Video shows dispute between Jason Meade, neighbor over Casey Goodson Jr. shooting

A video posted to Instagram and Facebook shows former Franklin County Sheriff's office deputy Jason Meade, who is facing murder charges in the fatal 2020 shooting of Casey Goodson Jr., engaged in a dispute last week with a neighbor who repeatedly calls Meade a murderer.

The nearly six-minute video posted by Sean Walton, an attorney representing the Goodson family in a civil lawsuit against Meade, shows Meade outside in an often-heated conversation on May 24 with a man identified by law enforcement and property records as Charles Farmer, Meade's next-door neighbor near Mechanicsburg, in Champaign County.

In the video, Farmer uses multiple expletives and repeatedly calls Meade a murderer. Meade, who is mostly calm throughout the video, entreats the other man to get to know him rather than making accusations against him.

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Meade is facing charges of murder and reckless homicide in the Dec. 4, 2020 shooting death of Goodson, 23, at his grandmother's home where he resided on Columbus' Northeast Side.  A 17-year veteran of the Franklin County Sheriff's office, Meade was placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting and took disability retirement in July 2021 before he was indicted.

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Conflicting accounts about what happened between Jason Meade, neighbor

Champaign County Sheriff's office deputy Daniel Fischer responded to the scene after Michele Lee Wellman, Farmer's live-in girlfriend called 911 and said that Meade threatened to kill her, according to an incident report.

In his report, obtained by The Dispatch, Fischer wrote that he spoke with both households and they gave conflicting statements as to what had happened.

Walton said two videos of the incident involving Meade and Farmer, each over three minutes each, were filmed by Farmer's family and sent to Goodson's mother. She gave them to Walton, who put them together, separated by a brief gap.

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Walton told The Dispatch that the footage shows Meade admitting to murder.

But Meade's attorney, Mark Collins, said the video is edited, is intended to make his client look bad, and doesn't show or tell the whole story.

Collins said the incident began when Meade's daughter and a friend were riding on a four-wheeler on Meade's property and the neighbors held up signs for the girls to see saying Jason Meade is a murderer. The two were upset, Collins said, so Meade approached his neighbor to ask them why they had held up the signs. This is also what Meade and his wife told the deputy, according to the incident report.

"Our client was civil," Collins said. "Our client was polite. Our client didn't swear. Our client asked them if you want to find out who I am, come to a service one time at the church. There's no confrontation. He was told, 'You've been indicted as a murderer,' and he said, 'Yes, I have.'"

Farmer and Wellman told the deputy that Meade's daughter called Wellman names and threatened her, according to the report.

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"I asked if (Charles) was holding a sign and he stated he was," Fischer said in his report. "I asked if he could see how that would possibly trigger a response and he stated he was allowed to do that, which I agree."

Fischer advised both parties to leave each other alone and stay on their own properties, according to the report.

Wellman, when reached by phone by The Dispatch, declined to comment.

What does the video involving former Franklin County Sheriff's office deputy Jason Meade show?

The video starts as Meade jumps a fence on his property and Farmer and Meade walk toward each other. At the beginning, their confrontation, which was video recorded from a distance, is mostly covered by a woman's voice behind the camera telling somebody else to call the police.

During the video, Farmer repeatedly accuses Meade of murder. At one point during the video, Farmer calls Meade a murderer and Meade says, "that's right."

Collins said this part of the video is edited and Meade was actually asked if he was indicted for murder.

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Following this, Meade tells Farmer he does not know “the first thing about the situation.” The video then cuts and picks up with Meade accusing Farmer of working with other people in Columbus and surrounding counties to put up signs against Meade.

Walton said the posted video is two separate video clips he put together, but it was not otherwise edited. He provided the two videos prior to them being put together to The Dispatch.

At one point, Farmer said he would punch Meade and he would be justified by God.

Meade says in the video he is not harassing Farmer, he's just coming to ask about the signs about him.

"If you actually knew who I was, you wouldn't hate me," Meade said.

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Late in the video, Meade says he knows everything about people in a "chat group" who have allegedly been making disparaging comments about Meade.

"I know every one of em.' I know where they live. I know their families. I know where they work. I know everything about them, and I personally don't press charges of harassment because you guys don't know better," Meade said.

Walton told The Dispatch that the video shows Meade "is a threat to public safety. He's researching and looking into the background information of people who are demonstrating in support of Casey Goodson Jr. and calling for justice."

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Meade said that Goodson, who was licensed to conceal carry, waved a handgun while driving by him after Meade, then a SWAT deputy, had completed an assignment with a U.S. Marshal's task force in Goodson's neighborhood.

Goodson was returning from a visit to the dentist and bringing Subway sandwiches for himself and family when Meade apparently drove up behind Goodson and confronted Goodson outside the home, his family says.

A closer look: Official Franklin County autopsy confirms Casey Goodson Jr. shot 6 times, 5 in the back

Meade shot Goodson six times, five in the back, according to an autopsy that was conducted by the Franklin County Coroner's office. Officials said a firearm was found at the scene by Goodson's body.

The Goodson shooting, along with the shooting of Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, by former Columbus police officer Adam Coy later in December 2020, sparked more racial justice protests in Columbus. The incident put pressure on Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin and county commissioners to equip the sheriff's office with body cameras as the deputies at that time did not have them.

WARNING: Explicit language used in the video below

Jordan Laird is a criminal justice reporter at The Dispatch. You can reach her at jlaird@dispatch.com. You can follow her on Twitter at

@LairdWrites. 

jorozco@dispatch.com

@JessicaCOrozco

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Casey Goodson Jr. shooter Jason Meade confronted by neighbor