March 19, 2024

The Black Community in Indianapolis has been left reeling — as shocking and disturbing details released in the last 24 hours have emerged regarding a disgraced activist exposed for posing as a Black Woman.

Satchuel Paigelyn Cole, aka “Jennifer Benton”, has spent the past several years as one of the most visible self proclaimed “Activists of Color” within Indianapolis. She has worked at and along aside the highest leadership positions in organizations such as Indy10 Black Lives Matter, Indy SURJ, and the now defunct Don’t Sleep — where she served as co-president of the organization alongside Dominic Dorsey.

Jennifer Benton and Dominic Dorsey — Former Co-Presidents of Defunct Activist Group “Don’t Sleep”

She also was one of the most visible activists in the LGBTQIA+ community, where she regularly championed for intersectional and queer rights alongside Black Empowerment.

Many detractors of Cole even accused her of using LGBTQIA+ issues to co-opt and appropriate Black Movements over time — causing extreme backlash and years of bad blood between black community members. She even served as Grand Marshall for the 2020 Indianapolis Gay Pride Parade.

Throughout the years and Cole’s rise to the top of the Activism Scene in Indianapolis, she has maintained that she was a Black Woman. News Source Freedom Indiana ran a story in 2017 about Cole and her alleged “Black Father” (Freedom Indiana removed this story from their website yesterday after more information was released on Cole, but you can find an internet copy of the page here)

Other media sources in Indianapolis also established and gave credibility to Satchuel, as she regularly appeared in articles, interviews, and headlines.

Even though members of The Indianapolis Black Community, including Black Indy LIVE, began to seriously question whether Cole was indeed a White Woman who was misappropriating her Blackness, and thousands of dollars of funding she was regularly receiving as early as 2018— those accusations were continuously shut down by the multi-cultural group of people surrounding Satchuel and supporting her endeavors.

However, bombshell information released on social media yesterday — and a dossier obtained by the Black Indy LIVE cybersecurity team — reveal the at times almost unbelievable details behind the Secret Life of Satchuel Cole.

The following information has been compiled and written based off a dossier obtained by Black Indy LIVE. It contains very serious, personal, and shocking information, that is also available to the public. We have for the time removed some of the most egregious claims and information from this current story, until we can independently verify more of the facts — even though our team has found reason to believe all the information we were given is accurate and truthful.

Who is Jennifer Benton? (Satchuel Cole)

    

Satchuel Cole (Formerly known as: Jennifer Benton) is the daughter of two Arlington Highschool Students — Rachel Irick and John Oliver Benton. The two married in 1972, and had two children, Melissa, and the youngest Jennifer who was born in 1975.

All documents obtained show that both John and Rachel indicated their races as white on legal documents. Pictures obtained by Black Indy LIVE from Arlington Highschool Yearbook also appear to verify this information. We also are including images of both Jennifer and her sister Melissa, who attended Howe High School in 1991.

(picture of her parents)

Jennifer Benton in High School

Family Trauma, A Mother’s Murder

 

The relatively quiet life of this Suburban White Family in Indianapolis started to take a bizarre and deadly turn when Jennifer’s parents separated early in her childhood. Her father reportedly moved to Florida and was never seen again. Then in 1994 — after her mother, Rachel Stimer, had remarried — Jennifer’s older sister Melissa brutally stabbed her mother to death.

Clip of article on Murder of Rachel Stimer by daughter Melissa Benton

Even though Rachel Stimer was described by her friends and colleagues as a “dedicated member of her church” and a “top flight administrator” — Jennifer would testify in court that both her and her older sister experienced physical abuse and sexual on a regular basis from her step father. She also testified that her mother knew about this abuse and would allow it.

Despite this testimony, Jennifer’s sister Melissa would be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

After only serving 8 years of her sentence for manslaughter, Melissa was released from Prison in 2002 . Upon her early release, Melissa became a devout member of Indianapolis area Englewood Christian Church. Since then she has reportedly transformed into a community servant, working with local re-entry programs and non profits, including the Indianapolis City-County Council.

Even though it appears Jennifer never did reconnect with her ex-convict sibling (though it has been reported but not confirmed that they still communicate), she also started to undergo a radical change in her own life around that same time.

UPDATE: Information received after this story was published has led us to now believe Satchuel and Melissa are in regular contact

Becoming a Black Woman

In 2010, Jennifer Benton legally changed her name to Satchuel Paigelyn Cole. This new monicker was a mix of the names of Iconic Negro League and MLB Pitcher Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige — and Jennifer’s close friend, Chantelle-Owens-Cole.

Jennifer Benton identified as “white” in legal documents before changing her identity to Satchuel Paigelyn Cole

During this time, Satuchel also started self identifying as a black woman, and began to join a variety of LGBTQIA+ and Black Activism Groups in the city of Indianapolis.

According to multiple witnesses close to Satuchel, and first hand knowledge of the situation from Black Indy LIVE staff members, she began to tell her new circle in the activism community that she was bi-racial black woman with a black father who she learned about later in life and never met.

This claim of having a black father even grew to the lengths that in 2017 Satuchel gave an interview with Freedom Indiana where she claimed that she infact did know him. The article included a picture of the man identified as “Lee Timeless Barnes” in the story, who Satchuel said was her long lost black father.

Satchuel and the man she identified as her father “Lee Timeless Barnes”

Black Indy LIVE researchers and an independent investigator have been unable to confirm this person exists, and cannot with accuracy say the individual in the picture was even aware of it being used by Satchuel for this purpose.

Satuchel’s rapid acceleration in the Indianapolis Activism Community was greatly assisted by her appointment as Vice-President with the organization Don’t Sleep, a group that was fairly well-known at the time for Primarily advocating for Intersectional & LGBTQIA+ rights. (The group is currently “defunct” after its former leader who appointed Satuchel, Dominic Dorsey, was reportedly run out of the activism scene in Indianapolis and moved to Illinois.)

Throughout the years of 2010-2020, when Satchuel was falsely self identifying as a black woman, her credibility was also bolstered by the numerous media spots and interviews she was granted through Indianapolis Mainstream News Sources.

Over a dozen outlets routinely championed Satchuel as a leader in the black community, and gave her causes airtime over those of other activists in the black community — to the dismay of many who had suspected her of foul play and deceiving the community for years.

However In 2020, Satchuel’s web of lies and deceit started to fall apart.

Death of a Lie

A Black Indy LIVE search leads to a Youtube page from who appears to be Chantelle-Owens-Cole, the best friend of Satchuel who she dedicated part of her new name to.

In the videos Satchuel, Chantelle, and an unidentified boy are seen playing around and joking with one another, sometimes dancing and seemingly having a great time (link here).

The Late Chantelle Owens-Cole

Satchuel and Chantelle did appear to share a genuine bond in the video, which is why when Chantelle-Owens-Cole was found dead on April 29th 2020, in what was described to Black Indy LIVE as a “overdose” — Satuchel deactivated her social media and took a step away from the public light.

As social causes in Indianapolis rose to dominate the landscape with the Murder of Dreasjon Reed by IMPD officers, along with Police Brutality demonstrations across the nation, Satchuel continued to remain absent from public and social media interactions.

Many attributed this not only to the death of her best-friend Chantelle, but also the death of Chantelle’s mother Rolanda Cole — who passed away just months before her daughter Chantelle.

It is ironically the obituaries describing the deaths of this mother and daughter who have unintenionally raised even more questions on The Life of Satchuel Cole.

Multiple Sources have reported to Black Indy LIVE that Chantelle Owens-Cole obituary was authored by Satchuel Cole — and several inaccurate facts in this obituary raise a disturbing set of questions.

In the Obituary for Owens-Cole (found here), it was falsely stated that Satchuel is Chantelle’s sister, and that “Xavier Owens” who is the son of Satchuel, as one of Chantelle’s Children. The obituary also lists “No Questions Asked Food Pantry” that is run by Satchuel as a beneficiary if anyone wanted to donate to Chantelle’s memory

When looking at the obituary for the deceased Rolanda Cole (found here), no mention of Satchuel is found, and Chantelle Owens-Cole is listed as her sole child. Her sole grandchildren are simply listed as “Derian and Devon”.

While this alone may not be concerning to some, shortly following the death of Owens-Cole, Satchuel opened a petition in Indiana Courts to take over the Estate of the deceased Chantelle Owens-Cole

Indiana Court case 29D03-2007-EU-000327 lists that Chantelle Owens-Cole did not have a will and states: “Satchuel Cole, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Chantelle Owens—Cole, is hereby authorized to proceed under the statutory provisions of the Indiana Code governing unsupervised administration of estates.”

Black Indy LIVE has reason to believe that assets Satchuel are attempting to acquire also include those owned by Chantelle’s mother Rolanda Cole , that were reportedly gained by her daughter just weeks before her own sudden death.

Tip of The Iceberg

A preliminary investigation from Black Indy LIVE revealed over a dozen residents in Indianapolis claiming to be victims of various schemes lead by Satchuel Paigelyn Cole — with allegations ranging as far back as 2012, to as recently as a few weeks ago.

The various allegations of wrongdoing range from identity misrepresentation, to misappropriation of thousands of dollars of funding collected by her over the years, claims of being a “slum lord” through her work in property management with low income families, to threats of physical violence against families and even children who were attempting to oppose her.

While Black Indy LIVE has found multiple claims to be credible, a full investigation into these individual actions has yet to be completed by our team.

What we have seen are multiple people who were intimately connected with Satchuel make statements distancing themselves from her in the past day — as information regarding her fradulent background spread across social media.

Some like Dominic Dorsey — Satchuel’s former business partner — maintain that even though they found out Satchuel was lying about being a Black Woman years ago, that they kept the news quiet from the greater community, despite the community’s years of suspecting it to be true.

While Satchuel Cole has yet to speak or defend her self in the midst of the growing pile of evidence and information condemning her — The Indianapolis Black Community is left asking in the aftermath….. How was she even allowed to get this far?

Several important questions remain unanswered, and only time will tell who will receive their justice.

Black Indy LIVE encourages anyone who may have been a victim of Satchuel Cole to contact us at info@blackindylive.com with their story.