{"id":622039,"date":"2026-09-12T03:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T03:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622039\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T03:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T03:02:12","slug":"a-mental-health-crisis-in-a-kansas-jail-shouldnt-have-ended-charles-adairs-life-kcur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622039\/","title":{"rendered":"A mental health crisis in a Kansas jail shouldn\u2019t have ended Charles Adair\u2019s life | KCUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Adair died in the Wyandotte County, Kansas, jail when a sheriff\u2019s deputy knelt on his back<\/a> during a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n

The killing of Black men by law enforcement officers in America often brings up allegations that officers violated their racial civil rights<\/a>. But Melinda Henneberger, a journalist and author of Kansas City Stack<\/a>, said another civil rights violation shouldn\u2019t be overlooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in a mental health crisis is a civil rights violation when it’s not handled properly by authorities,\u201d Henneberger told KCUR\u2019s Up To Date.<\/p>\n

While in custody at the Wyandotte County jail last year, Adair self-reported schizophrenia and displayed signs of mental illness.<\/p>\n

Adair had incoherent speech, threw himself from his wheelchair<\/a> and exhibited other impulsive behaviors.<\/p>\n

He was considered noncompliant and restrained face down on his bed while deputy Richard Fatherley knelt on his back, killing Adair by mechanical asphyxia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re paying all this attention to, was excessive force used,\u201d Henneberger said. \u201cWhat about paying some attention to \u2026 could the use of force have been avoided altogether?\u201d<\/p>\n

Henneberger reports<\/a>, protocol called for officers to call a crisis co-responder or refer Adair to Rainbow Services, Inc<\/a>., a crisis stabilization center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they had followed their own policy, there’s every chance Charles Adair could still be alive,\u201d Henneberger said. \u201cThis doesn’t obviate the first way in which there was a civil rights violation. This doubles it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A judge dismissed all charges against Fatherley<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Adair died in the Wyandotte County, Kansas, jail when a sheriff\u2019s deputy knelt on his back during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-622039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}