Bristol County Sheriff Settles ICE Detainee Lawsuit for $800K Using No Taxpayer Money

DARTMOUTH (WBSM) — Sheriff Paul Heroux said he has agreed to an $800,000 settlement in the lawsuit brought against the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office in April 2022 under former Sheriff Tom Hodgson regarding the handling of ICE detainees, calling it “the responsible thing to do to protect the employees and taxpayers.”

Background on the 2020 ICE Confrontation and 2022 Lawsuit

The $10 million lawsuit was filed by 17 ICE detainees that were held at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, in the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center. They were held under the 287(g) contract Hodgson had with the Department of Homeland Security to run an ICE detention center on the Dartmouth campus. That agreement was terminated by the DHS following the May 1, 2020 confrontation at the detention center between Sheriff’s Office officers and the ICE detainees that resulted in extensive damage to the facility and multiple hospitalizations.

READ MORE: Hodgson Says "Combative" ICE Detainees Trashed Dartmouth Facility

READ MORE: ICE Detention Center "Riot" Video Released

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What the Attorney General’s Report Found

A 2021 report by then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey found that the “BCSO violated the civil rights of the ICE detainees in two ways—(1) the BCSO’s use of force was excessive and disproportionate based on the totality of the circumstances; (2) the BCSO acted with deliberate indifference to a significant risk of serious harm to the health of several detainees.”

Video footage of the incident was later released to the public.

READ MORE: Healey Says Hodgson's Office Used Excessive Force With ICE Detainees

READ MORE: Hodgson Says AG's Report Is "Baseless" and "Politically Motivated"

The ensuing lawsuit named the BCSO, Hodgson, jail superintendent Steven Souza and 26 unnamed correctional officers as defendants, as well as the DHS and ICE. It also named ICE New England Director Todd Lyons as a defendant.

Heroux said he was able to settle the lawsuit for $800,000 “without using taxpayer money.”

READ MORE: Hodgson Responds to ICE Lawsuit, Is Confronted by Detainee On-Air

How the Settlement Was Funded

“I decided to use money earned by the BCSO for performing civil process work,” Heroux said in a release. “Civil process is work done by BCSO deputies including, but not limited to, court authorized evictions for private parties. These private parties pay a fee to the BCSO for service of legal processes performed by BCSO deputy sheriffs. The civil process money that the law allows the Sheriff to use for any lawful purpose is the money I used to pay to resolve this lawsuit.”

Heroux said it was “necessary” to use civil process money for the settlement, because the BCSO was not getting any help from DHS or ICE, nor from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“The federal government said that the BCSO acted as a state office, and therefore the federal government was not going to pay for a settlement or assist in defending us in court. The BCSO’s contract with the federal government signed under my predecessor did not protect the BCSO from liability,” Heroux said. “Meanwhile, our state government’s position is that the BCSO was acting on behalf of the federal government, and therefore the federal government should pay any proposed settlements and defense attorney fees on behalf of the BCSO.”

Why Heroux Chose to Settle the Case

Heroux said the risk of taking the lawsuit to trial was that the $200,000 in legal fees could have ballooned to $1 million with no guarantee of victory. He also noted that a jury could award the plaintiffs even more than $10 million, costing taxpayers even more. He said he “did not want to gamble with the taxpayers’ money.”

READ MORE: Heroux Says We'll Help ICE But We Can't Enforce Immigration Law

He also noted that if the BCSO lost the lawsuit, “17 of my employees named as codefendants in this lawsuit can be held personally liable for the alleged violations of civil rights if not indemnified by the state."

“This could be costly to them and their families,” Heroux said. “As the senior most administrator in this organization, that is not a large gamble I can take with my employees’ future.”

Heroux also noted that “this settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing or liability by the BCSO or its employees.”

Watch Video Footage of the ICE Detainee Incident