DHS and HHS face $100 million lawsuit in wake of autistic 20-year-old woman’s rape and murder.
The family members of a woman who was raped and murdered in 2022 is preparing to sue the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS or DHHS), alleging the government departments acted with “operational negligence” by allowing her murder suspect, an illegal immigrant with known gang ties, to enter the United States through the southern border.
Kayla Hamilton, an autistic woman who had turned 20 years old just three days prior, was raped and murdered on July 27, 2022, in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Investigators with the Aberdeen Police Department believe the individual responsible for this deadly attack was an illegal immigrant with ties to the El Salvadoran gang MS-13, who was previously detained at the southern border.
The identity of the murder suspect has not been publicly revealed because he is 17 years old, and Maryland laws guard against publicly identifying minors suspected of committing crimes.
Pasadena, California-based attorney Brian Claypool announced on Wednesday that his firm is preparing to represent Ms. Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawsuit will seek $100 million in compensation over the actions of DHS and HHS officials that allegedly contributed to Ms. Hamilton’s death at the hands of the illegal immigrant suspect.
Mr. Claypool said DHS employees failed to take several precautions when they first encountered the murder suspect at the U.S. southern border, including checking him for gang-related tattoos or contacting the government of El Salvador to confirm whether he had gang affiliations.
“DHS employees negligently, recklessly and/or egregiously failed to visually inspect the assailant by lifting his shirt to check for gang related tattoos. Had DHS employees performed a rudimentary visual inspection of assailant’s body, they would have seen MS-13 gang related tattoos on his body, disqualifying him from entering U.S. soil,” Mr. Claypool’s statement reads.
“DHS employees negligently, recklessly and/or egregiously failed to make a simple phone call to the El Salvador government to verify if assailant was on an MS-13 gang affiliation list. Had they done so, El Salvador government officials would have confirmed that the assailant was a known MS-13 gang member with a prior criminal history.”
By Ryan Morgan
