Unjustly in and out of prison and solitary confinement, Vernon T. Bateman used prison-issued rubber pens and 16 crayons—gifted from a friend who swallowed a pack of batteries to get them—to document his inner transformation, parent his child through prison walls with his children’s books, and more generally, to record the moment—capturing the horrendous and inhumane conditions inherent to the the U.S. prison system that he fought, and continues to fight, against.
The second installation of Bateman’s documentary covers the years 2007-2023. During this period, Vernon takes point in his legal battle and catches the prosecution in a lie when they fail to produce the rape kit that would produce exculpatory evidence. Instead, they make the verifiably false claim that no rape kit was ever collected. While Vernon fights his original wrongful charges, he also must battle conspiratorial accusations from an internal affairs officer, the abuse of power at the hands of his parole officers—including fabrications of both parole violations, and new felony charges that put Vernon back in prison—and vile, repressive conditions in lockup.
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16 years of transformation: Vernon T. Bateman captures the moment
Transcript
Angela Ganote in a Fox59 news segment: Bateman maintains his innocence and has from the day he was arrested and accused of rape back in 1998 at the age of 17.
Derek Ford’s narration: This was based on false testimony. In 2003, the alleged victim recanted her testimony.
Vernon T. Bateman: But I still got this ball and chain on me, and can’t do a lot of stuff. Can’t really be, be a father to my family, to my kids, my grandbaby.
I reached inside myself and did something that was beneficial to my daughter, as well as all children around the world, and I created a book called Mommy, I Want to Fly.
Ford: In “26 Years Too Long”, our previous documentary about Vernon T. Bateman, we discussed and covered the overall aspects of the unjust situation that he faces. In this installment of Vernon’s story, we’re going to be covering the years 2007 until 2023, and this is where the real story of Bateman’s inner transformation, as well as the transformation of those around him, begins.
Bateman: We know that a worm that crawls on the ground in the form of a grass-eating caterpillar, will very soon wrap itself into a cocoon. It then transforms, emerging from a distasteful, slimy, hairy worm to become a beautiful creature capable of flying with spiritual beauty.
Ford: In 2007, Vernon was housed in a county jail—not a prison— awaiting a court hearing to evaluate the recantation of Angela’s testimony.
Bateman: But I was in admiration of, thinking that I’m about to be free, because of a recantation.
Ford: After the recantation in 2007, her brother, Chris Beal, wrote a letter. Chris revealed that Angela was recently diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia. A diagnosis that came after Angela claimed she was abducted for three days—a story that did not turn out to be true. The story that she told then bears a lot of similarity to the story told in 1988.
Vernon was obviously excited about his potential release, and so when the alleged victim changed the narrative once again, he was obviously quite depressed.
Bateman: In 2007, I was real bitter. I don’t know. I lost faith in God, and everything. I wanted to vent, and I wasn’t always the humble man like you see today.
And an overwhelming heavy scent of sorrow, pity, sadness, and bitterness hung thick in the air.
This was in Wabash Valley they considered to shoot where you stand in prison. That’s where I really had surrendered my spirit and soul to God, and I was visualizing my daughter.
The children’s books… I did all that while I was in prison.
And I wanted to explain some of my conditions: this was how they was taking us to the shower. Put shackles on our ankles. Put shackles behind our back.
Ford: The children’s books were really just a jumping off point for Vernon’s exploration of his many artistic talents.
Bateman: The letter I received on March 21st, 2011 said, Dear Mr. Bateman, congratulations on your upcoming transfer.
Ford: In 2013, Vernon was released for the very first time on parole for his conviction. By 2015, he had moved to Indianapolis.
Bateman: When you advance in your mind mentally, you want to put yourself in a better position.
A caterpillar must become a butterfly, or it will die. I was sitting in the cell, singing to myself—reminiscing and thinking about how our ancestors was humming (during) slavery.
Ford: Between then and 2017, he was picked up for parole violations three times. The first incident was when Bateman had what are called Obama phones, that are automatically connected to the Internet, and he was picked up for a parole violation for that. The second parole violation was because there was a child in the back seat of a car in which Vernon was a passenger. His conviction did not involve a crime against children. And, at the time, there was no law that would make that a stipulation of his parole. The third time he was picked up for violating parole because there was a six pack of beer in his fridge. Now that six pack of beer belonged to his sister who claimed responsibility for it. But nonetheless, Vernon was sent to prison for five and a half years.
Bateman: I tried to show society, the community, the world that I was something different than what they said I was.
In 2017, I filed a motion to subpoena the rape kit to come to court. The DNA can beat everybody’s credibility. Mine, hers, every story. The DNA is the facts.
Ford: In 2017, with the help of a friend, a jailhouse lawyer, Vernon filed a (subpoena) duces tecum for the evidence of the rape kit.
Bateman: So now I gotta see the parole board to get out of prison. And when they take me to see the parole board, I’m in a wheelchair, I’m in chains.
It’s supposed to be a private phone call when you’re talking to your attorneys, but you see it’s like a 6-way cause there’s 3 other people in the room.
The parole board dude, he said, didn’t I tell you I was going to have you on a short leash. This is what this white man tell me in front of my attorneys, in front of everybody: Didn’t I tell you I was going to put you on a short leash?
Ford: There were three results of this motion that Vernon filed. The first was that the person who had helped Vernon file the motion was banned from the law library. The second is that the prosecution was caught in their own lie: They claimed that there was no rape kit. This is verifiably false as we have medical records of the rape kit being performed, and we also have testimony. The third consequence is that Vernon was put back into isolation more or less continuously for five years under terrible, really horrendous, inhumane conditions.
Bateman: This time where they put a spit bag over this guy’s head, made him strip down to his boxers.
With this mindset though, I’m still in my, in my head, bro. I’m still a human, and I’m still a man, and I’m still a father.
Can see the work of my books, bro. Every book that I ever produced, I was in the hole.
This is a picture of me praying to God, and visualizing everything that I’mma do once I get out of there.
Ford: It was during this time that Vernon came into contact with an Internal Affair officer who had a grudge against him. He told inmates, one that Vernon was smuggling drugs in, or two, that he was accusing them of smuggling drugs in to try to divide the prisoners against Vernon, and pit them against each other more generally.
One inmate, Deron Harris, even wrote a letter detailing how terrible his experience was with this officer. The reason that the officer engaged in this conduct is because he knew that Bateman was awaiting a parole hearing soon.
Bateman: This was a picture of me calling up my cousin, while I was on lock up. She asked was I getting water because they turned the water off back there and they made it that we couldn’t drink water.
Ford: Despite everything, in 2020, Bateman was granted parole.
Ganote: Bateman was paroled on December 16th, but just released from prison this morning. He was taken to meet his parole officer and learned of all of his stipulations.
Ford: 16 days later, however, he was rearrested after the car he was in, but not driving was rear ended.
Ganote: We’ve learned the woman driving the car was a guard who worked in the prison where Bateman served time.
Ford: Keep in mind that the parole officer was the wife of the internal affairs officer who had a grudge against Vernon.
Bateman: Any relationship I have with a female, I have to be approved under the stipulations that they’ve got me under.
Ganote: They claim they became friends at the prison, and she was taking Bateman to look at a new apartment.
Ford: He was not only charged with unsubstantiated parole violations, but was also imprisoned and sent directly into solitary confinement for another three years.
Bateman: So I go in the hole again, and so now it’s like a self-determination that you got to have, because you know your better conditions and you feel like you just went through all of this.
Just imagine going in a cell with your body and no sink, no toilet. Plus a dog, and Covid 19, you know what I’m saying?
Eric Jones Jr. on Underdawg Talk: What? Hold on.
Ford: A dog, a dog.
Jones Jr.: A dog, like?
Bateman: Yeah, dog that bark.
This was a guy that actually he was in the suicide cell, and he painted blood on his window and it say help. And they put sandbags by the door.
Ford: Compare this sentence to Mark Stark: When he was rearrested for possessing cocaine, and fleeing from officers, Stark was eligible for and out on parole before Bateman was, even though Bateman did not violate the terms of his parole. Stark violated his parole terms, fled from an officer, but he was released. Meanwhile, Bateman is sent back to prison and sent directly into solitary. So one can clearly see the discrepancy in the treatment of Bateman.
Bateman: People will be surprised what all a black man can accomplish with such short rope around his neck. And that’s what I did. That’s what I did for, not just me, but for my people and my babies out there. But I still, I’m trying to educate our youth. So 2020, I dropped COVID-19. I also dropped If Bullets Could Cry. Just educate our youth in a different way. In 2020 again, I dropped another book called Hoperah Winfree. This (is) George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery inside this book. This was the way that I was marching through educating our youth.
Ford: Between 2020 and 2023, Vernon was transferred between six different prisons, and he spent cumulatively over a year in solitary confinement. The conditions of this solitary confinement were extreme, and they were also arbitrary. It was in this period that he started working on the sketches.
Bateman: This another illustration I have while I was on lockup, where I turned my children’s book into a board game and transformed it into virtual reality. Everything came from when I was in the hole.
It’s a different depression, and do something to your spirit, but I was still trying to record the moments. I recorded it through art and through the utensils I had.
These crayons and this ink pen, man, come a long way, man. These 16 crayons…
A friend of mine named Isaac, he swallowed a pack of batteries. They took him out and he came back from the hospital and said they gave him crayons to be good. So he smuggled the crayons back. This a picture of me giving him my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the crayons.
That’s why you see color in this picture right now. This was a time where I visualized having a visit on my birthday. Just missing visits and family since 1998.
This what they give you while you’re in the hole. They give you a rubber ink pen. They give you this once a month. I used this to do the art that I’m about to show you now.
Ford: In June 2023, he was released from prison and back on parole, which as of this recording is one year ago today.
Bateman: I wasn’t only fighting for my freedom, I was now fighting for my sanity.
Ford: It’s like a social prison, you know, you, like, left the physical prison, but now, like society, they got him. They try to keep him caged in.
Everything is a struggle for him. The only reason he’s able to carry out these struggles against these oppressive conditions is because he’s engaged in positive struggles to transform himself. He’s engaged in struggles to parent his child from a solitary confinement cell. He’s engaged in struggles to help educate the youth about gun violence.
Ganote: Will Bateman and his attorneys at the Innocence Project be able to find that now lost rape kit? They believe it holds the truth to what happened more than 20 years ago.
Bateman: So these supposed to be the best attorneys that I do have in this, the Innocence Project. They looking at it, like we’re going to file to modify these conditions. Well file to exonerate me. So if you to aim, aim at the head. Go to the judge, go to the prosecutor. Get it all over with.
Ford: To continue this struggle, we need Vernon Bateman with us, and to make that possible we need everybody to share his story. Because his story is not only his story, it’s our story. It’s the story of many people in the United States.
E.V.E. on All about you with E.V.E.: He’s not here for you to feel sorry for him. He’s here to tell his story so that you can empathize and be there with him next to him.
Bateman: The Liberation Center gave me a voice, and they broke the chains for me. I want everyone to share my story, sign my petition, and you’ll see how I’m moving out here.
Featured photo: Vernon T. Bateman and Derek Ford meeting in the PSL Indianapolis office at the Center. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.
