Charles Adair’s family, attorneys call footage of in-custody death ‘brutal’
Making their way down the courthouse steps, members of Charles Adair’s family held hands and wiped their eyes with tissues before standing in front of microphones, ready to amplify their grief.
Erica Adair, Charles’ sister, was the only member of the family to speak at a media conference Wednesday. It had been six months since her brother died in custody, and it was the first time they saw body camera footage of the events leading to his death.
“It’s pretty devastating,” said Erica Adair. “We basically watched our loved one die. They knelt on his back until he was breathless.”
Charles Adair, 50, was found unresponsive in his jail cell on July 5, 2025, after an altercation with deputies in the Wyandotte County Jail. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, caused by mechanical asphyxia, which happens when a force or object prevents someone from breathing.
A deputy was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with Charles Adair’s death. The deputy, Richard Fatherley, is also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed April 10 against Sheriff Daniel Soptic and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.
Court records in Fatherley’s criminal case detailed an interaction with deputies where they restrained him in his jail cell. Investigators said that video footage showed Fatherley kneeling on Adair’s back for over a minute while Adair was pressed face-down on a bed and yelling for help.
In the court documents, investigators interviewed deputies who were there at the time of the altercation and assisted to restrain him. The deputies had differing opinions on whether Adair had become compliant during the restraint.
The court documents describe how Adair had pre-existing medical conditions and was being transported in a wheelchair back to his cell from the infirmary right before the altercation took place.
Family of Charles Adair had been fighting to see the body camera footage of the incident for months. Even now, the footage has not been released publicly as the criminal case against Fatherley is ongoing.
Attorneys representing the family in the civil case called the body camera video on Wednesday “devastating, brutal, and really hard to watch.”
In their lawsuit against the county and sheriff’s office, attorneys say the altercation amounts to an excessive use of force and claim the deputies involved in the altercation were not properly trained.
The attorneys did not indicate that any changes would be made to their petition after seeing the video.
“Charles Adair was in custody on a minor traffic violation,” said Ted Ruzicka, an attorney for the Adair family. “He was handcuffed face-down, compliant. The deputy knelt on his back, cutting off his opportunity to breathe.”
“A traffic violation shouldn’t be a death sentence,” he said.
Wrongful death lawsuit
The Adair family is represented by national civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Benjamin Crump. The suit was filed after Daniels and Crump had offered a $25 million settlement deal with a November deadline last year.
Standing in front of the Wyandotte County Courthouse Wednesday, Daniels continued his push for accountability. In addition to demands in the lawsuit, the family’s attorneys said they are appalled that Fatherley has not been arrested for the murder charge he faces.
Shortly after Fatherley was charged, Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said that it is county policy to not take officers facing charges into custody.
Adair’s family and attorneys argue having Fatherley out of custody presents a danger to the public, and is an unfair system, since anyone else charged with murder would be arrested, Daniels said.
“We can only do our job to push for the family to get transparency,” Daniels said. “If you have no transparency, you can’t have accountability.”
The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office has declined to comment on the case while it remains in the court system. In a previous interview with The Star, sheriff Soptic said there was an internal investigation into the events leading to Adair’s death.
Fatherley is due to appear in court May 20 for a status conference in the criminal case, according to online court records.
