Four more inmates have been charged in the jail riot that caused damage to the county detention center late last year.
Josef Cunningham, James Keller, Nathan Martin and Elijah Mayhew were charged with misdemeanors after failing to disburse when ordered during the Monday, Dec. 20, 2021 jail riot in Platte City.
According to court documents, the riot involved 25 inmates assigned to Housing Tank G in the detention center.
The incident took several hours to resolve, only after the Platte County and Clay County SWAT teams entered with rifles firing “pepper balls,” which are similar to paint balls containing an irritating powder.
Bruce Brandenburg, Zachary Mace, Christopher Mejia, Stephen Smith and Joshua Vasquez were charged with felonies for damage to the county jail and misdemeanors for rioting.
Those initially charged were active participants who barricaded doors, flooded the shower room by breaking the sprinkler head, threw wet toilet paper at observation windows and cameras to obscure the view into the housing unit and wet down floors to make entrance into the unit slippery for law enforcement.
In individual charges, some inmates are accused of throwing chairs, others with breaking sprinkler heads and other violations of jail protocol and failure to respond to commands.
Many inmates, including the more recently charged, were more passive participants who sat in chairs and refused to lock down when commanded to return to their cells.
Charges were also filed against Richard Dedrick, Mason Harvey and Harvey Prewett for failure to disburse.
Inmates in Housing Tank E decided to show solidarity with the active rioters by refusing orders to lock down. All but six inmates in that tank locked down as ordered, but the protestors sat down on the stairs, covering themselves with blankets. They were eventually secured in their cells by jail staff.