1995 prison death re-examined
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a rare step, the Justice Department is re-examining its investigation into the 1995 death of a federal prisoner that the victim’s family alleges was a murder at the hands of the government. Several official inquiries have ruled the death a suicide. Justice Department public integrity section chief Noel L. Hillman recently disclosed his decision in a sworn affidavit in a civil case brought by the family of prisoner Kenneth Michael Trentadue. They family wants access to government records from the earlier inquiries.
Trentadue’s bloodied body was found in his cell in an Oklahoma federal detention center in summer 1995, and the government ruled he hanged himself.
In the years since, information has emerged that evidence was mishandled or lost, prison officials lied and potential evidence of a struggle in the cell before Trentadue’s death was overlooked.
At the family’s request “the Public Integrity Section is conducting an ongoing review, for purpose of criminal law enforcement, of all investigative materials, including attorney work product, grand jury materials and related documents,” Hillman’s affidavit stated.
The Justice Department told the court in the civil case this week that the department does not yet want to release documents from one of the earlier inquiries of Trentadue’s death because of the “ongoing, related criminal investigation.”
“Such disclosures can compromise that investigation by tainting witnesses, telegraphing the identities of potential subjects and targets, and interfering with the integrity of the tangible evidence,” Hillman’s affidavit said.
The family has been using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records gathered by the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the government watchdog that evaluates the conduct of federal inspector generals.
Trentadue’s brother, Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue, accused Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine’s office of engaging in misconduct and conducting a shoddy investigation when his office reaffirmed earlier findings that the death was a suicide.
Fine’s inquiry, however, was the first to officially identify several problems with the honesty of federal prison and FBI officials who originally investigated the case and the handling and disappearance of evidence from the cell where the body was found.
PCIE cleared Fine and his office of any wrongdoing, and Jesse Trentadue has been seeking access to those investigative records.
Officials said Hillman’s new inquiry isn’t focusing in any way on Fine or the inspector general’s review and instead is examining the core issues of whether the death was a murder and whether prison and FBI employees did anything to tamper with evidence or cover up information.
Hillman’s decision is extremely rare, particularly because his predecessor as public integrity section chief, Lee Radek, declined to prosecute anyone in the case after an investigation in the late 1990s ruled the death a suicide.
Officials familiar with the decision said Hillman was moved in part by the pleas of the family, some members of Congress and federal law enforcement officials – all who raised concerns about irregularities in the initial prison and FBI investigations. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, once vowed to hold hearings into the death, saying he suspected a murder, but he never followed through.
Hillman hasn’t decided whether to convene a grand jury or refer some matters back to the inspector general, the officials said. He could simply close down the inquiry after reviewing all materials or he could escalate the investigation, officials said.
After Trentadue’s body was found, with his face bloodied and bruised and his throat cut, prison officials concluded he hanged himself. The local medical examiner openly questioned the conclusion.
Numerous internal probes by the government reaffirmed the suicide ruling but found Justice employees had lied during the case and that evidence was lost or mishandled, including a bloody sheet that was stuffed in an FBI car and putrefied, destroying its value as evidence. The cell was cleaned before forensic analysis and the noose that prison officials claimed had been cut down with the body was found intact.
Trentadue’s brother has relentlessly pursued the matter in court, Congress and the news media, frequently accusing federal officials of a coverup.
The persistence paid off, uncovering possible evidence of a struggle in the prison cell.
An FBI agent divulged in court that he found two different types of blood stains on the mattress, one belonging to Trentadue and another from an unidentified person. But the second blood spot wasn’t tested because there were no suspects and the mattress had been used by several prisoners over the years, officials said.
A federal court recently awarded the Trentadue’s family $1.1 million for intentional infliction of pain because the government failed to fully divulge to the family the pummeled condition of Trentadue’s body.