INB 1/6/08: Ex-Detainee Wins Settlement

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 1 - January 6, 2008

1. Ex-Detainee Wins Settlement
2. Oregon Imposes New License Rule

*1. EX-DETAINEE WINS SETTLEMENT

In a Dec. 17 press release, Colorado's Park County announced it would pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought in February 2005 by Moises Carranza-Reyes, who was held in federal immigration custody at the county's Fairplay jail for seven days in 2003. According to the suit, Carranza-Reyes, now 31, was held in a filthy, freezing jail pod designed for 18 people, but holding 60. He was issued a "foul-smelling," dirty uniform and forced to sleep on the floor on a mattress soiled with vomit and feces between two inmates who were so sick that he had to feed them, his lawyers said. Carranza-Reyes soon came down with a strep infection and began complaining of aches and chills. Four days later, medical staff finally took him to the Denver Health Medical Center; by then he had developed pneumonia and his legs were black with gangrene. The infection led to a heart attack and coma; doctors reportedly gave Carranza-Reyes a 2% chance of survival. He ultimately recovered, but his gangrenous left leg had to be amputated and part of a lung removed.

Read the full article:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/01/inb-1608-ex-detainee-wins-settlement.html