Inmate On Hunger Strike Deported To England

A Connecticut inmate whose liquids-only hunger strike led to a state Supreme Court decision that upheld the rights of prison officials to force-feed prisoners was deported Tuesday to England, according to his attorney and immigration officials.

William Coleman, 53, a native of Liverpool, England, waged the hunger strike beginning in 2007. He had been convicted in 2005 of raping his wife during a bitter divorce and custody battle and was given an eight-year sentence. He maintained that his wife had fabricated the allegations.

His attorney said he was still being force-fed, through a tube in his nose, when she saw him in the past month and a half.

The attorney, Erin O’Neil-Baker, said that Coleman was put on a plane Tuesday and is now under medical observation at a hospital in England.

Coleman had been scheduled for release in December 2012 on the original charges, but he refused to register as a sex offender and was charged again and returned to prison. This week, the state made it known that it would not prosecute that charge, and he was transferred Tuesday to the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which deported him.

“I spoke with him [Tuesday] while he was handcuffed and surrounded by armed guards in a van being transported to [John F. Kennedy] airport,” O’Neil-Baker said, adding that Coleman was taken without warning or notice to anyone, including his attorneys or his family and friends.

“Mr. Coleman has been ripped from all his principal attempts to clear his name,” O’Neil-Baker said.

Coleman had exhausted all of his appeals for both the criminal charges and in the immigration case, she said.

O’Neil-Baker, who represents Coleman in immigration matters, said that Coleman had a court appearance scheduled at Superior Court in Enfield on the charge of refusal to register as a sex offender. The public defender assigned to the case told O’Neil-Baker that the state had decided not to prosecute the charges.

The state Department of Correction confirmed Wednesday morning that Coleman had been transferred to ICE’s custody.

ICE said in a statement: “William Coleman was convicted by the state of Connecticut Superior Court for sexual assault. He was placed in immigration removal proceedings, and after a lengthy appeals process, he was ultimately ordered removed from the United States. The arrest and removal of aliens who pose a threat to public safety remains one of ICE’s top priorities. On June 24, Mr. Coleman was removed to his native country.”

The agency said it worked with prosecutors to make sure that enforcement does not “interfere with the adjudication of criminal charges.”

Coleman entered prison weighing about 237 pounds. In 2008, his weight had dropped to 139 pounds, and prison officials began force-feeding him. He was restrained and given either artificial hydration and electrolytes intravenously, or nutrition through a tube inserted through his nose into his stomach.

Coleman eventually agreed to take liquid nutrition, then later refused to do so.

Coleman’s lawyers argued that his First Amendment right to protest and right to refuse medical treatment had been violated. Lawyers for the attorney general’s office said that prison officials had an obligation to prevent what they called inmate suicides. Prison security is threatened by Coleman’s protest, they said, especially if there were copy-cat hunger strikes.

In a 2010 ruling, Superior Court Judge James T. Graham sided with prison officials, saying that the state’s obligation to maintain order outweighed Coleman’s rights.

Coleman has medical issues – including kidney, liver and heart problems – as a result of the hunger strike. He also has lost four teeth and was scheduled to have an MRI for a possible brain aneurysm, O’Neil-Baker said.

Now that Coleman has been deported, O’Neil-Baker said the chances of him coming back to the country were “basically zero” because he committed what is considered an aggravated felony. She said that his two children are U.S. citizens and may remain here.

It is unclear yet whether Coleman will have to register on the sex offender register in England, O’Neil-Baker said, but should he have to, he has voiced his intentions to resume the hunger strike.