A federal judge has allowed the expansion of claims in a putative class action alleging that private prison operator The GEO Group, Inc. recklessly sprayed detainees with a pesticide while they were imprisoned at the facility.
In a ruling Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal of the Central District of California granted the plaintiffs leave to assert four new claims against Spartan Chemical Company, the pesticide manufacturer. The new claims include negligence, design defect and failure to warn. They join the plaintiffs’ original claims, filed in March 2023, for GEO’s indiscriminate spraying of thousands of detainees held at Adelanto during the COVID-19 pandemic. Documents and deposition testimony later revealed that Spartan mislabeled the pesticide by using a label for a different product, intentionally designed the spray dispensers to spray up to twice the approved concentration of pesticide through the facility, and provided promotional materials instead of warnings or instructions.
The plaintiffs and others at Adelanto were exposed to concentrations of pesticide appropriate only for disinfecting pig sties and kennels empty of animals. As a result of their exposure—in their food, on their beds, and virtually everywhere else—detained people experienced difficulty breathing, eye tissue damage, and acute head pain. GEO and its medical provider, Wellpath, ignored these consistent symptoms until the Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning about GEO’s use of the pesticide in 2021. Meanwhile, Spartan sales representatives collected commissions on every bucket of the chemical they sold to GEO.
As alleged in the First Amended Complaint, Spartan turned a blind eye while conducting tours of the facility, understanding that GEO guards were spraying dormitories with hundreds of beds while detainees slept and spraying eating areas and phone banks while detainees ate and spoke with loved ones—all without shields or protective clothing to avoid direct skin contact.
Spartan opposed amendment, arguing that the plaintiffs’ claims would be time-barred and were therefore futile. Rejecting this argument and granting plaintiffs leave to amend, Judge Bernal noted that “Plaintiffs have pled in significant detail how and why they were unable to discover the nature and extent of Spartan’s allegedly tortious conduct prior to GEO and Spartan’s document productions starting in June 2024 and the depositions conducted in September and October 2024.”
“Spartan’s bad acts tell a story that has become too familiar at Adelanto and other for-profit detention centers, where the goal is to minimize financial costs at any human cost,” said Sara Haji, Executive Director of The Social Justice Legal Foundation, counsel for the plaintiffs. “Our clients were sitting ducks, trapped during a global pandemic, while Spartan and GEO intentionally sprayed their closed environment with an overconcentrated pesticide every 15 to 30 minutes, for months. Given what we now know, we’re very glad our clients will be able to pursue their claims against Spartan as well as GEO.”
The plaintiffs are represented by The Social Justice Legal Foundation and Hueston Hennigan LLP.
The Court’s ruling is here, and the First Amended Complaint is here.
