Lawsuit Accuses Golden Grove Officer of Facilitating Brutal Attack on Inmate

A former Golden Grove inmate has sued the V.I. Government and several Bureau of Corrections officials, alleging that a correctional officer deliberately placed him in a recreation yard with three inmates she knew intended to harm him, then stood by as the men brutally beat him with objects. In a complaint filed in V.I. Superior Court on St. Croix, Donnie Heywood Jr. names the Government of the Virgin Islands through the Bureau of Corrections, BOC Director Wynnie Testamark, former Assistant Warden Omar Samuel and correctional officer Tyiesha Benjamin-Samuel as defendants. The lawsuit identifies Samuel and Benjamin-Samuel as husband and wife. According to the complaint, Heywood was incarcerated at the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility, now known as the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility, when the alleged attack occurred on November 28, 2025. Heywood alleges that Benjamin-Samuel “purposefully and with premeditation” directed him to the recreation yard while simultaneously ...