Judge Francis J. Mathew sanctioned CoreCivic for destroying video evidence tied to a Brazilian asylum seeker’s death at a New Mexico immigration facility. The company erased footage from 14 of 15 cameras after the 23-year-old attempted suicide. The judge ordered an adverse inference instruction before the January trial date.
The Intercept reported that attorneys discovered CoreCivic had destroyed hours of footage from the August 2022 incident at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia. The destroyed footage would have captured the asylum seeker hitting his cell walls, falling repeatedly, and struggling to walk in the hours before the attempt. CoreCivic offered 49 still images from the day but could not produce the video that supported 37 of them.
Rebecca Sheff, an attorney with ACLU New Mexico, told The Intercept that CoreCivic “routinely lets video evidence be overwritten.” She added, “More than three years later, we still have no convincing explanation for this destruction of evidence.” Judge Mathew said during the December hearing, “That’s a question I’m not sure we can answer without that video.”
CoreCivic reached an undisclosed settlement with the family in March after the December sanction, before the wrongful death case could reach a jury.
Public Demands Prison for Prison Giant
The Intercept reported that CoreCivic received $2.2 billion in revenue last year before reaching the undisclosed March settlement.
“Don’t you just love how certain criminal acts just aren’t treated like crimes at all?” one observer asked. “Destruction of evidence should lead to immediately losing their contract to run prisons. But we won’t do that. Because we tolerate criminals,” a commenter argued.
“Destruction of evidence should put them in their own prisons,” one person wrote. Another commenter noted, “It’s the cool felony that Martha Steward went to jail for.”
“Is this 1992 and we’re still saving prison surveillance on VHS?” one observer wrote. A community member wrote, “Wild that destroying evidence in this manor has just been handwaved for so long when company policy should clearly be to retain records when there’s a death. It’s not remotely expensive to save this video and the fact they’ve gotten away from it for so long really shows the holes in our justice system.”
“Everyone involved should be imprisoned – those workers will sell out their bosses quick enough in plea deals,” one commenter wrote. Another added, “Whoever ordered the destruction of evidence should be in jail right now. But also, [expletive] these for-profit prison ghouls.”
CoreCivic’s undisclosed settlement leaves unresolved whether prosecutors will examine criminal charges against company executives for the destroyed footage.
