Inmate files suit over attack at pretrial centre
A former inmate at North Fraser Pretrial Centre has filed a lawsuit against the provincial government after a violent assault by another inmate while he was in segregation at the jail two years ago.
Joshua Matthew Iorfida-Bonneville filed the suit earlier this week in B.C. Supreme Court.
The statement of claim says he was attacked on Oct. 1, 2015, after he was placed in segregation at the Port Coquitlam jail.
“The assault took place in plain view of the security cameras. The duration of the assault was lengthy and it continued for some time before an employee, servant or agent came to assist the plaintiff,” the suit says, calling the attack “unprovoked.”
Iorfida-Bonneville was left with head, neck, face and jaw injuries, the suit alleges, as well as “psychological harm” and “generalized pain and suffering.
“The assault and the plaintiff’s resulting injuries, loss and damages were caused by the negligence of the defendant’s employees.”
Iorfida-Bonneville had a charter right to be safe in a government institution, the suit says.
Iorfida-Bonneville, 31, was convicted in August 2016 on three firearms possession charges and sentenced to almost nine months in jail on top of the time he had already served.
A Postmedia reporter interviewed him in North Fraser a month after the 2015 attack and saw bruising and swelling on his face. At the time, he said he had been sent to segregation for tattooing in violation of jail rules. His roommate in segregation asked to see his tattoos. As Iorfida-Bonneville looked down, he was knocked unconscious. He never saw it coming.
When he woke up, he was in hospital with several broken bones in his face and jaw.
“This shouldn’t have happened. I know I’m lucky it wasn’t worse,” he told Postmedia.
He said in 2015 he had hired a lawyer and would file a suit.
His Sept. 19 statement of claim says the B.C. government “was responsible for the placement, monitoring and safety and care of inmates at (the North Fraser Pretrial Centre) including the plaintiff.”
He should have been kept safe in custody or held “in a manner that would limit his exposure to the risk of serious harm from others.”
The suit also says there was inadequate monitoring of the inmates at the time and the jail failed to “act on indicators of violence that were or should have been known to the defendant prior to the assault.”
No statement of defence has yet been filed.
In recent years, there have been several B.C. lawsuits filed against both provincial and federal institutions by inmates who have been attacked while in custody.
Two of the higher-profile cases still before the courts involve violent attacks on gangster inmates Jesse John Margison and Christopher Iser, who were seriously injured within days of each other at different institutions in 2012.
Iser’s case is set to go to trial in July 2018. No trial date has yet been set for Margison’s case. Both men suffered life-altering brain injuries.