Bobby Lee Medford
Photograph of Bobby courtesy of his partner, Judi Bell, obtained from Citizen Times.
Bobby Lee Medford died on June 3, 2020. The 74-year-old had been transported from Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to a local hospital, where he passed after spending over a week on a ventilator. His partner of 30 years, Judi Bell, was told just weeks prior to Bobby’s death that he would be released on June 10, 2020.
“I was supposed to pick him up today,” Judi told the Asheville Citizen Times on June 10, her voice cracking. She had gotten her car serviced, and bought a travel cage for Bobby’s beloved one-eyed parrot, Meredith. She said, “I was going to surprise him.”
A North Carolina local, Bobby served as the sheriff of Buncombe County from 1994 to 2006. His successor, Van Duncan, remembered his old boss as someone who was doggedly loyal to his friends, a man who “had a big heart” and who “did things for people they couldn't do for themselves sometimes.”
Attorney Stephen Lindsay represented Bobby at his federal trial and remembers him as someone with “a sense of honor about him.”
“Bobby came with [a] lot of baggage, obviously, but I came to like him very, very much,” Stephen said. “He could be just a gem of a gem of a human being in so many ways.”
Photograph of Bobby and his pet parrot, Meredith, courtesy of his partner, Judi Bell, obtained from Citizen Times.
The Center for Disease Control notes that anybody over the age of 65 is at high risk for severe COVID-related illness. Bobby’s loved ones say that he also had pre-existing medical conditions that put him at further risk for developing a serious case of the virus. They feel that this risk should have prompted Bobby’s early release.
Bobby’s nephew Jody Medford, said the family “is just sick” about his uncle’s treatment.
“None of the family even knew he was that sick, until my aunt got a call that he had died,” Jody told the Citizen Times. “It's really frustrating to the family. He should be home right now.”
Judi said she was similarly not notified that Bobby had become seriously ill. “The only time I heard from them was when I heard from the chaplain,” she said. “And that was to tell me he had passed.”
Bobby had been incarcerated at Butner since December, 2008. He was the 15th incarcerated person at the complex to die of COVID-19. Butner has the most cases of COVID-19 of any federal prison facility.
Judi said she would file a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons if she could. Both she and Jody believe that the decision not to release Bobby was a “death sentence.” “As far as I'm concerned,” Judi said, “they killed him.”
Anticipating his release from Butner, Judi said that Bobby had been planning to “stay at home, watch TV and be with his bird.” He also loved the beaches in Florida, and was hoping to make a trip.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Nicole Mo with information from reporting by John Doyle of Asheville Citizen Times and a press release by BOP.