CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Prison
Corporation Charged with Murder, Manslaughter
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 42, October 31, 2008
A Texas grand jury in Willacy County, Texas last week indicted GEO Group Inc.
– formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corporation – on one count of murder
and two counts of manslaughter.
The indictment grows out of the April 26, 2001 death of an inmate at one of the company’s facilities in Raymondville, Texas.
The inmate – Gregorio De La Rosa – was beaten to death by fellow inmates with socks stuffed with padlocks.
The murder count alleges that the company “intentionally or knowingly” caused the death of De La Rosa by allowing the inmates to beat De La Rosa to death.
One of the manslaughter counts allege that the company “recklessly allowed” the beatings to occur.
The other manslaughter count alleges that the company intended to cause serious bodily injury while committing a felony – aggravated assault.
De La Rosa was beaten just four days before his release from the Willacy State Jail in Raymondville, Texas – which was owned and operated by the company.
De La Rosa, 33, was serving a six-month sentence for a minor drug offense.
His family sued the prison company.
The family was represented by Ronald Rodriguez, a lawyer based in Laredo, Texas.
The District Attorney in Willacy County is Juan Angel Guerra.
Corporate Crime Reporter will run an interview with Guerra in next week’s issue (print edition only).
The civil lawsuit alleged that the beating was part of a “tradition of payback, whereby prisoners were beaten just before their release.”
The family alleged that the guards knew about these beatings but did nothing to stop them.
De La Rosa was not the first inmate to undergo beating by padlocks stuffed in socks prior to release, the lawsuit alleged.
In September 2006, a jury returned a $47.5 million verdict – including $20.5 million in punitive damages.
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