Louisiana Voice

That whistleblower’s complaint by a former nurse at the LASALLE CORRECTIONS-run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia has just exploded into a major class-action federal lawsuit that lays bare the widespread practice of unwanted hysterectomies performed on female detainees that, if not condoned, then were at least allowed by Ruston-based LaSalle Corrections and a host of co-defendants, including Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.

The lawsuit, lodged in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, was filed by 14 women on behalf of a “main class” of 60 women and a “retaliation sub-class,” claims that a doctor who only five years was among a group of doctors at Irwin County Hospital who settled a MEDICAID FRAUD CASE for $520,000, performed unwanted hysterectomies on female detainees after telling each of the women they had ovarian cysts or, in one case, a benign tumor.

In several of the cases, follow-up examinations by another doctor revealed no such condition existed.

Claims asserted in the 154-page COMPLAINT bring to mind the infamous “Tuskegee Study” of the effects of syphilis on Black men in which victims were allowed to go untreated for the disease.

Like the Tuskegee victims, the federal detainees at the LaSalle-run facility were not informed of the medical procedures being performed on them. Unlike Tuskegee, the women from the Irwin County Detention Center were not volunteers and had no say in their treatment or choice of doctors.

Among the claims of the plaintiffs:

• Subjecting them to unconstitutional and unlawful practices;
• Retaliating against petitioners for bringing the suit;
• Retaliating against or otherwise deterring petitioners from testifying in federal court proceedings or otherwise participating in any investigation or legal action related to their detention or abuse, including deportations;
• Removing witnesses needed in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation.

The last claim involved either placing witnesses in solitary confinement or transferring them to another area in order to conceal them from congressional investigators – and warning witnesses to keep their mouths shut and not talk to investigators.

Defendants, besides Wolf, Barr, and LaSalle, include:

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);
• Thomas Giles, Acting Director of the Atlanta Field Office of ICE;
• Tony Pham, Senior Official performing the duties of ICE director;
• Cesar Ciprian, Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer of ICE Atlanta Field Office;
• Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC);
• David Paulk, warden of Irwin County Detention Center;
• Hospital Authority of Irwin County;
• Dr. Mahendra Amin, the doctor who performed the surgical procedures on the detainees, and
• Various other officials and employees of ICE, LaSalle, and Irwin County Detention Center.

Amin, who also is accused of indiscriminately administering Depo, aka birth control, shots, invariably would perform painful vaginal examinations on the women and declare that they had ovarian cysts and were in need of surgery, paid for, of course, by Medicaid.

The women claimed in their petition that they were coerced to sign consent forms printed only in English even though they did not understand English and no interpreters were provided.

Moreover, some of the women, including a 16-year-old were required to fully disrobe in the presence of a guard who refused to leave the examination room – even during vaginal examinations.

One of the women, 35-year-old Jenel Haug, described her experience as “the most medical way of being raped you could possibly experience.”

The “main class” is defined in the lawsuit as “All individuals who were subjected to non-consensual, medically unindicated, and/or invasive gynecological procedures while they were detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Irwin County Detention Center.”

The proposed “retaliation sub-class” was defined as “All individuals who, after speaking out about or protesting experiencing non-consensual, medically unindicated, and/or invasive gynecological procedures while they were detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Irwin County Detention Center, were subject to retaliation by ICE and ICDC respondents.”

“The Main Class and the Retaliation Sub-Class are so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable,” the petition says. “There are at least 60 individuals who are members of the Main Class. Given the rampant, systematic retaliation against petitioners and putative class members, many of the at least 60 individuals are also members of the Retaliation Sub-Class.”

The petition says that because ICE contracts with Irwin County, which in turn contracts with LaSalle, for the operation of the detention facility, “ICDC, LaSalle, and their employees, agents and officers are state or local actors and subject to suit…independent of whether they may also be considered federal actors because they are engaging in the core federal function of civil immigration detention.”

Shortly before a congressional delegation, led by Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey, arrived at ICDC, the defendants and their employees/contractors transferred some survivors of the alleged medical abuse to a different area that was not scheduled for inspection by the delegation. Defendants ordered the women not to speak to any of the congressmembers.

One of the women, Yanira Yesenia Oldaker, on Oct. 28, provided a declaration and list of victims to her attorneys. Four days later, her commissary account was “zeroed-out,” in preparation for her deportation. Only the intervention of her attorneys prevented her forced exit from the country.

Others were not so fortunate despite court rulings that say the deportation of a material witness in a criminal proceeding may establish a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

“Respondents have acted in bad faith by deporting several petitioners within days, and in some cases, within hours, of (their) coming forward and sharing their experiences at ICDC,” the petition says. “By deporting or threatening to deport petitioners in this case, respondents have infringed on the rights of all petitioners to a full and fair hearing on their claims.”

LaSalle has been cited on numerous occasions for negligence, a lack of proper training for employees, falsification of records, and even for failure to pay benefits for employees (see HERE, HERE and HERE, and it was recently announced that it would be TERMINATING ITS CONTRACT to run the Bowie County Bi-State Jail in Texarkana on Feb. 12 after a number of lawsuits over wrongful deaths, injuries and abusive treatment at the facility.

One of the promises made by Joe Biden in his successful campaign for president was to abolish the practice of private prisons.

William Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet that “A rose by any other name…”

LaSalle Management, LaSalle Corrections, WMC Enterprises, it doesn’t seem to matter what you call it, the Ruston-based private prison company just can’t seem to stay out of trouble.

Five former inmates of the LaSalle-run Richwood facility in Ouachita Parish settled their LAWSUIT against LaSalle for $177,500 after prison guards pepper-sprayed them while they were handcuffed and kneeling back in 2016.

And though LaSalle did not admit liability in the confidential settlement with Adley Campbell, Darin Whittington, Sidney Stephens, Jareth Vinet and Jimmy Klobas last March, the father of one of the men said he preferred that the settlement offer be declined so that facts about the facility might become public.

Larry Vinet of Charleston, West Virginia, father of Jareth Vinet said, “I told my son I’d give him 20 grand to not sign (the agreement) and let the truth come out.”

LaSalle holds both state inmates and immigrant detained for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and one such immigrant killed himself in October 2019. An Associated Press investigation indicated that the suicide was PREVENTABLE.

Associated Press also took issue with the confidentiality terms of the pepper spray lawsuit, successfully seeking that they be made public.

In 2017, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the state’s public records law applied to private entities performing public functions. Thanks to that ruling and the Associated Press’ public records request, Vinet can have his $20,000 from LaSalle and the truth can come out.

More and more, the trend for corporations and individuals named as defendants is to negotiate confidential settlements without an admission of guilt in cases in which they feel they are at a legal disadvantage.

Often, these confidential settlements involve public officials in which vast amounts of taxpayer dollars are spent in legal defenses, yet the taxpaying public is never told the amount of the settlements it is paying for.

LouisianaVoice has long held the position that such lack of accountability is wrong and that the public has the right to know how its money is being spent – and how much. Such settlements amount to little more than an official way to protect wrongdoers from exposure.

The lawsuit alleged that in 2016, the five men were pulled out of a dormitory, strip-searched and interrogated about tattoos. After they put their clothes back on, they were handcuffed and escorted to an area called the “White House,” where they were accused of being members of a gang and made to kneel. They were then sprayed with pepper spray, according to the suit.

A federal INDICTMENT in March 2018 charged five former Richwood guards with conspiring to assault inmates and filing false reports concerning the incident. All five pleaded guilty to conspiracy during 2018 and 2019, saying they filed false reports to cover up why the inmates needed medical care. One pleaded guilty to plotting to violate the inmates’ civil rights and the others to conspiring to cover up wrongdoing.

Four admitted in writing that they had sprayed pepper spray into the faces of kneeling, handcuffed inmates; the fifth said he stood by during the spraying. One of four who used the spray were died in an unrelated shooting before he could be prosecuted. The other guards received sentences ranging from 15 months to five years.

Former Capt. Roderick Douglas admitted pepper-spraying two inmates’ eyes, then passing the can to other guards.

He said the officers “rounded up five inmates whom they suspected of gang activity.” They were taken to an area without security cameras and placed facing the walls on their knees, with hands cuffed behind their backs.

LaSalle, which had taken down its Web pages recently, has apparently re-worked its Web profile into an attractive presentation that makes it seem the ideal place to work, inviting PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES to “Join a team where you can make a difference in people’s lives” and pitching itself as committed to PROVIDING SAFETY and SECURITY to ENSURE the WELL-BEING if the PEOPLE in OUR CARE.”

It touts 25 locations in five states (Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico) with the capacity to warehouse 17,318 prisoners paying up to $65 per day per person.

The breakdown is as follows:

• Louisiana – 8,208;
• Texas – 6,905;
• Georgia – 1,201;
• Arizona – 860;
• New Mexico – 144.

That number will be reduced by at least one facility and 921 beds in February when LaSalle’s contract to run the Bowie County Correctional Center in Texarkana, Texas, ends.

While LaSalle’s facilities have come under criticism by regulators from without, it hasn’t done too well from within, if EMPLOYEE REVIEWS rating it as 2.3 on a scale of 5.0 are any indication.

Don’t forget to order your copy of my newest book, Bordello on the Bayou. It’s the story of a legislative aide who uses her proximity to power to run a prostitution ring that at first caters only to Louisiana political officials and powerful lobbyist but which eventually expands into other southern states and employs more women.

With expansion comes access to sensitive information that could topple careers. Not surprisingly, when she is arrested for her extracurricular activities, she becomes a dangerous liability to her clientele, who range from the governor to municipal officials. When she engages the assistance of her attorney and a reporter she trusts, she sets in motion a chain of events that places the lives of all three in peril.

The book is $30, with $5 of each sale goes to the Baton Rouge Food Bank. You may pay by credit card by clicking on the yellow

button in the column to the right of this post or by mailing your check to:

LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, LA 70727.

As always, thank you for supporting LouisianaVoice and the Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Random

Sharon Black started out as an aide working for the Louisiana Legislature but she had the looks and the smarts needed to advance her career. All she needed was an opportunity.

It came when she found herself catering to the more basic “needs” of legislators and lobbyists who took notice of her striking beauty and captivating personality. Seeing a growing demand for her services, she recruited others, professional women like herself and college students, who shared her ambitions and tastes for the finer things in life. In time, she found herself being asked to use her discretion to handle matters that had nothing to do with legislation. Men of power took her into their confidence with sensitive documents. Pillow talk from Louisiana’s movers and shakers provided her with the leverage needed to expand her operation into other Southern states.

Then her world is shattered. Arrested for running a multi-state prostitution ring, she suddenly becomes a major liability. While the news media speculates about a “black book” containing the names of her clients, she harbors a much deeper and infinitely more damaging secret: a computer flash drive containing incriminating documents intended as insurance but in a cruel twist of fate, that now only serve as her death warrant. But first, she must get it into hands she can trust.

Desperate, she sends a message from her jail cell to reporter Dylan Bienvenu, the only person she knows won’t betray her. But she only succeeds in placing a target on Dylan’s back as he is hunted by unknown members of a shadowy cartel who want him dead in an adventure that takes him on chases through Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Madisonville. Along the way, he forms a bond with Sharon’s attorney, J. Harley Pendergast, III, and the two join forces in their quest to find and destroy a major criminal enterprise. In so doing, they encounter bombings, beatings, kidnappings and grand juries as they race to stay one step ahead of their pursuers.

Bordello on the Bayou is my latest book and this is your first opportunity to purchase it. It’s my first fiction story to be published as a physical book (I have two e-books that have never been published in hard print). All my other books are non-fiction.

Bordello on the Bayou is a novel I’ve had kicking around in my head for several years and I finally got around to committing it to paper. A few close friends have read the manuscript and the feedback I’ve received from them has been positive thus far. (But then they are my friends and probably just don’t want to hurt my feelings.)

The price of the book is $30 and you may order your signed copy by clicking on the yellow

button in the column to the upper right of this post or you may send a check for $30 to LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, LA. 70727.

Five dollars from each order will be used to purchase food for the Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Get your order in today so we can get contributions to the Food Bank before Christmas!

As always, thank you for your support of LouisianaVoice.

–Tom Aswell