Internal investigation omitted witness interviews identifying the guard at the center of the case
A widow just cleared a major procedural hurdle in her lawsuit over her husband’s death by suicide in a District of Columbia jail.
The man was arrested in late May 2022 and detained at DC’s Central Detention Facility. According to the complaint, he was removed from suicide precautions on June 3, 2022, and moved to a cell that “did not permit careful and constant monitoring” and gave him access to bedsheets. Over the next six days, the filing alleges, he told both corrections and health staff he was suicidal.
He died on June 9, 2022.
At the heart of the case is an allegation that at least one guard, rather than intervening, encouraged the man to kill himself. A witness interviewed the same day described a guard called “A.K.” responding to the man’s pleas with, according to the transcript, “I do not give a fuck, kill yourself.” The man’s cellmate gave a consistent account the following day.
Those interviews were part of an internal investigation completed in October 2022. But the final report made no mention of them. Instead, it concluded that officers were “unaware of his intent to commit self-harm” and had followed agency policy - findings the court noted were reached without any reference to the contrary witness evidence.
The widow filed suit in June 2023, naming the guard as “Officer Akaie” based on a letter from a fellow detainee. The District said no one by that name...
The rapper's agency said recent allegations shared online were fabricated, and filed a criminal complaint against the accuser. Rapper Yang Hong-won's agency has denied allegations that he cheated o...