24 DAILY NEWS – A judge has issued what may be the first-ever sanction against CoreCivic, a prominent private prison operator, for destroying video evidence in a wrongful death case concerning a detainee who died by suicide while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The sanction was issued just prior to a scheduled trial in January, which did not proceed. Instead, in March, CoreCivic reached an undisclosed settlement with the family of the deceased detainee.
### Adverse Inference Ruling
During a December hearing, the judge ordered an adverse inference against CoreCivic, allowing the jury to assume that the missing video evidence would have been detrimental to the company’s case. This remarkable ruling holds significant implications as it marks the first instance of a private prison corporation being held accountable for evidence destruction in a wrongful death lawsuit related to immigration detainees.
Rebecca Sheff, a senior staff attorney at ACLU New Mexico and a member of the plaintiffs’ legal team, stressed the importance of this
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