Facebook video sparks hate crime investigation against beaten inmate
By Rob Tripp, For Postmedia News July 24, 2011
KINGSTON, Ont. — Corrections Canada will ask police to investigate whether a hate crime was committed when a federal inmate appeared online in a video making a racial slur while taunting other prisoners who assaulted him.
Joshua Erdodi, an inmate at Joyceville Institution in Kingston, was nearly beaten to death in a riot at the medium-security prison on April 24. He was stabbed in the head and neck and he was beaten with weightlifting equipment by a group of black inmates. Erdodi, who is white, underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries and was recuperating in a Kingston hospital when he was visited by family and friends with a video camera.
A 30-second clip of Erdodi speaking to the camera from his hospital bed, his legs shackled, was posted in mid June on a public Facebook page apparently created to allow people to wish him well during his recovery.
"F—k you, n—ers," says Erdodi, reclining on a hospital bed in a pale blue gown, an intravenous tube protruding from his left arm, as he flips his middle finger at the camera. He half-heartedly retracts the statement a moment later.
"Just kidding, just kidding," he says. "I don't want no more stabbings." A woman behind the camera laughs as Erdodi snickers.
"CSC will be discussing this matter with police to make that determination whether any hate crimes have been committed," said Jacqueline Edwards, a spokeswoman for Corrections Canada at its regional headquarters in Kingston.
Federal prisoners have access to computers behind bars but they are forbidden from accessing the Internet. Edwards could not explain why family members were permitted to videotape Erdodi in hospital, while he was still under CSC's supervision. At least one correctional officer is on duty, guarding every inmate moved to a community hospital for treatment.
"A fact finding will be conducted to determine the details around that," she said. "Our mandate is limited to offenders in our jurisdiction and does not extend to members of the public."
A confidential CSC memo on the April 24 uprising, in which eight convicts were injured, identifies three black Joyceville prisoners as staging an attack on Erdodi.
Postmedia News obtained a copy of the "incident update report" dated May 6, written by security intelligence officer Karen James. The document reports that the first assailant began stabbing Erdodi and "used a bandana and glasses to conceal his identity."
Another attacker was seen "striking him with a weight bar attachment."
The document names three perpetrators. It also names two other inmates who were involuntarily placed in segregation "due to information stating that there was a hit out on their lives."
Erdodi has since returned to prison, but Corrections Canada would not say where he is housed.
The video disappeared from Facebook Friday, after Postmedia News asked Corrections Canada for comment.
Erdodi, 23, who is from southwestern Ontario, is serving a four-year sentence for armed robbery and several other crimes. His sentence began last year.
Police are still investigating the uprising in which he was assaulted. No charges have been laid.
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Crime Stories Roundup
Undated handout photo of Joshua Erdodi, an inmate at Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ont., who was nearly beaten to death in a riot at the medium-security prison on April 24.
Photograph by: Handout, Postmedia News
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