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GEO Buys CSC After Settling $38.8 Million Judgment in Texas Boot Camp Death
Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) has settled a $38 million judgment that held the company responsible for the 2000 death of Bryan Dale Alexander, an 18 year old prisoner at a Texas boot camp. The terms are confidential, but according to an online article accessed February 6, 2006, CSC paid $2.7 million toward the settlement. The rest will be made up by the companys liability insurers--Northland Insurance Company and AIGwhich had initially balked at paying the award.
A Texas jury had found CSC and Knyvett Reyes, a nurse at the now closed Mansfield boot camp, responsible for Alexanders death on August 27, 2003. Reyes had claimed she thought Alexander was faking his illness, even though she watched him vomit blood for 3 days. Alexander died at a local hospital on January 9, 2000. The culprit was a rare form of penicillin-resistant pneumonia.
The judgment against CSC and Reyes included $37.4 million in actual damages and the statutory maximum of $750,000 in punitive damages (reduced from the jurys award of $5.1 million). CSCs insurers initially resisted paying the award arguing they werent responsible because Reyes had been convicted of negligent homicide in 2002. [See PLN, February 2004 for more.]
The settlement cinched an offer by the Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group to purchase CSCs adult division for $62 million. GEO will assume $124 million in CSC debt. The deal includes 15 prisons with 7,500 beds. GEO currently operates 46 prisons and jails with 36,000 beds in the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
James Slattery, CSCs founder, will continue running Youth Services International--which manages 1,300 beds at 17 juvenile prisons--from CSCs home base of Sarasota, Florida. Slattery paid GEO $3.75 million for the privilege. See: Alexander v. Correctional Services Corporation, Tarrant County Superior Court, Case No. 236-187481-01.
Additional Source: heraldtribune.com
A Texas jury had found CSC and Knyvett Reyes, a nurse at the now closed Mansfield boot camp, responsible for Alexanders death on August 27, 2003. Reyes had claimed she thought Alexander was faking his illness, even though she watched him vomit blood for 3 days. Alexander died at a local hospital on January 9, 2000. The culprit was a rare form of penicillin-resistant pneumonia.
The judgment against CSC and Reyes included $37.4 million in actual damages and the statutory maximum of $750,000 in punitive damages (reduced from the jurys award of $5.1 million). CSCs insurers initially resisted paying the award arguing they werent responsible because Reyes had been convicted of negligent homicide in 2002. [See PLN, February 2004 for more.]
The settlement cinched an offer by the Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group to purchase CSCs adult division for $62 million. GEO will assume $124 million in CSC debt. The deal includes 15 prisons with 7,500 beds. GEO currently operates 46 prisons and jails with 36,000 beds in the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.
James Slattery, CSCs founder, will continue running Youth Services International--which manages 1,300 beds at 17 juvenile prisons--from CSCs home base of Sarasota, Florida. Slattery paid GEO $3.75 million for the privilege. See: Alexander v. Correctional Services Corporation, Tarrant County Superior Court, Case No. 236-187481-01.
Additional Source: heraldtribune.com
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Related legal case
Alexander v. Correctional Services Corporation
| Year | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Cite | Tarrant County Superior Court, Case No. 236-187481 |
| Level | State Trial Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |
| Attorney Fees | 0 |
| Damages | 2700000 |
| Injunction Status | N/A |