Guys Who Played Around with Their Friend's Corpse and Posted a Video of it Will Not Be Charged
Source – An Indiana sheriff says it does not appear any laws were broken when two men took a video of themselves playing with the limp body of another man who died of an apparent drug overdose and posted it on social media.
Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said the video, which included manipulating the man’s mouth like he was singing a song and lifting his arms like he was a puppet, showed “a blatant disregard for human life.”
But Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds said Monday that his office concluded no law was broken and that the men told him they were “horseplaying.”
“We’re really comfortable to say there was no foul play whatsoever,” Reynolds said. …
Harris said he couldn’t determine whether Kearby was alive when he was filmed slumped over as one man tied cords to his wrists. Another man in the video slaps the apparently unconscious man, shakes his head and pumps his chest in a CPR-like motion before manipulating his mouth and singing a song. …
The man who posted the video messaged back [a newspaper reporter] asking her not to alert authorities and alleging Kearby was home and alive, she said. The man asserted the video was supposed to be a wake-up call to his friend about his drug use. …
Reynolds suspects Kearby took a pill that night but died from choking on his vomit.
A family member said she suspects Kearby was given fentanyl-laced Xanax and that the men in the video should have called for emergency help. She said the video was degrading and that Kearby was a funny, outgoing man.
First of all, try not to let this story destroy your faith in the Fentanyl Community or the quality of the friendships you’re going to make popping tablets with recreational Xanax enthusiasts. Just because these guys went all Weekend at Bernie’s with the friend who died right in front of them is no reason to smear all dead-eyed, empty-souled junkies with the same broad brush.
And while I feel for these relatives who lost a loved one, I guess I have to agree with the sheriffs department. While I don’t recommend making a meat puppet out of your recently deceased friend, I don’t see where it’s a crime, either. At least not in the grand scheme of things. I think we need to focus on the fact they gave him overdose amounts of Fentanyl-laced Xanax, and just sort of chalk up the whole Jim Henson/Kermit routine up to being sort of harmless. A crime maybe, but one of those moral-gray-area victimless ones.
As a matter of fact, I’m going on record now and saying that if I should drop dead any time soon, say if my liver gives over beers some night or if I’m down at Barstool HQ and they find me face down on my keyboard having joined The Choir Invisible, by all means my friends and co-workers are invited to have a blast. Do your worst. At that point, what’s it to me? My rotting corpse is your problem, so you might as well have a few laughs before it starts crapping all over the place and the meat wagon hauls me off to the slab. People give the gift of their organs post-mortem. Giving the gift of cheap sight gags and broad, physical comedy seems like the next logical step. All I ask is that if I am in NYC, don’t let any of those assholes put Jets gear on me. Save me some dignity, at least.
P.S. This is sort of implied but I might as well just come right out and say it: Just say NO to drugs that make you choke on vomit, kids.