Detectives investigating death of Haitian woman after release by ICE

Lawyer says it’s unclear if charges will emerge.

By JAMES ENGEL TribLive

Pittsburgh homicide detectives are investigating the death of Daphy Michel after the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a homicide last month.

Michel, a Haitian-born asylum seeker who lived in Charleroi, died March 2 at UPMC Presbyterian hospital after she was found unresponsive at a Pittsburgh bus shelter days after her release by immigration agents.

The medical examiner’s office ruled Michel’s cause of death as hypothermia but her manner of death as homicide.

The determination prompted several immediate and pointed responses from local officials.

Pittsburgh Police spokeswoman Cara Cruz confirmed Saturday that detectives were investigating Michel’s death, which she said is protocol for any death ruled a homicide within the city.

“A determination of homicide is a medical finding indicating that death resulted from the actions of another person and does not, by itself, establish that a crime was committed,” Cruz said in a statement.

Court records show Michel was arrested in September on misdemeanor charges and held in the Washington County jail.

When those charges were dismissed Feb. 27, ICE picked her up on an immigration detainer, according to Joseph Murphy, a Pittsburgh immigration attorney working with Michel’s family.

ICE agents took her to their offices in the South Side of Pittsburgh, according to Murphy. They placed an ankle monitor on her as part of their Alternatives to Detention program.

According to a criminal complaint, Michel was taken into custody after a neighbor in Charleroi called police Sept. 3 to report they believed she was having a mental health crisis.

The neighbor told police Michel “brandished a knife at her stating, ‘I want to hurt everyone.’” Charleroi police responding to the scene said they had dealt with Michel previously and knew her history, the complaint said.

After months of delays, Charleroi District Judge Eric G. Porter dismissed harassment and terroristic threats charges, finding there was no identifiable victim, according to Murphy.

However, there remained an ICE detainer against Michel, who entered the United States through Brownsville, Texas, in 2022, Murphy said.

At the time she entered, Murphy continued, the federal government found compelling “urgent humanitarian reasons” to allow her to stay in the U.S.

In its statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Michel was released the same day agents picked her up.

“She was released with all of her belongings, including a fully charged phone, in sunny weather in the middle of Pittsburgh, where public transport is readily available,” the statement said.

But Murphy said leaving her at the bus shelter was a “recipe for disaster.”

Michel’s phone plan had lapsed while she was in jail, she did not speak English and had been diagnosed with psychosis, he said.

“The opinion of the forensic pathologist in this case is that Ms. Michel was a vulnerable adult, suffering from untreated severe mental health issues and a significant language barrier when she was released from federal custody on February 27,” according to a statement released last month by Jim Madalinsky, a spokesman for Allegheny County.

Madalinsky cautioned, however, that the homicide ruling is “a standard manner of death determination indicating the death was caused by the actions of another individual” and “not a declaration of criminal guilt.”

Murphy said he’s unsure if the investigation will ultimately result in charges.

Three police detectives interviewed Murphy and Michel’s brother, Etienne Michel, last week for about two hours, he said. Police collected the late Michel’s phone and seemed to be gathering information about her psychiatric state, according to Murphy.

“It’s pretty clear (the detectives) know things I don’t,” he said.

Murphy said he expects to file a lawsuit against the federal government and perhaps Washington County officials on behalf of Michel’s brother, with whom she lived in Charleroi.

That will likely happen by the end of the month, he said.