable person would not answer that someone call,
(02:53):
and then why a reasonable person would not necessarily text
that unknown number back? And then an officer would be
very concerned when two strangers show up at his door
on his day off on a holiday weekend without any warning.
This is Sergeant Benjamin Granda, the St. Louis County Police's
representative to the media. We're having a conversation about why
(03:15):
we approached the lead investigator in Dane's case, Detective Tim
at the Andrew at his home, which both he and
Sergeant Granda seemed to think was way out of bounds.
We wanted to be courteous because we hope to get
further comment from Granda about Dane's case. Andrew had a St.
Louis County p D squad car parked in his driveway,
so it's not like he was hiding that he was
(03:36):
a cop or that people couldn't see that a police
officer lived at that house. But anyway, there was also
there's there was a business card provided by Officer andrew
Er and that business card was to Sergeant Leslie F.
Williams at the St. Louis Airport, So the family was
unable to provide us, for instance, with the direct numbered
(03:58):
Officer Andrew. That doesn't make any sense to me. Andre
has been in that unit for years, He's got business cards.
I seriously question the validity of whatever that statement is.
It simply makes no sense. You know, I can't investigate
a suicide properly without having open lines of communication with
the family throughout the process. After notifications, you have to
(04:20):
do follow ups. If it happened, it could have been
an error. But I seriously question the validity of that
ever happening. Again. We've seen the business card, and for
the record, we did try contacting Detective Andre at his office,
and we not only left him a message on his
cell phone, but we texted him. Either way, we were
still eager to talk to him, so we pressed on
(04:42):
with the request through Sergeant Granda. What would we need
to do to work on, you know, doing doing an
interview in some form with officer and as a reasonable person,
would you think that Officer Andrew would be interested in
this after the way that he perceives he was tre
I don't see how he was mistreated. I we approached
(05:05):
and we said who we were, and we offered him
the opportunity to schedule an interview. I'm not sure this property,
and then we immediately left. There's a possibility, though, that
Officer Andrew might have said, Hey, this is an important story,
but I'm betting the family's giving you some bad information
and you're getting it wrong, and let me tell you,
you know, my version of this, but but I'm not
(05:25):
going to do it now. But let's schedule something right
and I will get back to you. But that didn't
happen like that. It was sort of an immediately antagonistic thing,
and I guess we were taken as you know, intruders.
I find it very inappropriate, and I'm not the affected officer,
and I don't know just this very conversation could be
going better that we're having right now. I am trying
(05:49):
to do my best to be patient and listen. We've
been to the ringer's law enforcement in this region. It
is a safety concern. But you know how you know
of this works like if we only get the side
of activists or certain people who may feel that uh there,
you know, there was not a full investigation done of
(06:11):
dony H Jones, and then we're not able to present
our listeners with the police officers, their personalities, their feelings,
what they experience, what they saw. Then what you've got
is you've got these three dimensional human beings that they
empathize with on one side, and you don't get the
three dimensional human beings on the other side. So I
don't want that, and I want to tell an accurate stories.
(06:32):
I'm very sorry that Officer Andrew was concerned about his
safety as a result of our visit. We didn't see
that coming. Maybe we just we don't see I don't
think we in my opinion, we don't come up as
intimidating guys that I understand it. The knock at the door,
I mean, I'd really like to set up a situation
where we could get his experience of investigating this well.
(06:55):
You talked too sides of the story. This is not
the police department against the family agree. This call happened
in June. Dane had died over eight months prior, and
the St. Louis County Police still hadn't released their final
report on his death. If it was such a slam
dunk case of suicide, it seems strange to us that
(07:17):
it would take so long to finish the paperwork. By
not finishing the final report, the bed sheet used as
ligature in Dania's death remained locked up as evidence and
could not be released to Melissa and her family for
independent testing. Remember back in episode one, when County p
D spokesman Sergeant Sean McGuire told us that though we
didn't have a good timeline on it. He figured it
(07:38):
would be a week to a month until the report
would be finished. That was six months prior to this call.
Almost every single week during that time period we made
a request of the records Department to see if the
report had been concluded. So, now that we had grand
on the phone, we asked him why it hadn't been
finished yet. I believe that our report will be conclude
(08:00):
it in the near future. Why is that still open?
It's been it's been seven and a half months. Our
detectives are very been associated. Mind called in January and
uh it was. We were told at the time that
it would be wrapped up within a couple of weeks.
So do you think this will be done by the
end of the summer or by the one year anniversary
in October? I don't know. It depends on the workload.
(08:24):
You know, if if they get called out in five
minutes to go work a new homicide or new shooting
or a new robbery, they have to stop what they're
doing and they have to go work that new case
the best that they can. Though, Granda insists that detectives
keep open lines of communication with families and people relevant
to their investigations, Andrew never reached out to Melissa or
(08:45):
any member of Danye's family to explain the DNA evidence
his investigation had turned up. He only made one other
attempt to reach out to Melissa, and what he actually
did was send two officers to her house to have
a conversation, which she dis ribes like this set. Yeah,
they said, we would like to tell to you alone.
(09:07):
You know, good will, I'm not gonna talk to you alone.
And I said that that won't happen. The families there
we have Anthony Shahid, My turn was on the phone.
She was like, so you all came over just to
sit in front of them and tell them exactly what
y'all told them the same day it happened. Why and
they were just sitting there at it. They wanted us
(09:27):
to say something, And the whole time we just sat
there like this, a room full of us just sitting
there looking at him like so, when once it got
awkwardly quiet, we said, crickets critis Well, I guess we're
gonna leave now. You heard from Anthony Shahid in episode one.
(09:49):
He is the activist who told us what great leaders
both Darren Seals and Melissa were in the movement. He
was at Melissa's house during this awkward meeting. It was
never being over there. I make that weight, but I
wanted to make sure I got the attorney on the phone.
But they came on in and to get right to it.
Small their research and all their investigations. This is what
(10:09):
they came up with. Don Yo, do you remember them
asking for like leads to why she was saying publicly
she thought it was homicide? I don't remember them then,
soil deep on there. Their stated purpose was to find
out what her allegations were all about that she was
making publicly. But what was your sense or memory of
like what they seemed to be there for on some bullshit.
(10:33):
That's the best way I can sum it up. They
were strictly there to to send a police department to actions.
They have done everything they possibly could. She was pissed.
Anthony remembers that the police basically came to defend their
conclusion that Donia had died by suicide. He also remembers
that Melissa emphasized to them that she wanted the bed
sheet that DNA was hanged with, She wanted his possession,
(10:58):
and she wanted that sheet was one of the main things.
If I can't remember none, now that she wants the
sheet in that meeting in the house, do you remember
her saying that to them? Or yea, she wants that sheet.
We told Granda we were aware of the excessive force
lawsuit against Detective Andrewer. It may not shock you that
(11:18):
we've googled officer andre Er, so we're aware that an
excessive forced civil suit was put against him by a
state rep because of the events that happened at a
mobile gas station in December. Now that suit began in
the body cam audio of that came out month after
Danye's death. What action, if any, or what look at
(11:40):
the appropriateness of the comments that Officer Andrew made were
conducted once that suit was filed as of Oh, it's
it's our policy that we don't talk on pending litigation.
I heard it was just settled. Is there any chance
we could talk in a week if that turns out
to be the case. I'm not sure, okay, because I mean,
(12:04):
if there are suspicions about an investigation, obviously some of
the words that were spoken on the on the body cam,
we would love to give Officer and or a chance
to kind of explain who he really is and not
let audio from a body cam speak on his behalf.
So is this now evolving into a piece against a
(12:25):
single individual, not at all? But you you surely you
would agree that if the family says they don't feel
that there was an investigation that looks seriously at the
alternate possibility that this was a homicide. And one of
the lead detectives his officer Andrew, and the only thing,
well we we know he was given, I believe, a
(12:46):
medal as a hero. This is true. Before he was
a detective. Officer, andre r was given the Life Saving
Award by the Chief of Police. While the specifics of
the incident aren't available, the award is given to an
officer who performs a life saving measure where valor's circumstances
do not exist and the victims survived. The year before
(13:08):
that in officer Andrew also got the Chiefs Commendation awarded
by Police Chief Tim Fitch, and though we had no
way to know it at the time of this conversation
with Granda, before the end of yet another police chief,
the outgoing John Belmar, would award er another Chiefs Commendation.
So Yeah, Detective Andre has got some accolades on his
(13:30):
record and whatever else one could say about him, his
police chiefs certainly seemed to think he was there kind
of guy. Um, so we know there was that. The
other thing that we basically know is that his audio
was caught in body cam audio circuit December, and then
it came out via this excessive course suits. So those
are like two facts leading two very different directions. But
(13:54):
it's impossible to look at what was a thorough investigation
done into the possibility of homicide here or a ventually
forced to at least get an answer as to the
contact for those statements and the context for the career.
So we're trying to get the full story. Well, it
seems that's been working on this story for some time
and it's only hit our radar in the very very
(14:15):
recent past. So it seems to me like this story
has already been written. Oh that's what it seems to me.
How many local media stories have you seen on this,
I asked, because our local media ran it for a day.
In fact, one of them I think did it too
when Mom did a press conference of it, had a
few conversations told them about the facts and circumstances, and
(14:40):
it's been radio silence since. Regardless of what is put
out on social media, the reputation of our department, of
our investigators in the Medical Examiner's Office means something around here.
Not Twitter doesn't understand all that. But there's a reason
that that hasn't been at the ten o'clock news every night.
Can you try to look through this from my perspective,
(15:02):
if you've been working on this since last year. In
my mind, this story was written before you came here,
well before you knocked on that door, well before this
conversation that we're having. Our relationship with St. Louis County
Police would never improve from here. We would never be
granted an interview with Andrew and maybe that's on us,
(15:24):
but we made the effort repeatedly. Something that Granda wanted
us to take away was that relations between St. Louis
County p D and the citizens of St. Louis County
were not nearly as bad as perhaps outsiders might expect.
In a nutshell, we went through a very challenging time,
we got through it, and we emerged better on the
(15:45):
on the other side, where we're perfect in details and
fourteen no are we perfect today, No, but I think
we're a lot better. There's not from what I have seen,
this big confrontational relationship between us and the people that
we serve. You might be shocked that, if you get
off social media and you just walk around in a
(16:06):
police uniform, how supportive people are, even in areas that
you wouldn't think. We've got great relationships with many people
of all socioeconomic backgrounds to live in all kinds of hip.
Goades here, hearing Sergeant Grant to say this, we cannot
help but see the conflict between his words and what
tef Po told us back in episode one about how
(16:29):
it's customary for young black men to avoid being four
or five deep in a car at night in St.
Louis County because they know it will mean that they're
getting pulled over. We are also reminded of a story
that Danyae's younger brother Javon told us about an incident
that occurred only a few weeks after Danye's death. The
(16:50):
persons across at the advanced auto. In my car, it
was easy to spot out blue hee lights on the front,
so I pulled out to the piece park altar to
going and pick up my pizza. I'll come back out.
They was surrounding my car. They said that it was
a car robbery rd jack and they wanted to make
sure this wasn't the car. And he was asking me,
(17:11):
who's the who's a primary custody older? Your son? So
they knew you had a son. Then they asked me,
I figure out who killed my brother. These officers knew
exactly who Javan was. They knew he was currently going
through a custody battle with the mother of his son,
(17:31):
which they must have gleaned from looking at his Facebook
page or perhaps from a database of court proceedings, and
they knew that his mother, Melissa, had been claiming online
that Donya had been murdered. Were they like snicker and
laughing at you when they did this or no. I
thought they were trying to plant something, only because right
in front of my car there was like a fresh
(17:53):
knife sitting right there. And then it was like, what's
this right here? Yeah? I said, this is not money,
you just kick Were these all uh at all uniform?
He'll play close? It is what it is? What would
Grant to have to say about an interaction like this
(18:14):
where officers are apparently harassing the brother of a young
man who had just died, seemingly mocking his family while
also bringing up his child in an ominous way. With
the police report into Danye's death still not available, we
kept digging into what leads we could. Of primary concern
(18:36):
was who Donya intended to meet up with the last
night he was alive. Did he seem excited about going
on that night? That seemed like it was like something
you Danny said, he did. It's my brother, he said,
he did. He got his little o. When I beg,
I wish that I had asked him leading with. So
it's like Larifa Ordaja, right, were you're any third person
(18:58):
that pops into your mind that you and implying to
go see late nights is more of a thing. He
had an overnight bag with clothes he had asked his
mom to wash, which made Melissa presume he was likely
going to see a young woman because Dania had highlighted
that he needed clean underwear. At this time in Danyae's life.
There were two young women who were the most likely
(19:20):
candidates as to whom he was going to meet on
his last night alive, Loretha and Deja Loreta was Danye's
ex girlfriend that we mentioned in episode three when we
talked about positive things he had going in his life.
Loretha was the ex Whodnia had reconnected with via text
on October fift that's two days before he died. He
(19:41):
had sent her a long love poem and then they
started chatting and she asked him if he would like
to go to a restaurant with her that weekend. Apparently,
at one point when they were dating, she had gotten pregnant,
and Donia had spoken to his sister Militia about picking
out a ring for Loretha and he's excited. He was like, this,
I think she didn't wanted she to one, and he
was like, when you come back, I need your help
(20:02):
picking out a ring. So I'm like, okay, I'm excited
and stuff and did. At the while, they kind of
break up, get back together and or and off. So
I didn't hear too much about the ring after that,
but she asked me about it. She was like, Hey,
didn't don't say anything about um give me a ring.
I ain't. I didn't answer it because I'm like, I
don't know. LUs le be surprised. She asked me, because
(20:23):
he must say it something like to marry you and
I'll just on that. How much did you talk to her?
Talk to Areta? I just stopped her off in one
before he passed. But after he passed, I kind of
was rude to her. I just didn't know what was
going on, who was responsible, and I just maybe I
don't know she was sweet. I just don't know her.
It took a long time for us to get in
(20:45):
touch with Loresa, but when we finally did, it was
via email, and when she responded to us, she said
she did not wish to be part of this podcast,
but she did go on to say several things about
her relationship with don Ye, most of which were not
pause sative. We shared the contents of that email with
Melissa and Militia. We did get in touch with Loresa
(21:08):
one time email. I can read it out loud to
It's not so for longer. You can come look at
it if you like. But basically, she said she dated him.
He didn't contribute anything when you lived with me, try
to be a blessing to him. I did not enjoy
his lifestyle, so I moved. He kept trying to threaten me,
just dating other people while he was dating me. She's
told us that he was a hard actor. He's gonna
(21:29):
be a hard actor. She's no pretty class. He's not
right with her. Something is not right. The email seemed
a bit odd to us as well, for two reasons. Now,
we didn't know Loretha, but she wrote in the email
that Melissa and Danyae were involved in a retaliation against
the police, which she broadly did not support. This is
(21:52):
how she seemed to characterize the entire Ferguson movement. But
beyond that, knowing only a day before Danyae died, Loretha
was asking if Donya wanted to meet up for dinner
that weekend. It was weird that she spoke as if
she just wanted nothing to do with him. Loretha didn't
specifically say that she met with her planned to meet
with Donya, than that he died, which was what we
(22:14):
were primarily interested in for the time being. We would
have to take the fact that she didn't say anything
about Danyae's last night as an inference that it was
not her that he set out to meet. The other
young woman, Deja was also an ex girlfriend of Donyae's,
but they had retained a friendship Melissa and Milicia told
(22:35):
us about Desa, and let's just say they both have
some strong opinions about her. She's trifling sets too. I
don't know if you if I had to say, yeah,
she's I would get calls like that danger she didn't
got me for some more money. And I'm not just
one probably five different pepe very shafe, very shape. I
(22:58):
don't care. I would never be term. Deja Jones, obviously
no relation to Danya, was actually one of the founding
members of Lost Voices. Remember episode two when a young
woman in a red sweatshirt is arrested at a Lost
Voices tent encampment by two officers who carried her off
as though she was hog tied. That was Deja. And
when Melissa was in court and cleared of her charges
(23:20):
in the Chris Shaefer case and Donya was sitting next
to a young woman before getting up to hug his mom,
that was Deja, who was in court that day coincidentally
to deal with their own charges. According to Militia, when
Danye started dating Deja a few years before he died,
things in his life just started going downhill. They had
(23:42):
a nice apport. I mean in hazel Wood, he had
a car, hit a nice shop. He didn't smoke at all.
He didn't smoke weed at all. So he's like Dila
or her. He lost everything everything. It was so hard
to get Danye out of the house. He would only
go out to show some proper that was it. He
(24:03):
really didn't get out like you told me before, you
like one of like true best friend, he says, But
this damon guy. And did he go out and hang
out with him? No, Damon come over here, yes, but
damon Holly ever like up in before this happened, like
Danya was not getting out at all. Was that was
(24:27):
this like a weird irregular period where all of a
sudden he was just staying homes or was he always
like no, No, that was just that just recently week
was just and he had a new period where all
of a sudden he just didn't want to leave. But
if he's dealing somewhere, he was outside and the call
with the girl. He was outside in the cart with
(24:48):
the girl, and he didn't he's he's not the type
of person that talks to a lot of females or
leave out with them. But um, he noddn't like her
so just strang time and you don't want He didn't
want to leave nowhere. But she's the one who is
password pound. She was over here and I'm just this
(25:10):
is me speculating she found those messages said he was
writing to his egg. According to Danye's family, in the
week or so preceding his death, done didn't leave the
house unless it was to go show one of the
properties he was trying to sell, and we'll get into
his real estate business in a future episode. It's important
(25:32):
to stop and note this as some people may take
this as a sign of depression, which is possible, but
we think it is equally important to remember that Donye's
car wasn't working that last week, meaning that even when
he went to show properties, he had to borrow a car.
This may have been one reason he wasn't leaving as much,
or he may have been avoiding somebody. Then. According to Melissa,
(25:56):
Danye was very focused on studying the world of real estate,
so when he was at home he had been spending
most of his time watching videos or reading books in
the basement where he had his room. One of the
lone exceptions to this period of staying at home was
that he would hang out with Deja, though this usually
just meant sitting in a car parked out front, talking
and sometimes smoking pot. I say four stop Byron every
(26:18):
once in a while it's nighttime. I want Pant's car
or his voice. What's up, cleous or whatever? So I'm
trying to see who who want to package us out.
I see who it is and I'm like, I love
my brother. Bob was like uh and she was like
it's your brother, girl, And I'm like, what's up? Bro?
So went the house and they was just smoking whatever.
(26:39):
Getting in touch with Deja was going to be critical.
If she was one of the few people that Danye
would break away to hang out with, and if they
usually met up at night, it was very possible that
she was the person he set out to see on
the night of the sixteen and Melissa believes that Deja
had Danya's pass code to his phone, and she speculates
(27:00):
that Desa became upset when she saw the texts that
Donia was sending to Loretha. Finding her contact information took
some creative problem solving, but after some sleuthing, we were
able to come up with her cell phone number. When
we finally called we weren't sure what to expect after
all of the things that Melissa and Milicia had told
(27:20):
us about her killer. Hi is this Desa Jones? Yes,
this is hi Deja. My name is John Duffy, and
I'm a journalist working on a story that's sort of
about Ferguson and the history of activism and stuff like that.
And I was hoping you'd be willing to talk to me,
(27:42):
if not right now, at some point about your time
and lost voices and things like that. Um. Yes, I
am definitely interested, but right now I am a little busy.
So could you give me a callback like a little later. Um, well,
I think we'll might were better. But you just tell
me what day and time works for you and we'll
(28:04):
just we'll arrange it around your skill. It doesn't have
to be today. Our first impression was that Deja actually
seemed really nice. We arranged a time to talk for
a few days later. Your name comes up a lot,
You're you're there sort of at the beginning, Yeah, and
then that's sort of where it all starts, and then
it goes all the way up through now when several
(28:25):
people who were activists have died and things like that.
I was kind of hoping to talk to you about
a handful of these things and to kind of start
at the beginning and see if you could tell me
about your experience that day Mike Brown was shot and
then kind of go into how lost voices came together
and what that was like for you. I remember that
(28:47):
day exactly. Actually was my baby's father's house to get
my daughter, and it was a whole bunch of emotion
because indeed, the you know, on the streets. So I'm like,
what is going on? So I started to walk around
and so I'm got to work everything was and I
(29:10):
was just like, oh my god. So I'm standing there
and staying Michael Brown on the ground. The explained that
she called her daughter's father and asked if their child
could stay with him for the night. She stayed out
with the crowds and so as that they kind of
ended kind of protested against them because they wouldn't get
(29:32):
the body of So that was like my first time
ever protesting. So my first actual chant was for them
to get him off the ground. There was a couple
of other people there that I didn't know at first,
like we kind of like all this all We're on
the same page. We are kind of had at the
(29:52):
same mind frame. One day we just came to I
believe it was an old into parking lot, furniture store
parking lot. We went there one day, we all met
up and we just started to have like little tense
and tables and things for people that were walking through
because we were protesting nice with words like every day.
(30:16):
Desia had the same frustrations as other Lost Voices activists
who felt that they helped to bur the wider movement
that then left them and Ferguson behind. I've got a lot.
It was a lot of groups and like kind of
blossomed up if we were marching on with force, and
it was a lot of people taking credit for what
(30:37):
we were doing, and they never ever even stood flood
out on with florthing. So that that was done with
my issue. Like a lot of people were getting a
lot of attention, a lot of fame and things, I
guess you could say, and they weren't even doing none
of this stuff. She told us that she missed activism
and wanted to get back into it. So you want
(30:58):
to get back into it, Oh, yes, definitely. It's slow stopping.
Like my dad was killed by a police officer when
I was younger, I was about seven. It's been in
my blood. You know, the only reason why I stopped,
like I said, because I did a couple months, like
three or four months of jail time, and it wasn't
(31:18):
fair to me that I had to get back on
my feet and too, you know, things like that. But so,
which which ar wrestler do you happen to do a
couple of months? So they were trying to basically charge
me from some ponds and that stuff that happened along
a long while ago, And they finally found out that
I wasn't even at the scene. So it just been
(31:38):
like three months to figure that out. But so, wait,
were you sitting in Were you sitting in jail the
whole time awaiting trial? He basically I was They do
activists very wrong. When they found out that you're protesting,
you're protesting against their their systems that they built, they
feel like, okay, well we're gonna do whatever we can
they keep her in. So they, I guess, ben't heard
(32:02):
about me a lot. I'm on a radar, and they
were just like, okay, well we're gonna take the longest
time ever to figure out if she was the truth
of that. So I had my lawyer and things like that,
but it was just my jods. My judge was very shitty.
He wanted to do stuff when he wanted to do it.
So which municipality was it in? Was Munici? I wasn't
(32:25):
um the county. County was county. Yeah, they are horrible.
I had to pay so much money. It was just ridiculous.
I mean, my daughter's third birthday. I would never forget that,
you know, things like that. When did all that end? Actually,
it just ended like it was still going on, Like
they tried to put me on papers and everything for that.
(32:47):
Like I just literally closed that case. Like they were
trying to charge me for a lot of things. Like
it was another instant there for a lot of playss
had a lady had no a man. He had got
his own oland or something. He was trying to come
in some one of our secret meetings, and he made
up a whole ordeal. He had somebody to beat him up,
and it was just so crazy. And so they tried
(33:09):
to targe me for the stealing of the phone and
what else for I thought that's what it would deja
is referring to the incident with Chris Shaffer that Melissa
told us about back in episode two. Chris was beaten up,
if you remember, and Melissa, who actually was the one
(33:29):
to return his phone, was charged with assaulting and robbing him. Apparently,
according to Deja, the county also tried to pin charges
on her for that crime. Right after she told us this,
Deja had to jump off the phone. You called me
back in five minutes. Absolutely, I'll call you five minutes, okay,
all right. When we called back in five minutes, Dejah
(33:52):
didn't answer. She did respond to a text, though, and
said we could set up another time to talk. Hey,
is Daja there? No? Uh? Is it John? Yeah? They
lock stuff right now? What what happened? She posaations, Well, shit.
(34:21):
In our first conversation, we've been chatting with Deja about
her background and her activism with Lost Voices. This was
stuff we really wanted to know about, and it was
pretty revealing to hear that all these years later, she
was still dealing with the legal fallout from those original
protest activities five years previous. It reminded us of what
(34:42):
Darren Seals said in his video about how nationally recognized
black lives matter activists were doing speaking gigs while the
people who are on the front lines and ferguson taking
all the risks, they were still suffering. We're still trying
to get their lives back in order. We ever even
got to talking with Asia about DNA in those first calls,
(35:04):
so we never got to ask whether or not she
saw him or planned to see him the night he died.
And we had another question for her too, a big one.
Since Danyae's death, no one in his family had been
able to get into either of his cell phones. The
phone he primarily used was as Android in Both Melissa
and Militia believed Desia knew Danyae's pass code. So even
(35:27):
if Desia wasn't the person Dania packed an overnight bag
to go see the night he died, she might be
able to help us unlock his phone, which very well
could hold crucial clues regarding well everything. And now Desia
was back in jail, how long would it take for
her to get out? And if she ever actually knew
Danyae's pass code but she still remember it, that's next
(35:52):
time and after the uprising. After the uprising is directed, produced, investigated, written,
and report did by myself, Raino Vashelski, and John Duffy.
John Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy was producer,
sound engineering, design and mixed by Josh Condon. Executive producers
were Matt McDonough and Tina x Eros for Now This,
(36:12):
Brett Kushner for Group nine Media, and Jeff Borov was
executive in charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and Bradley Rayford
were consulting producers. Eliza Craig was assistant producer and did
additional reporting. Malory Keenoy was a writer's assistant. Kristen McVicker
and Taya Wilson were production assistants, and Haley Klezmer was
a post production assistant. Fact checking by Alison Humes. Theme
song and other music by Zachary Walter, legal by Keith
(36:34):
Sklar and Peter Yazy. Special thanks to Ann Frado, Danny Gonzalez,
Barbara Copple, Alex Lester, Bethan Mcalouzo, Emily Maronoff, Ruth Vaka,
and the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press. After
the Uprising is a production of Double asterisk I, Heart
Media and Now This in association with True Stories. You
can find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you have
useful information about the death of Danye Jones or anything
(36:56):
we've covered, please leave a message on our tip line
at three four seven six seven four seven four zero one.
Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide or self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline to seven three eight two five or text the
(00:26):
Crisis text line at seven one seven four one. Previously
and after the uprising they feel like we don't appreciate
law enforcement here. Therefore, it has an adverse effect of
certain cops not being as dell asy when it comes
to straight up and down police work. Why the fund
(00:47):
are you grab like an animal? Lazy voices with the
heart and soul of the resistance. You can't talk about
fergus Man without talking about the law's voices. And that's
just a real that's just real, real talk. He wars
my clothes us. I'll leave out the door last night
because I was sitting kids. Do you know about what time?
(01:08):
That was about nine o'clock, carf, No, he didn't leave
in the clock. Does things as well? His calls that
we his calls that I found using the equasions and
the real motipucts that it probably was about was three
and a half hour time because when he was found.
So you're putting out roughly about four thirty am. Yes,
(01:40):
what you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict Officer Wilson. A young man
found hanging from a tree in October. His mom believes
some and murdered her son, targeting him. Don Ye became
(02:05):
an activist in the wake of the shooting death of
Michael Brown by a white police officer. That's why Melissa
mckinneons wants St. Louis County police to dig deeper to
her son's death. He was not suicidal. This is after
the uprising the death of Donye Dion Jones. You understand
(02:32):
where this would be problematic, right, I mean, well, what
is the concern exactly? Can you see where an officer
would be very troubled and concerned with being contacted on
a personal number by an out of state area code.
Why a reasonable person would not answer that someone call,
(02:53):
and then why a reasonable person would not necessarily text
that unknown number back? And then an officer would be
very concerned when two strangers show up at his door
on his day off on a holiday weekend without any warning.
This is Sergeant Benjamin Granda, the St. Louis County Police's
representative to the media. We're having a conversation about why
(03:15):
we approached the lead investigator in Dane's case, Detective Tim
at the Andrew at his home, which both he and
Sergeant Granda seemed to think was way out of bounds.
We wanted to be courteous because we hope to get
further comment from Granda about Dane's case. Andrew had a St.
Louis County p D squad car parked in his driveway,
so it's not like he was hiding that he was
(03:36):
a cop or that people couldn't see that a police
officer lived at that house. But anyway, there was also
there's there was a business card provided by Officer andrew
Er and that business card was to Sergeant Leslie F.
Williams at the St. Louis Airport, So the family was
unable to provide us, for instance, with the direct numbered
(03:58):
Officer Andrew. That doesn't make any sense to me. Andre
has been in that unit for years, He's got business cards.
I seriously question the validity of whatever that statement is.
It simply makes no sense. You know, I can't investigate
a suicide properly without having open lines of communication with
the family throughout the process. After notifications, you have to
(04:20):
do follow ups. If it happened, it could have been
an error. But I seriously question the validity of that
ever happening. Again. We've seen the business card, and for
the record, we did try contacting Detective Andre at his office,
and we not only left him a message on his
cell phone, but we texted him. Either way, we were
still eager to talk to him, so we pressed on
(04:42):
with the request through Sergeant Granda. What would we need
to do to work on, you know, doing doing an
interview in some form with officer and as a reasonable person,
would you think that Officer Andrew would be interested in
this after the way that he perceives he was tre
I don't see how he was mistreated. I we approached
(05:05):
and we said who we were, and we offered him
the opportunity to schedule an interview. I'm not sure this property,
and then we immediately left. There's a possibility, though, that
Officer Andrew might have said, Hey, this is an important story,
but I'm betting the family's giving you some bad information
and you're getting it wrong, and let me tell you,
you know, my version of this, but but I'm not
(05:25):
going to do it now. But let's schedule something right
and I will get back to you. But that didn't
happen like that. It was sort of an immediately antagonistic thing,
and I guess we were taken as you know, intruders.
I find it very inappropriate, and I'm not the affected officer,
and I don't know just this very conversation could be
going better that we're having right now. I am trying
(05:49):
to do my best to be patient and listen. We've
been to the ringer's law enforcement in this region. It
is a safety concern. But you know how you know
of this works like if we only get the side
of activists or certain people who may feel that uh there,
you know, there was not a full investigation done of
(06:11):
dony H Jones, and then we're not able to present
our listeners with the police officers, their personalities, their feelings,
what they experience, what they saw. Then what you've got
is you've got these three dimensional human beings that they
empathize with on one side, and you don't get the
three dimensional human beings on the other side. So I
don't want that, and I want to tell an accurate stories.
(06:32):
I'm very sorry that Officer Andrew was concerned about his
safety as a result of our visit. We didn't see
that coming. Maybe we just we don't see I don't
think we in my opinion, we don't come up as
intimidating guys that I understand it. The knock at the door,
I mean, I'd really like to set up a situation
where we could get his experience of investigating this well.
(06:55):
You talked too sides of the story. This is not
the police department against the family agree. This call happened
in June. Dane had died over eight months prior, and
the St. Louis County Police still hadn't released their final
report on his death. If it was such a slam
dunk case of suicide, it seems strange to us that
(07:17):
it would take so long to finish the paperwork. By
not finishing the final report, the bed sheet used as
ligature in Dania's death remained locked up as evidence and
could not be released to Melissa and her family for
independent testing. Remember back in episode one, when County p
D spokesman Sergeant Sean McGuire told us that though we
didn't have a good timeline on it. He figured it
(07:38):
would be a week to a month until the report
would be finished. That was six months prior to this call.
Almost every single week during that time period we made
a request of the records Department to see if the
report had been concluded. So, now that we had grand
on the phone, we asked him why it hadn't been
finished yet. I believe that our report will be conclude
(08:00):
it in the near future. Why is that still open?
It's been it's been seven and a half months. Our
detectives are very been associated. Mind called in January and
uh it was. We were told at the time that
it would be wrapped up within a couple of weeks.
So do you think this will be done by the
end of the summer or by the one year anniversary
in October? I don't know. It depends on the workload.
(08:24):
You know, if if they get called out in five
minutes to go work a new homicide or new shooting
or a new robbery, they have to stop what they're
doing and they have to go work that new case
the best that they can. Though, Granda insists that detectives
keep open lines of communication with families and people relevant
to their investigations, Andrew never reached out to Melissa or
(08:45):
any member of Danye's family to explain the DNA evidence
his investigation had turned up. He only made one other
attempt to reach out to Melissa, and what he actually
did was send two officers to her house to have
a conversation, which she dis ribes like this set. Yeah,
they said, we would like to tell to you alone.
(09:07):
You know, good will, I'm not gonna talk to you alone.
And I said that that won't happen. The families there
we have Anthony Shahid, My turn was on the phone.
She was like, so you all came over just to
sit in front of them and tell them exactly what
y'all told them the same day it happened. Why and
they were just sitting there at it. They wanted us
(09:27):
to say something, And the whole time we just sat
there like this, a room full of us just sitting
there looking at him like so, when once it got
awkwardly quiet, we said, crickets critis Well, I guess we're
gonna leave now. You heard from Anthony Shahid in episode one.
(09:49):
He is the activist who told us what great leaders
both Darren Seals and Melissa were in the movement. He
was at Melissa's house during this awkward meeting. It was
never being over there. I make that weight, but I
wanted to make sure I got the attorney on the phone.
But they came on in and to get right to it.
Small their research and all their investigations. This is what
(10:09):
they came up with. Don Yo, do you remember them
asking for like leads to why she was saying publicly
she thought it was homicide? I don't remember them then,
soil deep on there. Their stated purpose was to find
out what her allegations were all about that she was
making publicly. But what was your sense or memory of
like what they seemed to be there for on some bullshit.
(10:33):
That's the best way I can sum it up. They
were strictly there to to send a police department to actions.
They have done everything they possibly could. She was pissed.
Anthony remembers that the police basically came to defend their
conclusion that Donia had died by suicide. He also remembers
that Melissa emphasized to them that she wanted the bed
sheet that DNA was hanged with, She wanted his possession,
(10:58):
and she wanted that sheet was one of the main things.
If I can't remember none, now that she wants the
sheet in that meeting in the house, do you remember
her saying that to them? Or yea, she wants that sheet.
We told Granda we were aware of the excessive force
lawsuit against Detective Andrewer. It may not shock you that
(11:18):
we've googled officer andre Er, so we're aware that an
excessive forced civil suit was put against him by a
state rep because of the events that happened at a
mobile gas station in December. Now that suit began in
the body cam audio of that came out month after
Danye's death. What action, if any, or what look at
(11:40):
the appropriateness of the comments that Officer Andrew made were
conducted once that suit was filed as of Oh, it's
it's our policy that we don't talk on pending litigation.
I heard it was just settled. Is there any chance
we could talk in a week if that turns out
to be the case. I'm not sure, okay, because I mean,
(12:04):
if there are suspicions about an investigation, obviously some of
the words that were spoken on the on the body cam,
we would love to give Officer and or a chance
to kind of explain who he really is and not
let audio from a body cam speak on his behalf.
So is this now evolving into a piece against a
(12:25):
single individual, not at all? But you you surely you
would agree that if the family says they don't feel
that there was an investigation that looks seriously at the
alternate possibility that this was a homicide. And one of
the lead detectives his officer Andrew, and the only thing,
well we we know he was given, I believe, a
(12:46):
medal as a hero. This is true. Before he was
a detective. Officer, andre r was given the Life Saving
Award by the Chief of Police. While the specifics of
the incident aren't available, the award is given to an
officer who performs a life saving measure where valor's circumstances
do not exist and the victims survived. The year before
(13:08):
that in officer Andrew also got the Chiefs Commendation awarded
by Police Chief Tim Fitch, and though we had no
way to know it at the time of this conversation
with Granda, before the end of yet another police chief,
the outgoing John Belmar, would award er another Chiefs Commendation.
So Yeah, Detective Andre has got some accolades on his
(13:30):
record and whatever else one could say about him, his
police chiefs certainly seemed to think he was there kind
of guy. Um, so we know there was that. The
other thing that we basically know is that his audio
was caught in body cam audio circuit December, and then
it came out via this excessive course suits. So those
are like two facts leading two very different directions. But
(13:54):
it's impossible to look at what was a thorough investigation
done into the possibility of homicide here or a ventually
forced to at least get an answer as to the
contact for those statements and the context for the career.
So we're trying to get the full story. Well, it
seems that's been working on this story for some time
and it's only hit our radar in the very very
(14:15):
recent past. So it seems to me like this story
has already been written. Oh that's what it seems to me.
How many local media stories have you seen on this,
I asked, because our local media ran it for a day.
In fact, one of them I think did it too
when Mom did a press conference of it, had a
few conversations told them about the facts and circumstances, and
(14:40):
it's been radio silence since. Regardless of what is put
out on social media, the reputation of our department, of
our investigators in the Medical Examiner's Office means something around here.
Not Twitter doesn't understand all that. But there's a reason
that that hasn't been at the ten o'clock news every night.
Can you try to look through this from my perspective,
(15:02):
if you've been working on this since last year. In
my mind, this story was written before you came here,
well before you knocked on that door, well before this
conversation that we're having. Our relationship with St. Louis County
Police would never improve from here. We would never be
granted an interview with Andrew and maybe that's on us,
(15:24):
but we made the effort repeatedly. Something that Granda wanted
us to take away was that relations between St. Louis
County p D and the citizens of St. Louis County
were not nearly as bad as perhaps outsiders might expect.
In a nutshell, we went through a very challenging time,
we got through it, and we emerged better on the
(15:45):
on the other side, where we're perfect in details and
fourteen no are we perfect today, No, but I think
we're a lot better. There's not from what I have seen,
this big confrontational relationship between us and the people that
we serve. You might be shocked that, if you get
off social media and you just walk around in a
(16:06):
police uniform, how supportive people are, even in areas that
you wouldn't think. We've got great relationships with many people
of all socioeconomic backgrounds to live in all kinds of hip.
Goades here, hearing Sergeant Grant to say this, we cannot
help but see the conflict between his words and what
tef Po told us back in episode one about how
(16:29):
it's customary for young black men to avoid being four
or five deep in a car at night in St.
Louis County because they know it will mean that they're
getting pulled over. We are also reminded of a story
that Danyae's younger brother Javon told us about an incident
that occurred only a few weeks after Danye's death. The
(16:50):
persons across at the advanced auto. In my car, it
was easy to spot out blue hee lights on the front,
so I pulled out to the piece park altar to
going and pick up my pizza. I'll come back out.
They was surrounding my car. They said that it was
a car robbery rd jack and they wanted to make
sure this wasn't the car. And he was asking me,
(17:11):
who's the who's a primary custody older? Your son? So
they knew you had a son. Then they asked me,
I figure out who killed my brother. These officers knew
exactly who Javan was. They knew he was currently going
through a custody battle with the mother of his son,
(17:31):
which they must have gleaned from looking at his Facebook
page or perhaps from a database of court proceedings, and
they knew that his mother, Melissa, had been claiming online
that Donya had been murdered. Were they like snicker and
laughing at you when they did this or no. I
thought they were trying to plant something, only because right
in front of my car there was like a fresh
(17:53):
knife sitting right there. And then it was like, what's
this right here? Yeah? I said, this is not money,
you just kick Were these all uh at all uniform?
He'll play close? It is what it is? What would
Grant to have to say about an interaction like this
(18:14):
where officers are apparently harassing the brother of a young
man who had just died, seemingly mocking his family while
also bringing up his child in an ominous way. With
the police report into Danye's death still not available, we
kept digging into what leads we could. Of primary concern
(18:36):
was who Donya intended to meet up with the last
night he was alive. Did he seem excited about going
on that night? That seemed like it was like something
you Danny said, he did. It's my brother, he said,
he did. He got his little o. When I beg,
I wish that I had asked him leading with. So
it's like Larifa Ordaja, right, were you're any third person
(18:58):
that pops into your mind that you and implying to
go see late nights is more of a thing. He
had an overnight bag with clothes he had asked his
mom to wash, which made Melissa presume he was likely
going to see a young woman because Dania had highlighted
that he needed clean underwear. At this time in Danyae's life.
There were two young women who were the most likely
(19:20):
candidates as to whom he was going to meet on
his last night alive, Loretha and Deja Loreta was Danye's
ex girlfriend that we mentioned in episode three when we
talked about positive things he had going in his life.
Loretha was the ex Whodnia had reconnected with via text
on October fift that's two days before he died. He
(19:41):
had sent her a long love poem and then they
started chatting and she asked him if he would like
to go to a restaurant with her that weekend. Apparently,
at one point when they were dating, she had gotten pregnant,
and Donia had spoken to his sister Militia about picking
out a ring for Loretha and he's excited. He was like, this,
I think she didn't wanted she to one, and he
was like, when you come back, I need your help
(20:02):
picking out a ring. So I'm like, okay, I'm excited
and stuff and did. At the while, they kind of
break up, get back together and or and off. So
I didn't hear too much about the ring after that,
but she asked me about it. She was like, Hey,
didn't don't say anything about um give me a ring.
I ain't. I didn't answer it because I'm like, I
don't know. LUs le be surprised. She asked me, because
(20:23):
he must say it something like to marry you and
I'll just on that. How much did you talk to her?
Talk to Areta? I just stopped her off in one
before he passed. But after he passed, I kind of
was rude to her. I just didn't know what was
going on, who was responsible, and I just maybe I
don't know she was sweet. I just don't know her.
It took a long time for us to get in
(20:45):
touch with Loresa, but when we finally did, it was
via email, and when she responded to us, she said
she did not wish to be part of this podcast,
but she did go on to say several things about
her relationship with don Ye, most of which were not
pause sative. We shared the contents of that email with
Melissa and Militia. We did get in touch with Loresa
(21:08):
one time email. I can read it out loud to
It's not so for longer. You can come look at
it if you like. But basically, she said she dated him.
He didn't contribute anything when you lived with me, try
to be a blessing to him. I did not enjoy
his lifestyle, so I moved. He kept trying to threaten me,
just dating other people while he was dating me. She's
told us that he was a hard actor. He's gonna
(21:29):
be a hard actor. She's no pretty class. He's not
right with her. Something is not right. The email seemed
a bit odd to us as well, for two reasons. Now,
we didn't know Loretha, but she wrote in the email
that Melissa and Danyae were involved in a retaliation against
the police, which she broadly did not support. This is
(21:52):
how she seemed to characterize the entire Ferguson movement. But
beyond that, knowing only a day before Danyae died, Loretha
was asking if Donya wanted to meet up for dinner
that weekend. It was weird that she spoke as if
she just wanted nothing to do with him. Loretha didn't
specifically say that she met with her planned to meet
with Donya, than that he died, which was what we
(22:14):
were primarily interested in for the time being. We would
have to take the fact that she didn't say anything
about Danyae's last night as an inference that it was
not her that he set out to meet. The other
young woman, Deja was also an ex girlfriend of Donyae's,
but they had retained a friendship Melissa and Milicia told
(22:35):
us about Desa, and let's just say they both have
some strong opinions about her. She's trifling sets too. I
don't know if you if I had to say, yeah,
she's I would get calls like that danger she didn't
got me for some more money. And I'm not just
one probably five different pepe very shafe, very shape. I
(22:58):
don't care. I would never be term. Deja Jones, obviously
no relation to Danya, was actually one of the founding
members of Lost Voices. Remember episode two when a young
woman in a red sweatshirt is arrested at a Lost
Voices tent encampment by two officers who carried her off
as though she was hog tied. That was Deja. And
when Melissa was in court and cleared of her charges
(23:20):
in the Chris Shaefer case and Donya was sitting next
to a young woman before getting up to hug his mom,
that was Deja, who was in court that day coincidentally
to deal with their own charges. According to Militia, when
Danye started dating Deja a few years before he died,
things in his life just started going downhill. They had
(23:42):
a nice apport. I mean in hazel Wood, he had
a car, hit a nice shop. He didn't smoke at all.
He didn't smoke weed at all. So he's like Dila
or her. He lost everything everything. It was so hard
to get Danye out of the house. He would only
go out to show some proper that was it. He
(24:03):
really didn't get out like you told me before, you
like one of like true best friend, he says, But
this damon guy. And did he go out and hang
out with him? No, Damon come over here, yes, but
damon Holly ever like up in before this happened, like
Danya was not getting out at all. Was that was
(24:27):
this like a weird irregular period where all of a
sudden he was just staying homes or was he always
like no, No, that was just that just recently week
was just and he had a new period where all
of a sudden he just didn't want to leave. But
if he's dealing somewhere, he was outside and the call
with the girl. He was outside in the cart with
(24:48):
the girl, and he didn't he's he's not the type
of person that talks to a lot of females or
leave out with them. But um, he noddn't like her
so just strang time and you don't want He didn't
want to leave nowhere. But she's the one who is
password pound. She was over here and I'm just this
(25:10):
is me speculating she found those messages said he was
writing to his egg. According to Danye's family, in the
week or so preceding his death, done didn't leave the
house unless it was to go show one of the
properties he was trying to sell, and we'll get into
his real estate business in a future episode. It's important
(25:32):
to stop and note this as some people may take
this as a sign of depression, which is possible, but
we think it is equally important to remember that Donye's
car wasn't working that last week, meaning that even when
he went to show properties, he had to borrow a car.
This may have been one reason he wasn't leaving as much,
or he may have been avoiding somebody. Then. According to Melissa,
(25:56):
Danye was very focused on studying the world of real estate,
so when he was at home he had been spending
most of his time watching videos or reading books in
the basement where he had his room. One of the
lone exceptions to this period of staying at home was
that he would hang out with Deja, though this usually
just meant sitting in a car parked out front, talking
and sometimes smoking pot. I say four stop Byron every
(26:18):
once in a while it's nighttime. I want Pant's car
or his voice. What's up, cleous or whatever? So I'm
trying to see who who want to package us out.
I see who it is and I'm like, I love
my brother. Bob was like uh and she was like
it's your brother, girl, And I'm like, what's up? Bro?
So went the house and they was just smoking whatever.
(26:39):
Getting in touch with Deja was going to be critical.
If she was one of the few people that Danye
would break away to hang out with, and if they
usually met up at night, it was very possible that
she was the person he set out to see on
the night of the sixteen and Melissa believes that Deja
had Danya's pass code to his phone, and she speculates
(27:00):
that Desa became upset when she saw the texts that
Donia was sending to Loretha. Finding her contact information took
some creative problem solving, but after some sleuthing, we were
able to come up with her cell phone number. When
we finally called we weren't sure what to expect after
all of the things that Melissa and Milicia had told
(27:20):
us about her killer. Hi is this Desa Jones? Yes,
this is hi Deja. My name is John Duffy, and
I'm a journalist working on a story that's sort of
about Ferguson and the history of activism and stuff like that.
And I was hoping you'd be willing to talk to me,
(27:42):
if not right now, at some point about your time
and lost voices and things like that. Um. Yes, I
am definitely interested, but right now I am a little busy.
So could you give me a callback like a little later. Um, well,
I think we'll might were better. But you just tell
me what day and time works for you and we'll
(28:04):
just we'll arrange it around your skill. It doesn't have
to be today. Our first impression was that Deja actually
seemed really nice. We arranged a time to talk for
a few days later. Your name comes up a lot,
You're you're there sort of at the beginning, Yeah, and
then that's sort of where it all starts, and then
it goes all the way up through now when several
(28:25):
people who were activists have died and things like that.
I was kind of hoping to talk to you about
a handful of these things and to kind of start
at the beginning and see if you could tell me
about your experience that day Mike Brown was shot and
then kind of go into how lost voices came together
and what that was like for you. I remember that
(28:47):
day exactly. Actually was my baby's father's house to get
my daughter, and it was a whole bunch of emotion
because indeed, the you know, on the streets. So I'm like,
what is going on? So I started to walk around
and so I'm got to work everything was and I
(29:10):
was just like, oh my god. So I'm standing there
and staying Michael Brown on the ground. The explained that
she called her daughter's father and asked if their child
could stay with him for the night. She stayed out
with the crowds and so as that they kind of
ended kind of protested against them because they wouldn't get
(29:32):
the body of So that was like my first time
ever protesting. So my first actual chant was for them
to get him off the ground. There was a couple
of other people there that I didn't know at first,
like we kind of like all this all We're on
the same page. We are kind of had at the
(29:52):
same mind frame. One day we just came to I
believe it was an old into parking lot, furniture store
parking lot. We went there one day, we all met
up and we just started to have like little tense
and tables and things for people that were walking through
because we were protesting nice with words like every day.
(30:16):
Desia had the same frustrations as other Lost Voices activists
who felt that they helped to bur the wider movement
that then left them and Ferguson behind. I've got a lot.
It was a lot of groups and like kind of
blossomed up if we were marching on with force, and
it was a lot of people taking credit for what
(30:37):
we were doing, and they never ever even stood flood
out on with florthing. So that that was done with
my issue. Like a lot of people were getting a
lot of attention, a lot of fame and things, I
guess you could say, and they weren't even doing none
of this stuff. She told us that she missed activism
and wanted to get back into it. So you want
(30:58):
to get back into it, Oh, yes, definitely. It's slow stopping.
Like my dad was killed by a police officer when
I was younger, I was about seven. It's been in
my blood. You know, the only reason why I stopped,
like I said, because I did a couple months, like
three or four months of jail time, and it wasn't
(31:18):
fair to me that I had to get back on
my feet and too, you know, things like that. But so,
which which ar wrestler do you happen to do a
couple of months? So they were trying to basically charge
me from some ponds and that stuff that happened along
a long while ago, And they finally found out that
I wasn't even at the scene. So it just been
(31:38):
like three months to figure that out. But so, wait,
were you sitting in Were you sitting in jail the
whole time awaiting trial? He basically I was They do
activists very wrong. When they found out that you're protesting,
you're protesting against their their systems that they built, they
feel like, okay, well we're gonna do whatever we can
they keep her in. So they, I guess, ben't heard
(32:02):
about me a lot. I'm on a radar, and they
were just like, okay, well we're gonna take the longest
time ever to figure out if she was the truth
of that. So I had my lawyer and things like that,
but it was just my jods. My judge was very shitty.
He wanted to do stuff when he wanted to do it.
So which municipality was it in? Was Munici? I wasn't
(32:25):
um the county. County was county. Yeah, they are horrible.
I had to pay so much money. It was just ridiculous.
I mean, my daughter's third birthday. I would never forget that,
you know, things like that. When did all that end? Actually,
it just ended like it was still going on, Like
they tried to put me on papers and everything for that.
(32:47):
Like I just literally closed that case. Like they were
trying to charge me for a lot of things. Like
it was another instant there for a lot of playss
had a lady had no a man. He had got
his own oland or something. He was trying to come
in some one of our secret meetings, and he made
up a whole ordeal. He had somebody to beat him up,
and it was just so crazy. And so they tried
(33:09):
to targe me for the stealing of the phone and
what else for I thought that's what it would deja
is referring to the incident with Chris Shaffer that Melissa
told us about back in episode two. Chris was beaten up,
if you remember, and Melissa, who actually was the one
(33:29):
to return his phone, was charged with assaulting and robbing him. Apparently,
according to Deja, the county also tried to pin charges
on her for that crime. Right after she told us this,
Deja had to jump off the phone. You called me
back in five minutes. Absolutely, I'll call you five minutes, okay,
all right. When we called back in five minutes, Dejah
(33:52):
didn't answer. She did respond to a text, though, and
said we could set up another time to talk. Hey,
is Daja there? No? Uh? Is it John? Yeah? They
lock stuff right now? What what happened? She posaations, Well, shit.
(34:21):
In our first conversation, we've been chatting with Deja about
her background and her activism with Lost Voices. This was
stuff we really wanted to know about, and it was
pretty revealing to hear that all these years later, she
was still dealing with the legal fallout from those original
protest activities five years previous. It reminded us of what
(34:42):
Darren Seals said in his video about how nationally recognized
black lives matter activists were doing speaking gigs while the
people who are on the front lines and ferguson taking
all the risks, they were still suffering. We're still trying
to get their lives back in order. We ever even
got to talking with Asia about DNA in those first calls,
(35:04):
so we never got to ask whether or not she
saw him or planned to see him the night he died.
And we had another question for her too, a big one.
Since Danyae's death, no one in his family had been
able to get into either of his cell phones. The
phone he primarily used was as Android in Both Melissa
and Militia believed Desia knew Danyae's pass code. So even
(35:27):
if Desia wasn't the person Dania packed an overnight bag
to go see the night he died, she might be
able to help us unlock his phone, which very well
could hold crucial clues regarding well everything. And now Desia
was back in jail, how long would it take for
her to get out? And if she ever actually knew
Danyae's pass code but she still remember it, that's next
(35:52):
time and after the uprising. After the uprising is directed, produced, investigated, written,
and report did by myself, Raino Vashelski, and John Duffy.
John Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy was producer,
sound engineering, design and mixed by Josh Condon. Executive producers
were Matt McDonough and Tina x Eros for Now This,
(36:12):
Brett Kushner for Group nine Media, and Jeff Borov was
executive in charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and Bradley Rayford
were consulting producers. Eliza Craig was assistant producer and did
additional reporting. Malory Keenoy was a writer's assistant. Kristen McVicker
and Taya Wilson were production assistants, and Haley Klezmer was
a post production assistant. Fact checking by Alison Humes. Theme
song and other music by Zachary Walter, legal by Keith
(36:34):
Sklar and Peter Yazy. Special thanks to Ann Frado, Danny Gonzalez,
Barbara Copple, Alex Lester, Bethan Mcalouzo, Emily Maronoff, Ruth Vaka,
and the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press. After
the Uprising is a production of Double asterisk I, Heart
Media and Now This in association with True Stories. You
can find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you have
useful information about the death of Danye Jones or anything
(36:56):
we've covered, please leave a message on our tip line
at three four seven six seven four seven four zero one.
Hosts And Creators
Ray Nowosielski
Maria Chappelle-Nadal
John Duffy
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