Thread: Illegal immigrant rises from near death, wins $1.5 million s

Illegal immigrant rises from near death, wins $1.5 million suit
By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 04:50 p.m., December 18, 2007
Updated 05:05 p.m., December 18, 2007

Moises Carranza-Reyes looks at his interpreter, Jairo Camargo, during a press conference on June 22, 2005, in Denver.
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Email this Print this Comments Change text size Subscribe to print edition iPod friendly Share this site Del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Moises Carranza-Reyes had to fight for his life after only seven days in the Park County Jail.

The illegal immigrant suffered a near-fatal infection in 2003, his attorneys said, because he was crammed in the filthy, freezing, overcrowded jail and forced to sleep amid sick inmates on a floor soiled with vomit and feces from overflowing toilets.

He made an amazing recovery from a heart attack and coma, thanks to Denver Health Medical Center doctors, who reportedly had given him a 2 percent chance of survival.

Ultimately, his gangrenous left leg had to be amputated and part of a lung removed because of the jail's "inhumane conditions" and medical neglect, according to his federal lawsuit filed in 2005.

Now, Park County has agreed to pay a $1.5 million settlement to the 31-year-old man — while denying any wrongdoing and Carranza-Reyes' charges, according to the agreement announced Monday.

But the disabled man's problems — and the debate over his ordeal and his illegal entry into the United States — are far from over.

Federal immigration authorities allowed Carranza-Reyes to remain in the U.S. while he recuperated. But his attorneys stressed in recent court filings that the man, who still lives in Colorado, is "in danger of deportation."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said today that "anyone who is illegally present in the United States runs the risk of being identified, located, arrested and ultimately deported."

ICE continues to have a detainee-housing agreement with Park County and the jail is inspected by the agency annually to ensure it complies with ICE's "strict detention standard," Rusnok said.

Although federal authorities paid most of Carranza-Reyes' $1 million medical bill, his attorneys wrote that the financial settlement was needed in part to fund long-term recovery for the man who remains "financially desperate, is unemployed, and in desperate need of medical care."

The immigrant "continues to suffer unbearable pain" from nerve damage in both legs and requires physical therapy and possibly more surgeries, according to court papers.

But the settlement, paid by the county's insurance, is sure to reignite protests by illegal immigration critics who railed against Carranza-Reyes' lawsuit filing in 2005.

"I am truly sorry that Moises Carranza-Reyes has lost his leg," a Denver man wrote in a letter to the Rocky at the time. "But if he had not been in this country illegally, he would still have his leg.

"I believe that the hundreds of thousands of taxpaying citizens of Colorado, who cannot afford medical insurance for doctors and hospitals, would really love to be on the jury for this trial," the writer added.

The settlement prohibits all parties from discussing the agreement, including defendants Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener and Undersheriff Monte Gore, who ran the jail at the time, along with jail nurse Vicki Paulsen.

But past public comments and court documents recount the ordeal of Carranza-Reyes ordeal, a former Mexico City police sergeant.

He was arrested March 1, 2003, in Rifle along with his twin brother, Abraham, and several other illegal immigrants in a truck. The brothers were headed for work in Chicago, where their father, a U.S. citizen, lived.

Immigration authorities took the group to the Fairplay jail, where federal officials pay the county to hold some detainees.

Carranza-Reyes' attorneys conceded that Park County improved jail conditions shortly after his detention. But his legal team, including the Washington-based advocacy group Public Justice, say he was victimized by the county's aggressive use of its jail as a money-maker by leasing inmate space to state and federal authorities.

"Park County Jail attempted to boost its net revenues by cutting basic human essentials, such as medical care, heat, clean laundry, and clean housing," co-counsel Bill Trine of Boulder said in 2005. "As a result of prison profiteering, we're seeing human rights abuses that we'd never expect to see in this country."

Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

He was issued a "foul-smelling," dirty uniform and forced to sleep on the floor on a soiled mattress between two inmates who were so sick that Carranza-Reyes had to feed them, his lawyers said.

The immigrant soon developed a strep throat. Medical staff finally took Carranza-Reyes to the hospital four days after he began complaining of aches and chills.

By the time he arrived at Denver Health Medical Center, he had pneumonia and his legs were black with gangrene.

But in a motion seeking to have the case thrown out, Park County officials noted that a 2002 inspection by federal immigration authorities found "detainees were issued appropriate clothing, bedding, and towels, and that laundry and cleaning of those items were generally done appropriately."

The defendants added that a 2003 inspection by state prison officials reported the jail "pod, cells and showers were quite clean."

Yet, in a key defeat, Denver U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller ruled in August against Wegener's and Gore's argument that Carranza-Reyes hadn't proven his case.

"A reasonable jury could conclude that the overcrowding, failure to segregate ill inmates, hot and cold water problems, toilet backups, and inability to clean the pod combined to create a serious deprivation of hygiene and sanitation," the judge wrote.

Miller added it appeared Wegener was aware of overcrowding and that it was "possible for a reasonable jury to conclude that the sheriff knew of and tacitly approved of the creation of conditions that posed a risk to inmate health."

Carranza-Reyes could not be reached for comment today . But, in 2005, the ex-cop said he couldn't believe conditions at the Fairplay lockup were as bad as jails in his native Mexico.

"We weren't treated like human beings," he said.

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Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

Have the other 59 inmates filed suits yet?

Originally Posted by had_enuf

Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

Have the other 59 inmates filed suits yet?

Bet the lawyers are looking for them

Originally Posted by had_enuf

Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

Have the other 59 inmates filed suits yet?

He was the ONLY one to have problems??? That's sounds very illogical, Mr. Spock!

Absolutely ridiculous. I'm sure the jail had better conditions than the truck that brought him over the border. I can't believe they settled, take that to a jury!

How much do you want to bet that the medical bills don't get paid???

Originally Posted by gofer

Originally Posted by had_enuf

Carranza-Reyes found himself jammed in with 60 inmates in a jail pod designed to hold 18 people, the lawsuit said.

Have the other 59 inmates filed suits yet?

He was the ONLY one to have problems??? That's sounds very illogical, Mr. Spock!

Yes, it is very illogical. Any bets that this infection was something he'd been carrying around for quite awhile?

As for his possible deportation.........what's taking so damned long? He can go back to Mexico and be considered a multi-millionaire. Why would he want to hang around here where he's only considered a "measly" single-millionaire?

How much will he have left over after the lawyer takes his cut?

How about any citizens who were or are hounded by that hospital to pay their bills and not being able to? Can they sue to have their debt erased? After all, the federal government paid for this guy's care and he's not even a citizen! Why should citizens have to be forced to pay more than they can afford?

DEPORT him NOW! He can take his ill-gotten gains and live in Mexico.

miguelina wrote:

How much will he have left over after the lawyer takes his cut?

I believe the going rate in situations like this is 1/3 to the lawyer.

"The illegal immigrant suffered a near-fatal infection in 2003, his attorneys said, because he was crammed in the filthy, freezing, overcrowded jail and forced to sleep amid sick inmates on a floor soiled with vomit and feces from overflowing toilets."

Sounds like the "5 star" hotel I stayed in whilst vacationing in Meh-he-co.