Government Given More Time to Produce Documents in Wrongful Death Suit

Both sides of a wrongful-death lawsuit have agreed that the federal government, the defendant, can have additional time to procure documents relating to the death of Hiu Lui Ng. The man died last August in a Rhode Island hospital. He was an immigrant detainee, who was in the custody of the Wyatt Detention Facility.

According to his family and three different investigations into the man’s death, Ng was severely mistreated during his time at the facility. The lawsuit says that at one point, the man was dragged and loaded into a bus by the staff at the Wyatt Facility. He complained about being injured, but guards reportedly told him to "shut up" and to "stop lying about being hurt." His requests for a wheelchair were denied.

A few days after this incident, he died from liver cancer and a fractured spine. His family’s lawyers have argued that the fracture was caused by the inhumane treatment within the detention center. His cancer condition went undiagnosed until days before he died at the Rhode Island hospital.

The federal government was given the deadline of April 14 to procure documents related to the man’s death, but the recent release of a key witness for the case, Roger Gracias Lozano, has made the need for them less immediate. The government will now be granted additional time to locate the documents and both sides have agreed that the records can be produced through the normal discovery process in the suit.