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PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request to transfer inmates who claimed they were being mistreated by officials at a Virginia jail where a 24-year-old mentally ill man died last year.
Inmates named as witnesses in the lawsuit filed by the family of Jamycheal Mitchell said in a brief last month that officials at Hampton Roads Regional Jail are threatening and mistreating them. They asked the judge to issue a protective order and transfer them to a different facility.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard rejected their request Monday. He called their allegations "troublesome," but said there isn't enough credible evidence to support their claims.
Mitchell's family filed a lawsuit in May claiming correctional officials physically abused and withheld food from him before his death.
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