Judge puts off decision on release of detainee's records
2:38 PM Wed, Dec 10, 2008 | Permalink
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By Karen Lee Ziner PROVIDENCE -- Superior Court Judge Patricia Hurst today told lawyers she needs more information before deciding whether the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility must release records pertaining to Hiu Lui Ng, a detainee who died while in federal immigration custody in August. She continued a hearing until Jan. 29. The delay, coupled with the government's sudden unexplained removal of 153 immigrant detainees from the facility in Central Falls this week, will hamper a planned civil suit by Ng's widow, says John J. McConnell Jr., volunteer attorney for the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That is our biggest concern, both that they've been moved and (some) deported," said McConnell, " ... when they could be witnesses to what could be the torture of an innocent man. McConnell added, "I'm actually frightened" that the moving of the detainees has crippled the planned civil suit. Ng, a computer engineer from New York, died of complications of advanced cancer on Aug. 6 at Rhode Island Hospital. He also had a fractured spine. McConnell and Steven Brown, R.I. ACLU director, also accused Wyatt authorities and the federal government, of stymieing their attempts to get the records. McConnell said, "I can't understand, for the life of me, why Wyatt and the federal government are keeping these records" from Ng's family. McConnell argued that because Ng is dead, "he is no longer a detainee" and the government no longer has control of the records. Jeffrey Techentin, who represents the Wyatt's interests, said the Wyatt facility "is constrained by the fact that the federal government has control of these documents." He said he contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which said it has made review of those documents "a top priority." Judge Hurst told the lawyers to delve more "into the public policy and regulatory intent" behind a rule they debated at the hearing. The ACLU affiliate said Ng's death was "needless and cruel," the result of cancer that went undiagnosed and undetected while he was in the custody of Wyatt and ICE. Ng's "constant pleas for medical attention were ignored, and he was accused of faking his illness," the ACLU said. 
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