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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a Virginia juvenile detention facility where immigrant teens claimed they were abused (all times local):
4:40 p.m.
A lawyer for immigrant children who say they were cuffed and beaten by the staff inside a Virginia detention facility says they plan to press forward with a federal civil-rights lawsuit, even though two of the teens are no longer in the United States.
Hannah Lieberman of the Washington Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs says two of the unnamed teens who described severe abuse inside the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center left the country following the resolution of their immigration cases, and may not be available to testify. A third teen is still in federal custody, but has been transferred to another facility.
Lieberman says she will consult with the federal district court judge overseeing the case about how to proceed.
The director of the facility denies all wrongdoing.
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4:30 p.m.
The head of a Virginia juvenile detention facility where immigrant teens claimed they were abused says the accusations are unfounded.
Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center Executive Director Timothy J. Smith said Friday that an internal investigation had concluded that the incidents described in a civil rights lawsuit filed against his facility last year are unfounded and "can be readily dispelled."
Smith says his staff will fully cooperate with state and federal investigations.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday ordered two state agencies to open probes into the facility, hours after The Associated Press published sworn statements from children as young as 14 who say they were handcuffed, shackled and beaten by guards. The teens also described being stripped of their clothes and locked in solitary confinement for days at a time.
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5 a.m.
Virginia's two Democratic senators are asking the Trump administration for answers about operations at a juvenile detention facility in the state where immigrant children said they were bound, beaten and isolated in solitary confinement.
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent to the head of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement questions about the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that six Latino teens had made sworn statements detailing severe abuse they said they endured between 2015 and 2018, under both the Obama and Trump administrations. In court filings, lawyers for the detention facility have denied all allegations of physical abuse.
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