Four-hour stint in ‘oven-like’ van sent two O.C. jail detainees to hospital, sparks lawsuit against Santa Ana, 2 officers

Dongyuan Li, a former birth tourism operator convicted last month of encouraging Chinese visitors to lie to U.S. officials, had just finished a court hearing in April when she and another detainee were driven back to Santa Ana jail.

Both were handcuffed, their ankles shackled and chains draped across their waists. But instead of being taken to the jail, the detainees were left locked inside a hot van for four hours. When they were found, both were suffering the effects of extreme heat exposure and needed hospital care.

Those are the claims that Li and the second detainee, Romaldo Marchan Delgado, are making in a lawsuit filed this week against the city of Santa Ana, police officer Ricky Prieto and correctional officer Caroline Contreras, who works at the Santa Ana Jail.

“They were crying. They were praying. They believed they would die,” attorney Thomas O’Brien said of Delgado and Li. Both detainees “were drifting in and out of consciousness” by the time they were retrieved from the van and taken to a local hospital.

The officers accused of abandoning the two detainees in the van, Prieto and Contreras, would not comment on the pending litigation, a Santa Ana police spokesman said Thursday. A city spokesman also declined to comment.

Li and Marchan Delgado were transported to the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse on April 8, 2019 for two separate immigration-related cases. Marchan Delgado, 56, faced charges that he had entered the country illegally after being previously deported. Li, 42, faced visa and immigration fraud charges stemming from her role in the birth tourism industry, which in 2015 prompted mass raids across Southern California.

After their hearings, they were transported back to the Santa Ana Jail, where they were being housed.

Contreras parked the van “and turned off the engine,” the lawsuit states. Then both Contreras and Prieto left “without a backward glance.”

According to the lawsuit: the van was left in direct sunlight and the windows were rolled up. The weather outside was 84 degrees Fahrenheit but inside the van the temperature quickly rose, “likely exceeding 130 degrees Fahrenheit.”

“They struggled to breathe and wondered why they had been abandoned by the very persons who were charged with ensuring their safety,” the lawsuit states.

At one point, Prieto walked around the van and Delgado tried to draw his attention by hitting the side of the van. The detainees believed that Prieto heard “the loud sound” yet walked away again. About four hours after they arrived, Li saw another officer walk alongside the van and she banged on it “in a last-ditch attempt” to draw attention. Shortly after, several officers unlocked the van.

Both Li and Delgado were suffering from extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion, according to the lawsuit.

“When you look at some of the horrific cases over the years when parents negligently leave kids in the back of their cars and they die; and even police officers, when they leave their canines in the back of cars and die, they’re prosecuted,” O’Brien said.

After they returned to jail, following overnight stays at the Orange County Global Medical Center, they were refused follow-up medical care and suffered from severe anxiety and depression, which they continue to experience, according to the lawsuit, which calls the conduct of the officers “malicious” and “oppressive.”

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money in compensatory, punitive and other damages and costs.

Since the incident last April, Delgado was sentenced to 46 months and is imprisoned in a Texas facility.  Li, a former Irvine resident, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, essentially time served, and was released on Dec. 16. She has since left the U.S. and returned to China.

Li’s arrest and conviction was a high profile case, believed to be the first time an operator of a birth tourism company was convicted on charges related to the controversial — and legal — industry.  Her company, “You Win USA Vacation Services Corporation,” catered to wealthy pregnant Chinese women, who traveled to Irvine so they could have children born on American soil, guaranteeing the babies U.S. citizenship. It is not illegal to travel to the U.S. with the intent of giving birth in the country, but it is illegal to commit visa or immigration fraud in the process.