BALTIMORE (AP) — An investigator for the state prison agency has acknowledged discarding evidence in the case of an inmate who died after being forcibly subdued by officers at the Western Correctional Institution in 2004, court records show.
The inmate’s clothing, a restraint mask and video footage of the incident are among the items Lt. Joseph Mercer II chose not to retain from the investigation he led into the April 2004 death of inmate Ifeanyi A. Iko, the Baltimore Sun reported this week.
Lt. Mercer’s statements are contained in a partial transcript of a deposition he gave in October to Gary C. Adler, the attorney representing Iko’s family in a $28 million lawsuit against the state prison system.
The 40-page document, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, omits at least 100 pages of Lt. Mercer’s deposition, the Sun reported Thursday.
Mr. Adler is using Lt. Mercer’s testimony to argue that he should be added as a defendant in the case. Mr. Adler contends in his filing that Lt. Mercer “destroyed evidence and willfully impeded the investigation.”
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said it stands behind Lt. Mercer’s work as a member of the agency’s Internal Investigative Unit.
The lawsuit says correctional officers used “unreasonable and illegal” force in their handling of Iko, 51, a Nigerian immigrant. He died of asphyxiation shortly after correctional officers subdued him in his cell at the medium-security prison in Cresaptown.
Attorneys for the prison system have said correctional officers didn’t use excessive force or act with deliberate indifference to his medical needs.
A county grand jury cleared them of any criminal wrongdoing, but Iko’s death remains under review by the FBI.
The medical examiner’s office ruled Iko’s death a homicide, saying it was caused by “chemical irritation of the airways by pepper spray,” the placement of a “spit mask” over his face and the way he was restrained.
Officers emptied three cans of pepper spray into Iko’s cell, put the mask on his face and, after moving him to another cell, leaned on his body to restrain him, according to court documents and other records.
Prison officials later found him motionless, the documents show.
Lt. Mercer said pepper spray dissipates in the air, so there was nothing to be gained from storing the mask and clothing as evidence. Had he stored them in plastic, they would have been affected by mildew, he said.
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