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.

Copy of Martinez's petition.
Copy of Wolf's order.