EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The family of an inmate who was killed last year at the El Paso County Jail Annex has recently filed a lawsuit against the County, claiming negligence in the inmate’s death.
The lawsuit claims Jesus Torres, 57, who was arrested in June 2023 for alleged possession of a controlled substance and had not been convicted, was transported to the El Paso County Jail and was kept there as a pre-trial detainee until his death.
On Nov. 26, Torres was beaten, stabbed, strangled, and killed by six other detainees, which was all seen on a camera feed and was not viewed by jail employees, the lawsuit claims.
The six detainees have been identified as Manuel Alejandro Vargas, 31, Juan Alberto Ortiz, 18, George Lopez, 23, Jesus Adrian Rocha, 38, Jovani Dionicio Ramos, 29, and Christian Carrillo, 25.
Torres’ body was not found until the next morning on Nov. 27, with the lawsuit claiming that his body was “only found because another detainee approached an El Paso County jail employee about what happened,” the lawsuit stated.
An autopsy report indicated that Torres’ cause of death was strangulation, suffocation, and blunt trauma. His death was ruled as a homicide, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that the County was aware of other convictions or charges against the six inmates when it chose to incarcerate all of them and Torres together in an area where contraband was available, camera feeds were not monitored, and detainees were not “visually checked in required face-to-face rounds.”
The lawsuit also claims one or more of the six inmates were also known to be alleged gang members, stating that Torres was incarcerated under conditions “posing a substantial risk of serious harm to him and El Paso County was deliberately indifferent to, or acted objectively unreasonable regarding, that risk.”
After Torres’ death, the County said that it determined that checks were done within the required time frames. However, the lawsuit claims that the checks were not made in accordance with the jail’s written policy and were not made “consistent with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards rules.”
The County also filed a Custodial Death Report (CDR) regarding Torres’ death, stating that Torres was not violent or had any violent tendencies towards anyone in the jail including detainees, jailers, and others.
The lawsuit also claims that the CDR “falsely indicated” the time of the incident and Torres’ time of death, stating that the incident happened on Nov. 27, and Torres died the same day hours later.
The lawsuit also provided a timeline when the jail was inspected by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards from 2011 through 2024, where it repeatedly violated minimum standards and appeared to be non-compliant multiple times.
Torres’ family is seeking compensation for what they are claiming is wrongful death.
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