Lawsuit filed in prison death of illegal immigrant

Family members of an illegal immigrant found dead in a federal prison filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Texas facility, where inmates took hostages and set fires during a riot after the man's body was carried out.

The 96-page federal lawsuit revives attention on the Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, about 175 miles east of El Paso. The prison came under scrutiny in 2008, following the death of Jesus Manuel Galindo and two riots just six weeks apart that caused an estimated $1 million in damage.

Galindo died in December 2008 after the 32-year-old had an epileptic seizure while placed in solitary confinement, his family's attorneys said. The lawsuit accuses the facility of being indifferent to prisoners' medical needs and using solitary confinement to punish inmates who complained of being sick.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include Reeves County and the Geo Group Inc., which runs the prison. Geo Group is the nation's second-largest private prison contractor and operates 14 prisons in Texas.

"They bear legal and moral responsibility for this preventable death," said Lisa Graybill, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is helping the family with the suit.

Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the Geo Group, said the company couldn't comment on pending litigation. Phone calls to the county attorney's office in Reeves County went unanswered.

The lawsuit also names several employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which said Wednesday that it does not comment on litigation.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in El Paso, seeks unspecified damages.

Galindo, who was from Ciduad Juarez, Mexico, was serving a 30-month sentence for illegal re-entry when he died. A longtime epileptic, he constantly told prison staff about his condition, according to the lawsuit.

A riot broke out after Galindo's death, as his body was being carried out of the prison. Two prison employees were taken hostage and an exercise room was burned.

Six weeks later, another riot left black smoke billowing from the sprawling complex for days. The Geo Group said the disturbance caused "significant" damage and left the facility unable to resume normal operations.

Damages to the complex totaled more than $1 million, according to county records.

Galindo constantly told guards and staff about his medical condition since arriving in December 2007. He had at least two seizures a month, including a grand mal seizure in November 2008 that required treatment at a local hospital, according to the lawsuit.

When Galindo returned to the prison, he was placed in isolation "for compliance of meds," according to the lawsuit. He died in solitary confinement a month later.

"Someone from the federal public defender's office, as well as his mother, called RCDC to express concern about his medical treatment and his placement" in solitary confinement, the lawsuit states. "And yet, from November 13 until his death four weeks later, he was never removed from isolation and his medication level was not monitored."

Many of the prisoners inside the 3,700-bed complex are non-citizens serving time on immigration charges. The facility sits just off busy Interstate 20 on the outskirts of oil-rich Pecos in Reeves County, just south of the New Mexico border in far western Texas, and has become the county's largest employer.

Following the 2008 riots, the ACLU called for a federal investigation into the prison, and reporters swooped into the remote town of 7,700 people to cover the aftermath. The civil rights group said it never received a response.

The Geo Group has run the county-owned facility through contracts with Reeves County and the Federal Bureau of Prisons since 2003. Among the 14 prisons the company runs in Texas is a large immigrant detention facility in Pearsall.