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Update: U.S. asks dismissal from detainee death case

4:52 PM Thu, Oct 08, 2009 |
Maria Armental    Email

By W. Zachary Malinowski
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The federal government has filed a motion in U.S. District Court seeking to be removed as a defendant in a civil lawsuit involving the death of a Chinese national while in the custody of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility last year.

In court papers filed this week, lawyers for the government argued that the evidence shows that Wyatt, as well as jails in Massachusetts and Vermont where the detainee was housed in the months before his death, "were acting as contractors'" for the government. None of the jails, the lawyers argued, were federal facilities.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Lin Li Qu, also known as Michelle Ng, the wife of Hiu Lui "Jason'' Ng, who died of cancer on Aug. 6, 2008. Despite repeated pleas for help, Ng's cancer was not diagnosed until the final days of his life.

Lawyers for the Ng family have repeatedly maintained that Jason Ng was roughed up, dragged across a cement sally port and denied any kind of help for his worsening physical condition. Investigations conducted by Wyatt's professional standards unit, as well as the state police, also concluded that Ng was mistreated.

Several corrections officers and nursing staff were fired or disciplined for their conduct.
The FBI and Justice Department also has launched a criminal civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ng's death.

John J. "Jack'' McConnell, a lawyer for the Ng family, declined to comment.

Now, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith will give McConnell several weeks to respond to the government's motion. Once that is done, both sides will appear for a hearing his courtroom.

Ng's death has led to a lengthy period of turmoil at the Central Falls jail. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly withdrew all of its 153 detainees from the facility in December. The move sent the privately-owned jail into a financial tailspin.

Since then, the jail has been engulfed in political sniping between Central Falls Mayor Charles D. Moreau and members of the Central Falls Detention Facility Board that oversees the facility.

The original version of this story was posted at 2:57 p.m.

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