In February of 2020, a 48-year-old Black man named Reggie Payne slipped into a coma and later died after police restrained him face down on his parent’s living room floor as he cried out for help. No one filmed it on their smartphone. No footage flashed across newscasts.
Reggie’s death came and went quietly, unlike the murder of George Floyd just a couple months later. But journalists Rick Jervis and Jeff Pearlman refused to let it go. Nearly three decades earlier, Reggie, Jeff and Rick worked together as summer interns at a Nashville newspaper. While Rick and Jeff went on to enjoy successful careers in media, Reggie – who went by the hip-hop moniker “Sexy Sweat” – vanished into a cloud of mental health struggles and personal trauma.
Following his death, Rick and Jeff started digging. They wanted to find out not just the details of how their friend lapsed into a coma at the hands of police but also how Reggie – smart, engaging, dynamic, ambitious – wound up as yet another American tragedy. This is the story of Sexy Sweat.
On the afternoon of Friday, May 8, 2020, Sacramento Fire Capt. Gary Loesch received a call from an assistant city manager urging him to attend an unplanned meeting at Old City Hall—one he hadn’t been formally invited to, but suspected was about a recent incident involving his department.
Two months earlier, five firefighters had responded to a medical call in south Sacramento for a man acting erratically due to a diabetic episode. Police were called for backup and handcuffed the man in the prone position as firefighters attempted to treat him. He lost consciousness, slipped into a coma, and died a week later after being removed from life support.
Loesch had launched an internal investigation, but he knew city officials were conducting their own. When he arrived at the meeting, he found city attorneys and staff reviewing police body cam footage showing Reggie Payne struggling while restrained on his parents’ living room floor. A city official quickly demanded the immediate termination of all five firefighters—a move that shocked Loesch, who questioned the lack of due process and the absence of any accountability for the police officers involved. While he agreed discipline was necessary, firing the firefighters felt extreme and unjustified. Something wasn't right. And it was only the beginning.
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31 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 7: The Big Red Handle
Reggie Payne was rushed by ambulance to Sutter Medical Center, four miles north from the family’s home in Sacramento. This was February 25, 2020. He arrived at the hospital at 8:22 p.m., and was wheeled into the emergency room—clinging to life.
At around 10 p.m., Reggie could no longer breathe on his own. He was intubated.
Reggie’s family raced to the hospital and arrived to find him in an emergency room cubicle — comatose and on life support. They were stunned. Harriet’s hope faded as she prayed at Reggie’s side in the ER. It didn’t look good.
Meanwhile, the City of Sacramento and the police department were looking for someone to blame.
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24 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 6: Rodeo Star
On the evening of February 25, 2020, Harriett Jefferson became alarmed as her son, Reggie Payne, lapsed into a bad diabetic reaction. He hadn’t eaten all day and had sat through four hours of dialysis. Now, he was acting strange. Wobbling back and forth. Speaking incoherently. Harriett was growing increasingly concerned. She needed help. So, she did what a lot of people in her situation would: She dialed 911.
Just four months earlier, Reggie had had a similar episode. Harriett had called 911 then and paramedics arrived at the home and helped him replenish his glucose levels. They were professional and courteous, and Reggie was fine after that. There was no reason to think this call would go any differently.
This time, however, things would go differently. In fact, things would go stunningly, irreversibly, tragically wrong. Reggie would end up on the floor of the home, face down, hands cuffed behind his back, pleading to breathe.
This podcast episode contains discussions of police brutality and features audio of traumatic events. Listener discretion is advised.
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17 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 5: Voices Travel
In 2019, Reggie and his sister Janine went to a high school reunion. It was going great...until it wasn't. Janine had to pull him off the dance floor when she started to see the paranoia and aggression signaling a bipolar episode.
That’s how it was with Reggie: a few hours of him being happy, calm, collected – followed by a steep slide into paranoia and distrust. That’s when Dark Reggie would emerge. And increasingly, Dark Reggie was running the show.
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10 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 4: Homecoming
Reggie's time as a sports editor at the Grambling student newspaper suggested he had it all in front of him. He was a gifted rider with a ton of talent and street smarts. But after a violent encounter at the school, Reggie got on a bus, which was a two-day ride home, and something in his head snapped.
When he got to Oakland, his family met him at the bus station. And the person who walked off the bus left them stunned.
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3 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 3: Where Everybody is Somebody
Reggie Payne recounts his challenging experiences as a journalism student and first-time father at Grambling State University, including a violent incident that altered his perspective.
26 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 2: 69 Village
Harriet Jefferson raises Reggie Damone Payne in Oakland, teaching him the importance of education, family, and love to navigate life's challenges; this is not an interview.
19 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT
Episode 1: Exactly
Rick Jervis and Jeff Pearlman recount their 1993 summer internship with aspiring rapper Reggie Payne, also known as Sexy Sweat, and detail their 30-year search to uncover the mystery of his disappearance; this is an investigative episode.
12 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT
Introducing: Finding Sexy Sweat
This episode introduces the Finding Sexy Sweat podcast, but provides no specific details about its content or guests.
Inside a recent episode
Episode 8: No One Will Know My Struggle
Published 7 Aug 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] I watched that video, and I'm putting myself in the place of the guy on the floor, saying, I can't breathe, mama, and I'm just appalled. And I want to be his advocate. Backed by Nicholson and Baghdaddi, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Sacramento in November of 2020. […]
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