The primary episode of the brand new Paramount+ docuseries "By no means Seen Once more" may be streamed free of charge on the CBS Information app till Tuesday, Could 17, or watch it within the video participant above. The primary season is out there to stream on Paramount+ beginning Tuesday, Could 10.
Naples, Fla. — On January 11, 2004, when Terrance Williams handed over some fuel cash and stated, "I am going to so long, momma," his mom Marcia didn't understand that it could be the final time she'd see her son. Nor may she have identified that her seek for Terrance, a 27-year-old Black man, would lead her to suspect that a White police officer was concerned, and that the officer had additionally been implicated within the disappearance of one other younger man of coloration, a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant named Felipe Santos.
That officer, Collier County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Calkins, was fired in August 2004 after an inner investigation decided that he lied about his interplay with Terrance Williams. However he has by no means been criminally charged in reference to the case.
Now, a deposition given by Calkins in 2020 in a civil lawsuit introduced by Marcia Williams will air publicly for the primary time on "By no means Seen Once more," a brand new Paramount+ docuseries about lacking individuals instances. The primary two episodes of the sequence are devoted to the Williams and Santos story, and are narrated and govt produced by filmmaker and actor Tyler Perry, who grew to become concerned within the case after seeing a TV report about it.
"I bear in mind flipping by way of channels in the future and I got here throughout this story and I used to be shocked and outraged at what I used to be seeing," Tyler Perry says on "By no means Seen Once more." "And I instantly thought, 'What can I do to assist? What can I do to deliver consideration to this?'"
Marcia Williams remembers how, within the speedy aftermath of her son Terrance's disappearance, she and different relations launched an intensive search round Naples. "They blew the telephones up," she recollects. Terrance had final been seen by his roommate, Jason Gonzalez, driving his white 1983 Cadillac to a celebration with coworkers on the night of January 11. Hoping that Terrance's Cadillac may present a result in his disappearance, Marcia's household tried the city's tow corporations.
It seems a tow firm did certainly choose up Terrance's white Cadillac on the Naples Memorial Gardens Cemetery on January 12. "I went to the cemetery and I spoke with the employees there," recollects Marcia, "they usually instructed me that a cop put him at the back of his cruiser and drove away with him."
Steven Calkins was the cop recognized by the cemetery employees. Contacted at dwelling by his division's dispatch a couple of days after Terrance Williams' disappearance, Calkins initially denied having had any interplay with Terrance — and even didn't recall towing a Cadillac from the cemetery on January 12. However as Marcia continued to press the sheriff's workplace for solutions, the deputy's superiors requested him to jot down an incident report. In that report, Calkins utterly modified his story, from not remembering something to outlining a really detailed account of his interplay with Terrance.
For Marcia Williams, the story of her son's disappearance is about to get extra sophisticated. Two months after he went lacking, Marcia wrote a letter to the editor of the Naples Day by day Information with a plea to assist discover her son. In brief order, she obtained a name from the native Mexican consulate.
"I obtain a telephone name from the Mexican consulate." recollects Marcia, "And I am like, 'Oh my God, they discovered my child, they discovered my child!' They had been calling me to let me know that there was a younger man, Felipe Santos, lacking." Felipe Santos was a 23-year-old undocumented Mexican employee who disappeared in October 2003, three months earlier than Terrance vanished. And the final particular person Felipe was seen with was Deputy Steven Calkins.
"They're each disappearing with the identical deputy after being put in the identical deputy's automotive," says Tyler Perry. "If it is a coincidence, then he's probably the most unfortunate man on the planet, that this might truly be one thing that occurred to him twice. I simply do not see how that's potential."
In 2018, Tyler Perry enlisted Ben Crump — a civil rights legal professional well-known for representing households of Black victims of police violence — to launch a wrongful loss of life lawsuit in opposition to Calkins on behalf of Marcia Williams.
"We frequently say Black Lives Matter when individuals we all know are unjustly killed," says Crump, "however we additionally must say Black Lives Matter when the particular person is Black and lacking."
Two years later, in December 2020, Calkins was compelled as a part of the civil go well with to sit down for a four-and-a-half-hour deposition, excerpts of that are included within the Paramount+ sequence "By no means Seen Once more." Throughout this sworn testimony, Calkins explains not having taken Terrance Williams to jail with the reminiscence that the younger man "appeared like a very nice man." For probably the most half, nonetheless, the previous police officer stated he was unable to recollect his encounters with Terrance and Felipe. And he grew offended when a plaintiff's legal professional tried to jog his reminiscence.
A courtroom appointed arbitrator finally dominated in opposition to the lawsuit, citing an absence of proof. When Crump's attorneys missed a submitting deadline to take the go well with to trial, the decide sided with the arbitrator, dismissing the case. Crump's crew is now hoping to make use of Calkins' deposition to get the federal Division of Justice's Civil Rights Division to reopen the investigation.
By his legal professional, Calkins declined an interview request. He's at the moment residing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"I simply need solutions for Marcia and the Santos household to know what occurred," says Tyler Perry, "I believe that is solely truthful. And no matter we've got to do to make that occur, it is my hope that we do it."