Three hours after a pedestrian was struck and killed by a deputy driving a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office cruiser, the chief of investigations made statements hinting the crash victim might have been homeless and potentially suicidal. He was neither.

At a post-midnight press briefing in May, Chief Chris Butler relayed a now-contested witness account to suggest 62-year-old Blane Land might have been homeless. The chief did so 10 minutes before detectives knocked on the door of the Mandarin address listed on his driver’s license, where they found tenants who were renting the residence from Land.

Butler also told reporters Land ran out in front of a rescue vehicle with its sirens and lights on, causing it to blare its horn, then hovered in the center lane before he was hit when he “darted” back in front of the police cruiser. The description prompted reporters to ask if it was suicide and the chief said he was not ruling that out.

By noon the next day, the Sheriff’s Office had obtained video footage contradicting that entire narrative. Detectives knew the footage existed more than an hour before the press briefing started. The video showed that the person who ran out in front of the rescue vehicle was someone else who crossed University Boulevard just before Land did.

The flaws in the initial account and the timeline of the detective work that uncovered them was made clear by a traffic homicide report recently obtained by the Times-Union. The Sheriff’s Office has made no statements correcting the record about the crash since the briefing, even after the investigation was closed on June 9.

Officer Tim James, whose car struck Land, was cleared of wrongdoing in the crash. One day later, he was arrested on charges of beating a handcuffed teenager in the backseat of his patrol car.

The officer had been investigated 11 times when Butler gave a five-minute briefing in which he cast no doubt on the statements of Officer James, the subject of a series of sustained complaints that included lying to his supervisors.

There is no estimated speed listed for James in the traffic homicide report, but it includes statements from James where he said he was in no hurry to get there, going 35-40 mph.

Stacy Land described her brother Blane as a devout Buddhist and an IT entrepreneur who lived in Pensacola and helped care for their elderly parents. To see him described as potentially homeless or suicidal was like losing him twice, she said, questioning why the Sheriff’s Office has not come forth with more information.

“You put the story out there, you need to pull it back,” Land said. “Because that was a harmful story. And they haven’t even made an effort.”

Sheriff Mike Williams said the agency has no policy of issuing follow-up clarifications, in part to protect the investigations. But he said that correcting rumors might be an appropriate step to take if contradictory evidence is found.

Attorney John M. Phillips, who is building a negligence case against the Sheriff’s Office on behalf of the Land family, ignited a public spat over access to public records last month when he shared a $314,000 cost estimate in a viral Facebook post. Phillips had requested all records related to the case as well as all internal investigations of officers from the last 10 years, a task the agency said would take nearly 7,000 hours of work to complete.

Phillips had not yet seen the traffic homicide report when it was obtained by the Times-Union. He said the Sheriff’s Office was reckless in its statements to reporters in the aftermath of Land’s death and has been silent ever since.

Phillips said, “Victims deserve answers.”

THE VIDEO

On the night of the crash, Butler described Land’s movements in the road as erratic.

“As soon as the fire rescue vehicle passed him, he then darted back across toward the Burger King and was struck by police officer T.L. James,” Butler said.

A reporter asked if there was “any indication whether the individual who did that, just because of the way you’re describing it, maybe this was a suicide attempt?”

Butler at first responded that he didn’t know and that officials would have to contact friends and family to determine that. But then he continued.

“I’m not ruling that out at this time, but, it may be something where he’s just running out in front of the cars, maybe got confused or something like that, and then came back across after the rescue vehicle, after the first threat.”

Those comments went unattributed to any witness. Phillips said they amounted to defamation.

“Saying he ‘darted’ back and forth and was ‘running in front of cars,’ ” the attorney said. “No witnesses expressed this and no released evidence shows it.”

The idea that Land might have been suicidal was attributed to a Zone 3 assistant chief in the traffic homicide report. The chief based that off an individual inside the rescue vehicle saying they nearly hit the same individual. Another witness also said that she saw Land nearly get hit by an ambulance before he was hit by the police cruiser.

Land’s parents have no recollection of being asked whether their son was suicidal, according to Stacy Land. She said the detectives were gracious and pleasant on the phone, but that the family was shocked by media accounts the next day.

As those accounts were circulating, Detective M.J. Spaulding obtained the video surveillance footage.

“It shows that male finished crossing the street and was on the sidewalk when the victim was struck,” he wrote in the report.

THE THIRD WITNESS

The insinuation that Land might have been homeless is attributed the third witness listed in the traffic homicide report who worked at the nearby Burger King.

Jammie C. Brown said she was outside talking to a police officer about her stolen truck when the crash occurred, the report said. She told Spaulding that she thought Land was homeless, “because he comes into the Burger King all the time and asks for a cup of water.”

“She said that the other day someone bought him something to eat,” Spaulding wrote. “She said that in her many encounters with him, that ‘he seems a little off.’ ”

Spaulding included Brown’s speculation that Land might have been “off of his meds.”

Stacy Land rejected those comments as “crap.” Her brother wasn’t on medicine for anything other than his diabetes, she said, and he didn’t abuse alcohol or take drugs.

Although Blane Land lived in Pensacola, he did stay in the motel next to the Burger King when he was in Jacksonville for work reasons or to fight against the foreclosure of his property in court, Stacy Land said. Blane Land had a relationship with the motel owner, she added.

Phillips also took particular issue with Brown’s statements. He pointed to Brown’s criminal history and asserted that her account should not have been reported to the media in the way that it was.

A search of county records indicated that Brown has been involved in several criminal cases since 2009, most of them involving nonviolent offenses related to poverty, such as fraudulent use of a credit card and aggressive panhandling.

In his briefing, Butler said that “witnesses” reported him coming into Burger King and that he may have been homeless, but the report cites only Brown as saying that.

“Instead of being discredited, she’s turned into multiple witnesses,” Phillips said.

Brown could not be reached for comment and the phone number provided in the police report was disconnected.

‘SHAKEN UP’

Another witness listed in the report said she talked to James after the crash, and that he was “shaken up.”

“I felt so bad for him,” Hannah Sweeny said. “I believe it was an accident on both parts.”

Sweeny said she was outside the motel when the crash occurred. She is quoted in the report as saying that she went to cover Land with towels after finding him naked.

Stacy Land said she was horrified when she read that description, because she knew it couldn’t be true.

“It made him seem deranged,” she said.

Sweeny clarified to the Times-Union that Land had clothing on but had been “knocked off” upon impact.

In the report, James told Spaulding that he was in no hurry to get to the robbery call because he was not the primary officer responding. He said the rescue vehicle was about a quarter-mile ahead of him.

“He said that he saw the pedestrian just as he hit him, and was not sure which way he came from,” Spaulding wrote in the report.

Spaulding concluded that the “pedestrian was at fault for crossing the roadway in an undesignated area.”

“The area that the victim chose to cross the roadway is not well illuminated,” he added.

Phillips, the attorney, contested that as well, saying that part of University Boulevard was actually well lit.

Stacy Land has been following her brother’s case — from the initial media reports to the public records right — on Facebook.

“People in power are echoing these lies,” she said. “They’re not apologizing.”

Ben Conarck: (904) 359-4103