Tyler Perry is teaming up with renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump in the filing of a wrongful death suit in the case of two Florida men who went missing 15 years ago. Former Collier County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Calkins was the last person to see both men alive and is believed to have been potentially responsible for the men's deaths.
Felipe Santos and Terrance Williams were both in North Naples, Florida, when Calkins arrested them on separate occasions. In October 2003, Santos was in a minor car crash when Calkins arrested him for driving without a license and was never seen again. In January 2004, Calkins is alleged to have pulled Williams over for unknown reasons before taking him into custody for failing to show his driver's license and registration. He, too, disappeared.
According to the Naples Daily News, Calkins was later fired for giving conflicting statements and being uncooperative during questioning, although charges were never filed. He is now believed to be living in Iowa.
On Tuesday, Crump announced the lawsuit and his representation of Williams’ estate and family in a news conference. Crump, who represented Trayvon Martin's family, was flanked by actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry and Williams' mother, Marcia.
Although the remains of neither man ever surfaced, Florida law states a person is presumed dead if they have not been home for at least five years. This suit claims that Calkin is responsible for their deaths.
"When somebody goes missing, and they are a blue-eyed blond woman, it’s all over the news,” Perry said. "I don't know how you can sit and not be upset that these two people, black, white, Mexican, it doesn't even matter, would be put in the back of a sheriff's deputy's car, somebody we are supposed to trust.”
Perry first became involved with the case in 2013, offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to their locations. He has now doubled the reward to $200,000 for any information in the missing men's cases.
According to Crump, with the filing of the suit, Calkins will be subpoenaed and required to give sworn testimony about his encounters with Santos and Williams along with further details regarding the circumstances of their disappearances. If Calkins avoids the summons and subpoenas, Crump said he would seek an order from a judge to hold Calkins in contempt of court.
“I’m not going to let it go until they have the answers they deserve to have,” Williams’ mother said during the conference, to which Crump agreed.
“We don’t know if we’ll ever find remains for Terrance Williams or Felipe Santos,” Crump concluded. “But our hope and prayer is to get Ms. Williams answers."
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