JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The family of Charles Faggart, the man who died after an incident inside the Duval County jail in 2025, will finally get to see what the cameras recorded, after a judge on Wednesday directed the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to hand the family the footage and the original incident reports.
The ruling is narrow. Only the Faggart family and their lawyers may review the material, and they cannot share what they see with the public for now. The family’s legal team plans to ask the court to allow wider release, and the two sides have been given time to file proposed orders on that question.
Jail staff sent Faggart to a hospital on April 7, 2025. He never recovered and died on April 10. In the months that followed, the sheriff’s office pulled eight corrections officers and one sergeant from jail duty and reassigned them to other units, including the courthouse and the property and evidence unit. A check with the agency this week confirmed those employees still have no access to inmates.
Local prosecutors at the State Attorney’s Office first looked into the death before federal agents took over in September 2025, when the FBI assumed the case. That federal review is still open. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office sent someone to Wednesday’s hearing to argue that the records should stay sealed, and the judge found that testimony was not enough to keep them from the family.
The sheriff’s office had argued the jail video and unredacted reports were shielded by a Florida exemption for active criminal investigative information. The family first asked for the records under the state Public Records Act well over a year ago and then sued the sheriff’s office and Sheriff T.K. Waters in April 2026 to force their release.
The FBI said after the ruling that it does not release investigative details so it can protect the integrity of its work. The family’s attorney said the records are needed to decide whom to hold responsible in any future civil claims, and she expects a decision on public release within a few weeks.
Section: More Jacksonville FL crime news
Filed under: Jacksonville FL Public Safety News
