The family of a Haitian immigrant who froze to death in early March at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh after she was dropped off in the city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to file a lawsuit this month against the United States and “multiple other governmental and non-governmental entities”, the Guardian has learned.
Daphy Michel, 31, had been in county jail for six months after a reported mental health crisis and street incident, and then was arrested by ICE before being released with a ankle monitor.
She was left to make her way home to Charleroi, a small community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh about 20 miles (32km) away, but was found dead three days later. In June, Pennsylvania officials said she died from hypothermia and ruled her death a homicide.
The Allegheny county medical examiner’s office said Michel was a vulnerable adult “suffering from untreated severe mental health issues and a significant language barrier” at the time of her release from federal custody on 27 February.
Attorney Joseph Murphy, who represents members of Michel’s family living locally, said this week that the lawsuit will be filed within the next two to three weeks. He had said at the time of the homicide ruling that relatives in the US were likely to sue.
“Anybody who knew Daphy for more than one minute knew there was something wrong with her. It was a real dumb thing to just release her like that in February in Pittsburgh, where it’s very cold, knowing how screwed up she was. It was a very bad judgment call,” Murphy said.
Relatives and the attorney believe that ICE did not grasp the risks Michel faced being released alone on a city street that was probably unfamiliar to her, especially given the state of her health. The morning she was found unresponsive, she was wearing summer clothes and the temperature was just 20F (-6.6C). There are few details available about the lawsuit so far, including the identities of plaintiffs and defendants.
The medical examiner’s office explained in a statement that its ruling of homicide should not be interpreted as a declaration of criminal guilt but as “actions caused by another individual”. Pittsburgh detectives are now investigating.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, did not respond this week to questions from the Guardian about the impending lawsuit, Michel’s time in its custody or her death. In March, the agency posted a statement on X saying it had “nothing to do with this woman’s death”. It called Michel an illegal alien, although Murphy said she entered the US legally, was awarded humanitarian status and had an asylum application in process.
Surveillance camera images show Michel at the bus shelter on Pittsburgh’s south side, sitting on the bench in daylight at first on 1 March, with a small, pale bag of belongings, still sitting there in darkness that evening, then slumped half upright on the ground and eventually lying on the ground the following morning.
The images were first published by the outlet Pittsburgh’s Public Source, an independent news non-profit that filed legal requests with the local transportation authority and then viewed hours of surveillance video footage showing Michel was at the bus stop for about 24 hours. It shared the images with the Guardian.
After someone made a call, authorities found Michel and attempted lifesaving measures, but she died hours later in a Pittsburgh hospital.
Michel had been arrested by police last September after a member of the public made an emergency call saying she appeared to be having a mental health crisis in the street in Charleroi, which has a substantial Haitian immigrant community. She was screaming, apparently in response to imaginary voices, and brandishing a knife. She was locked up in the Washington county jail to the south-west of Pittsburgh, awaiting court hearings that were repeatedly rescheduled.
A judge eventually dismissed the charges and ordered her freed from jail in late February. She had an immigration hearing a few weeks later, but ICE arrested her and took her in the opposite direction from home, to its office in south Pittsburgh, then released her.
The DHS said previously that it had been sunny and Michel’s phone was fully charged when she was released. But Murphy said Michel’s phone plan had expired while she was in jail.
Her case echoes a similar one a week earlier in Buffalo, New York, where a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee with significant vision impairment and limited English was found dead after the US border patrol dropped him off alone at a closed Tim Hortons coffee shop. His death was also ruled a homicide.