Delaware’s ACLU Files Action on Behalf Of Six Prisoners Assaulted During Midnight Raid
On behalf of six prisoners in Delaware, the ACLU filed a civil rights complaint against a Warden and his Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) for assaults and abuse that occurred during a midnight raid.
All of the plaintiffs were prisoners held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware. Late in the evening of September 5, 2024, the CERT guards began a “shakedown” in Building 18, the segregated housing unit.
Plaintiff Isaac Flores recalled the CERT team entering his cell between 11 p.m. and midnight, and issuing an order for him to strip. According to the lawsuit, “at no time during the incident did Flores fail to obey an order or resist or threaten the CERT members,” yet one officer “pepper-sprayed Flores at very close range”; another “punched Flores in the mouth so hard that Flores’ teeth pierced through his lip.” He fell to the ground and “CERT members continued punching and kicking him in his face, legs, buttocks, and other parts of his body.”
Flores was then moved to a cell whose only features were a toilet and sink. He was left there for four days, and was not allowed to shower or otherwise decontaminate from the pepper spray for at least a day.
Karl Manuel, another plaintiff, recalled laying on his bunk when the raid began: “Then the food flap in Manuel’s cell door opened, and a big silver canister thrown by a CERT member flew into his cell, hit Manuel in the chest, then activated and started spewing pepper spray into the air.”
Once Manuel was coughing and prone on the floor, the CERT team “entered Manuel’s cell, put a blanket over him, beat him, pulled his pants down, and digitally sodomized him.”
Manuel also suffered a hand injury when CERT members stomped on his wrist while handcuffed. Other witnesses said his cell “looked like a disaster area, and that CERT had broken his glasses and denture plate.”
The four other plantiffs told similar stories, all including extreme physical abuse and sexual assault, apparently carried out while the prisoners were compliant with the CERT members’ commands. “We have allegations of close-range pepper spray, sexual assaults, and physical violence,” said Dwayne Bensen, the ACLU of Delaware’s Legal Director. “Even if you think people who are convicted of crimes should be in prison, we also as Americans think people are innocent until proven guilty, and surely innocent people should not be subject to such acts of cruelty.” See: Flores v. Emig, USDC (D. Del.), Case No. 1:25-cv-00100.
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