|
RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (AP) - Jurors ordered a private prison operator and its warden to pay $47.5 million to the family of a man beaten to death by fellow inmates four days before finishing his drug sentence.
"The evidence was disturbing. It showed a failure to properly search, inadequate staffing and improper response," said Ron Rodriguez, an attorney for Gregorio De La Rosa's family.
De La Rosa was serving a six-month sentence in 2001 when two inmates struck him with padlocks stuffed into socks in the prison yard. His family claimed in a lawsuit that the death was avoidable. Inmates had used padlocks as weapons before, so it was foreseeable that they would again, the suit claimed.
|