Iraq Prison Chiefs Had Troubling Pasts

May 20, 2004 -- A number of former state prison commissioners chosen by the Bush administration to establish a prison system in Iraq left their old posts after allegations of neglect, brutality and inmate deaths, an investigation by ABCNEWS has found.

Last year, the former head of Utah's prison system, Lane McCotter, was hired by the U.S. government to help set up Iraq's new prison system and train guards.

He even led a tour of Abu Ghraib for U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who attended the reopening of the Baghdad prison.

But in 1997, guards at a Utah prison, then under McCotter's charge, made a videotape showing the abuse of Michael Valent, a mentally ill inmate who allegedly would not follow orders.

Inmate Kept in Restraints for Hours

Valent was stripped naked, marched down the halls and, under an approved procedure at the time, placed in a special restraint chair, where he was left for 16 hours.

"By the time he was finally released from that restraint chair, he developed blood clotting and, through a pulmonary embolism, died," said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.

The use of the restraint chair was stopped soon after, and McCotter resigned in a shake-up two months later, going to work as a consultant.

McCotter denied any wrongdoing. He told ABCNEWS in a written statement that Valent was "placed in a restraint chair for his own protection" and "observed by correctional officers every 15 minutes and by medical personnel every 30 minutes."

McCotter, who left the Iraqi prison system in August, is one of four former prison officials sent to Iraq whose selection and backgrounds are now being questioned by civil rights lawyers.

"[The allegations are] very, very much like the kinds of things we are hearing [now] out of Abu Ghraib," said attorney Tony Ponvert. "They're no strangers and, in fact, are quite intimate with brutality and with degradation and with humiliation."

Ties to Abu Ghraib Abuse?

Gary Deland, another controversial former head of the Utah Department of Corrections, worked at Abu Ghraib last summer.