$10,000,000 Lawsuit Certified Against Ontario's Killer Jail

[Greg Carr]

Thursday November 30, 2017
Why are so many inmates dying in this Ontario jail? Fifth Estate
investigates

The Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont., has one of the
highest numbers of deaths of inmates inside a Canadian jail.
The Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont., has one of the
highest numbers of deaths of inmates inside a Canadian jail. (Ousama
Farag/CBC News)
Listen 19:29

London, Ontario's Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) has one of
the highest numbers of deaths of inmates inside a Canadian jail.

The Fifth Estate's Habiba Nosheen has been investigating why inmates
keep dying inside the EMDC. Since 2009, they have found 10
questionable deaths that occurred in the facility, including murders,
suicides, and drug overdoses.

Fifth Estate: Jail Deaths : Captured on Camera
A judge has certified a class action suit on behalf of over 10,000
inmates for over $600 million against the province.

Nosheen speaks with The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti about what the
investigation has exposed.

Here is a part of their conversation:

Anna Maria Tremonti: Tell us more about this detention centre. It's a
provincial jail, right?

Habiba Nosheen: Yes. It was built initially to house 150 inmates. Now
it's been reconfigured to house up to 450 inmates.

AMT: Why did you decide to start looking into this?

HN: Our team had been hearing troubling stories about EMDC for a
while. We received a USB key in the mail and it contained a 22-minute
long video. This video really captures the last moments of a man's
life inside the EMDC as he was committing suicide. His name is Keith
Patterson. He's 30-years-old, in and out of foster care and had a
history of mental illness. His sister tells us he was bipolar.

We do know that this time he was in for drug and assault charges.
During his two months at the EMDC, records show that he was in and out
of solitary confinement. He does at many points threaten the guards
that if he was put in solitary that there will be trouble.

AMT: So he did have troubles, but how was he able to take his own life
in a jail?

'We know that the guards did see Keith with a torn blanket and it
appears that they just let him keep it.'
- Habiba Nosheen
HN: What we learned is that he was able to use a tear-proof blanket —
and that's supposed to be a safe blanket that inmates are not supposed
to be able to rip for self-harm or to be able to use it as a weapon —
and he was able to do that.

Lawyer Kevin Egan
Kevin Egan is a lawyer representing a number of inmates and their
families in legal proceedings against the Elgin Middlesex Detention
Centre. (Colin Butler/CBC)
I spoke to Kevin Egan, the lawyer who has been representing Keith's
family and they're suing the province now. Kevin Egan believes that
these blankets become weapons when they're weakened. Keith's last
moments were caught on camera inside this jail, and while he's hanging
himself we see that a guard brings him a sandwich and he doesn't seem
to notice that there is a torn piece of blanket tied to his cell door.

'Fuards tell us that it's actually not possible for them to be sitting
there watching these cameras in real time.'
- Habiba Nosheen
AMT: So these were warning signs ... why does no one notice or stop
what's going on?

HN: We know that the guards did see Keith with a torn blanket, and it
appears that they just let him keep it. It's possible that they just
didn't want to engage with him because he was known as, one guard
called him "a high maintenance inmate."

CBC News: Video shows Ontario inmate killing cellmate and hiding body
without guards noticing
But in terms of the cameras, the guards tell us that it's actually not
possible for them to be sitting there watching these cameras in real
time. They say that they just don't have the resources to do that. So
it's not used as a preventative tool to stop something in real time.
In fact, at this place, it's just essentially used as an investigative
tool. If something happens, they can go back and retrace what went
down.

Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre EMDC
Despite being a secure facility with guards on duty 24/7, many people
who have served time at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre claim it
isn't safe. (Joseph Loiere/CBC)
In this video that we were sent, we do notice that guards do finally
notice that Keith is hanging himself and that's when they struggle to
open the door. When they do get in, Keith is rushed to the hospital
and pronounced dead.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Listen above to the full conversation with Habiba Nosheen.
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Newly released surveillance video taken at the Elgin Middlesex
Detention Centre in London, Ont., shows Anthony George beating his
cellmate Adam Kargus to death and then dragging the body into a common
shower area the next morning, without jail guards ever seeming to
notice.

George, 32, was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of
parole for 10 years on Oct. 7 for the 2013 death of Kargus, 29, who
was choked, punched, kicked and stomped to death. The presiding judge
said that "to suggest the murder was brutal would be an
understatement."

Surprise guilty plea in jailhouse murder trial in London
George was scheduled to be tried by jury, but the case and much of the
evidence collected by homicide investigators never made it to trial
because the Kettle Point First Nation man made a surprise guilty plea
just as his three-week trial was set to begin.

CBC News can now publish the surveillance video for the first time,
after a judge ordered it released to media organizations on Wednesday.

Beating witnessed by other inmates

The video was taken from a security camera mounted on the wall of Unit
6, one of a number of common areas for inmates inside the Elgin
Middlesex Detention Centre on Oct. 25, 2013, and Oct. 31, 2013, the
night Kargus died.

The video shows George physically interacting with Kargus a total of
six times. Kargus appears to be put in a chokehold at least four times
by the jailhouse killer in full view of other inmates.

'I forgive you,' grieving mother tells son's jailhouse killer
On only one occasion are guards seen intervening, at 3:46 p.m. when
George puts Kargus in a chokehold in full view of guards and inmates.

Jail murder video
The security video from the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre shows
inmate Anthony George place his cellmate Adam Kargus in a chokehold at
least four times, often in full view of other inmates. The video shows
guards only intervened once. (Ontario Superior Court of Justice)

George admitted during his sentencing hearing that he was drunk when
he killed Kargus, after he consumed a toilet bowl full of jailhouse
brew, an improvised alcoholic concoction created by mashing and
fermenting fruit.

Nurse suspected intoxication

The court heard that a nurse on duty at the jail on the night Kargus
was killed was concerned that George was intoxicated because he seemed
happy and louder than usual.

She reported her concerns to the guards, who decided that they would
deal with it in the morning because of a staffing shortage and locked
George inside a cell with Kargus.

What the jury didn't hear: Aboriginal jury representation disputed in
Anthony George case
George also admitted to the court that he had smoked a cigarette laced
with phencyclidine, or PCP, an illegal drug widely considered
dangerous because of its tendency to cause hostility, violence and
psychosis in some users.

Questions remain as to why the two men were locked in a cell together
at the jail.

George known for violence

George is a repeat violent offender with anger issues and an alcohol
abuse problem, which had been identified by the court system as his
trigger to commit crimes.

Kargus, by contrast, was a drug addict, who had been arrested for
fraud and was sent to jail after he was denied bail once the court
learned he was still using drugs.

Once the two men are locked inside a cell together, George can be seen
through the window, punching, kicking, stomping and choking Kargus
while the inmate's face is pressed against the glass.

During the beating, the other inmates can be seen banging on the glass
of their own cells, some of whom the court heard were cheering George
on, while others were trying to alert the guards.

No guards responded

Throughout the beating, which the surveillance video shows lasted
about an hour, no guards responded, even though it was caught on a
closed circuit camera.

The next morning, George can be seen on the video leaving his cell,
enlisting the help of other inmates to clean up the blood, wrap
Kargus's body in a bedsheet and drag it to the jail's shower area.

Two other inmates were charged in the case, but the charges were
eventually dropped against one of the suspects, while the other
pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Guards finally discover Kargus's body at around 10 a.m. on Nov.1 and
called paramedics, but by then Kargus was already dead.

A post-mortem ruled Kargus's cause of death was blunt force trauma to
the head, neck and face. His face was so badly beaten, the court
heard, that Kargus had to be identified by his tattoos.

Six staff were fired after Kargus's death for failing to do their
jobs.

However, three of the guards got their jobs back in April 2017 after
an Ontario grievance settlement board found that the actions of the
guards had "gone on for years, if not decades, and they were open and
obvious."

Since Kargus's death the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre has been
embroiled in lawsuits over allegations that inmates' rights are
routinely violated.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-jail-murder-video-1.4350212

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Freakin' Ridiculous.

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