Judge blocks deportation of two detainees who could testify about the death of a third
A federal judge today ordered the federal government and the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department not to move two detainees at the South Bay House of Corrections as the daughter of a third man prepares a lawsuit over the way he died last month.
Judge Mark Wolf issued an emergency order blocking the deportation or movement to another state of the two men based on a petition from Judith Tavarez, whose father Pedro, a native of the Dominican Republic, died on Oct. 19. He scheduled a hearing for Dec. 7.
In a petition filed today, Tavarez said the pair, Domingo Martinez and Leonel Bello, are among five detainees who'd sent a letter to the Dominican consul in Boston on Tavarez's condition the day he died - and the only two who are still housed in Boston (one of the exhibits with her filing is a copy of a Globe article that discusses the letter).
Martinez is preparing a lawsuit over her father's death and wants to at least have Martinez and Bello testify in a deposition over his death. Her lawyers say she has yet to file that suit because she has to wait until after her formal naming as administrator of her father's estate.
