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A judge Issued<\/span> what appears to be the first-ever sanction against the private prison giant CoreCivic for destroying video evidence in a case alleging wrongful death of a man who died by suicide in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.<\/p>\n The sanction came shortly before a trial was slated to begin in January, but it never got underway. Instead, in March, the company reached an undisclosed settlement with the family of the detainee.<\/p>\n The judge ordered what is known as an adverse inference against the company in a December hearing. That means the jury could have presumed the missing evidence was unfavorable in an eventual trial and therefore effectively imposed a penalty against CoreCivic.<\/p>\n \u201cCoreCivic is essentially used to getting away with it \u2014 to not getting called on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The previously unreported sanction is the first known incident of a private prison corporation being held responsible in a wrongful death lawsuit for destroying video or other evidence related to immigration detainees dying in custody \u2014 despite there being cases of such behavior stretching back nearly a decade<\/a>, experts said. (Neither CoreCivic nor ICE responded to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney of ACLU New Mexico and part of plaintiffs\u2019 legal team, told The Intercept that the judge\u2019s sanction was an important response to prison companies\u2019 propensity for overwriting video evidence. In court, destroying evidence is considered \u201cspoliation,\u201d the legal term for destroying, altering or failing to preserve evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a practice we documented and unearthed: CoreCivic routinely lets video evidence be overwritten,\u201d Sheff said, \u201ceven in this case, where they\u2019ve been put on notice.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCoreCivic is essentially used to getting away with it \u2014 to not getting called on it,\u201d Sheff added.<\/p>\n Immigration attorney Laboni Hoq, who was not involved in the CoreCivic case but has pursued similar sanctions in a wrongful death case involving the prison corporation GEO Group, said, \u201cThere has to be accountability when there are knowable consequences and prison corporations flout their responsibilities to preserve evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n The CoreCivic case revolved around the detention of Kesley Vial, a 23-year-old Brazilian asylum-seeker who died in a hospital on August 24, 2022, seven days after attempting suicide at the CoreCivic-owned Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Vial\u2019s family sent CoreCivic a letter on the day he died, demanding preservation of all records relevant to his suicide attempt, including video footage taken in Vial\u2019s cell, adjacent areas, rooms, and anywhere relevant to the incident. (Vial\u2019s family declined to comment for this story.)<\/p>\n In the weeks that followed, a CoreCivic investigator produced a report featuring 49 stills taken from video footage, laying out a timeline supporting the company\u2019s contention that it bore no responsibility for Vial\u2019s death.<\/p>\n CoreCivic, however, never produced the actual video footage underlying 37 of the 49 photos, according to Sheff\u2019s courtroom testimony. In fact, the company destroyed footage from 14 of 15 cameras in use that day, Sheff testified. The company claimed to have taped over the material.<\/p>\n \u201cCoreCivic says that their staff had no way of knowing that Kesley Vial was on the verge of taking his own life on August 17th of 2022,\u201d Sheff told Judge Francis J. Mathew during a December pre-trial hearing. \u201cAnd when CoreCivic destroyed hours of video footage from that day, fully aware of the likelihood of litigation, they deprived the jury and all of us of the chance to see for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore than three years later, we still have no convincing explanation for this destruction of evidence,\u201d Sheff added.<\/p>\n The company pointed the judge to its 49-page timeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMore than three years later, we still have no convincing explanation for this destruction of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cI know of no situation where opposing parties get to tell the opposed that what they have is the important information,\u201d Mathew replied, according to an audio recording of the proceedings obtained by The Intercept.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s attorney responded, \u201cThe jury will have all the evidence they need to determine whether or not CoreCivic fell below their duty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The judge said, \u201cThat\u2019s a question I\u2019m not sure we can answer without that video.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In slightly less than an hour, Mathew made up his mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe that the spoliation of\u00a0this evidence merits a sanction,\u201d he said, \u201can adverse inference instruction to the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n Within weeks of the judge\u2019s decision, CoreCivic began settlement discussions with Vial\u2019s family for an undisclosed amount. ACLU New Mexico announced the settlement<\/a> March 19.<\/p>\n The judge\u2019s order may have factored into the company\u2019s decision to forgo a trial, which was set to start in January, said Eunice Cho, an immigration attorney with expertise in detention conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact defendants settled in the 11th hour made it clear they potentially didn\u2019t want relevant facts to be tried \u2013 including the adverse inference,\u201d Cho told The Intercept. \u201cAn adverse finding could lead the court to instruct the jury that the evidence contained unfavorable information and may damage the witness\u2019s credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
14 of 15 Cameras<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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