Jail inmates sue over anguish of seeing, hearing inmate killed
LONDON, ONT. Six London jail inmates have filed an unusual lawsuit against the province, claiming they were forced to helplessly witness a murder that left them with lasting psychological damage and trauma.
Trapped in their cells in a poorly supervised jail, they heard and watched a brutal assault that left a man dead while their calls for help were ignored or laughed at, the inmates claim.
The next day, many endured the boasting of the murderer and saw the bloody evidence. Some were locked in their cells for two weeks and more after witnessing the killing.
But none were offered or received adequate counselling immediately after the killing, and continue to suffer psychological damage and post-traumatic stress, the inmates say.
The province, Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) and EMDC employees are named in the lawsuits, in which the inmates seek a total of $15 million in damages and admission from the province it infringed the inmates’ charter rights to security and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
The lawsuit centres on the Oct. 31, 2013, murder of Adam Kargus, 29, of Sarnia, by cellmate Anthony George, 32, also of Sarnia, at EMDC.
George pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Surveillance video captured the hour-long, brutal assault, visible much of the time through a cell window.
No correctional officers came to check on the unit, despite policy stating checks are to take place every half-hour.
In their statements of claim, the inmates say they were shouting and banging on their doors for help, but were ignored.
“I don’t think that even those who have horrible experiences in their lives can match what happened that night,” their lawyer Kevin Egan said.
“It was so gruesome and longlasting and they were so helpless to do anything that no matter how hardened or how many other horrible experiences they might have gone through, this was by far the worst and most devastating to their psyche.”
Several inmates have spoken to Postmedia News about the impact of watching or hearing George kill Kargus, unable to do anything to stop the assault.
“I see a dead body watching TV, anything like that, and it brings it right back. You can’t forget something like that. It’s not just the fact that it happened, it’s the way it happened,” said one inmate.
“I’ve been involved in organized crime. I’ve done all kinds of things for money. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this,” said another.
Although their identities are contained in the statements of claim, the names of the inmates were not published for their protection. Inmates have said media coverage has led to retribution from fellow inmates and correctional officers in the past.
Hundreds of inmates, former inmates and their families have taken legal action against the province over conditions and violence at EMDC over the past seven years. And legal action based on someone witnessing a horrific incident is common, Egan said. But this case is different. “In a prison setting it’s not that uncommon. But I’m not familiar with any case quite like it,” he said.
The statements of claim were filed in December 2015, but The Free Press held off publishing a story about them until George’s case wound its way through court.
The six inmates who witnessed Kargus’s death claim to be suffering the effects of nervous shock, with difficulty sleeping, continued depression, anxiety and panic attacks — “serious and permanent psychiatric damage and psychological injuries” — that will require continued treatment, the lawsuit claims.
The province and jail failed to properly monitor the ranges and protect inmates, the statements of claim say.
Those statements of claim, which contain allegations not yet proven in court, contain harrowing accounts of the death from the perspective of inmates in the same range as Kargus, as well as a range next door and a cell below his.
One inmate saw and heard the assault, while the others heard it.
The inmate with a view of Kargus’s cell “witnessed Adam’s face at his cell window while George held him in a choke hold ... (He) could see the terror in Adam’s eyes as he was choked into unconsciousness and lowered to the floor .... He could see blood all over the windows of Adam’s cell.”
That inmate and the others “over a prolonged period of time, heard repeated screams and other cries for help from Adam as well as various other sounds associated with a prolonged and vicious assault,” the statements of claim say.
“Several times during the brutal and prolonged assault (inmates) heard Adam scream in pain, yell for help, plead to be released from the cell and at one point cry out that he was being raped. (Inmates) also heard repeated loud banging of the cell door.”
Inmates on Kargus’s range shouted loudly for correctional officers to come, kicked on the doors of their cells and banged loudly to gain the attention, the statements of claim say.
Some inmates also sent notes onto the floor of the unit in the hope officers would see them and stop the assault, the statements of claim say.
“Still, no guards came to investigate.”
Several of the six inmates say they witnessed George physically abuse Kargus in the days before the killing, sometimes in front of correctional officers, and heard Kargus’s requests to be moved out of George’s cell.