Inmate dies in custody after letter telling of threats by guard; lawyers seek DOJ probe
Lawyers for the family of a Florida inmate who died in custody have released her letter telling of fears that a prison sergeant would beat and kill her.
Lawyers for the family of the inmate, Latandra Ellington, have written to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting an investigation, report the Miami Herald, the Associated Press and the Orlando Sentinel. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also investigating.
Ellington died in solitary confinement on Oct. 1, a day after a family member called the prison in Ocala, Florida, to express concerns raised by Ellington’s letter. Prison officials said Ellington was moved to solitary to help protect her.
Ellington told her aunt in the Sept. 21 letter that the sergeant had threatened to “beat the hell” out of her when she asked why she was being moved to a new dorm, and threatened her a second time when she asked to speak to a prison supervisor.
“He told me to shut the f— up he was gone (sic) beat me to death and mess me like a dog,” Ellington wrote. She was serving a 22-month sentence for tax fraud relating to the filing of fake tax returns.
Union sources told the Miami Herald in a follow-up story that the sergeant Ellington referred to was on vacation when Ellington died.
A private autopsy conducted for her family found Ellington died from blunt trauma to the stomach consistent with being kicked or beaten. Her family is represented by civil rights lawyer Daryl Parks, whose firm represented the family of Trayvon Martin.
The request for a federal investigation is the second made this year for a Florida inmate’s death. In June, several groups sought an investigation into the death of Darren Rainey, who died in a scalding hot shower in 2012.
