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Mother demands answers, accountability after daughter’s jailhouse overdose

It’s been four months since Reatha Freeman’s daughter died while incarcerated at Jackson Pike Jail in Franklin County.

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — Reatha Freeman sits in a room she doesn’t want to be in and talks about a subject she doesn’t want to mention while being surrounded by pictures she doesn’t want to forget.

“Memories,” she said. “Memories. Christmases. Birthdays.”

She doesn’t want anyone to forget her daughter.

“The brightest star in the sky is my daughter,” she said. “That’s my daughter.”

Fredreca Ford was 29. She struggled with addiction and had been in and out of jail since she was 13. 

Back in June, after violating her parole, Ford was taken to Franklin County’s Jackson Pike Jail. Freeman says she was there a little more than an hour when Ford was found unresponsive and later died.

Last week, the Franklin County Coroner’s Office released Ford’s autopsy that said Ford died from an overdose of fentanyl and fluorofentanyl. 

The last four months Freeman has been asking the question how was getting these drugs in the jail even possible?

“The only way to fix those cracks is to inspect how the crack happened just like when a mouse comes in your house,” she said. “If you inspect the cracks outside of the house and see where they’re coming in and you feel them – they won’t come in anymore.”

According to Chief Deputy Rick Minerd who runs the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division, the jail staff does a tremendous job keeping drugs from getting into the jail, but he admits they don’t get everything.

The sheriff’s office says it has reason to believe another female smuggled drugs into the jail and a few other female inmates did cross paths with Ford when they were in the same cell and those inmates had to be revived with Narcan. 

The sheriff’s office says the substance did not come from Ford.

“I know I have to fight the fight,” Freeman said. “Good, bad or ugly I got to fight it for her.”

Freeman wants action, including changes to the intake process, an arrest and charges filed for her daughter’s death. It’s a burden she carries as heavy as her daughter’s ashes that hang around her neck. 

She has also started a YouTube page, RecaMatters, documenting her journey to bring her daughter justice.

The sheriff’s office says it is waiting on drug labs to come back to definitively identify the drugs that were taken as evidence at the jail so that, when the time comes, a thorough case can be presented to the prosecutor’s office.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office also confirms two new tools for the corrections centers. Carmen and Biscuit are both German Short Haired Pointers and are trained in sniffing narcotics and electronic devices. 

The dogs recently completed their training and are currently becoming acclimated with the corrections environment, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office says it spent about $23,000 for the purchase, training and necessary equipment to add these canines to the force.

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