A freelance journalist who has been researching the deaths of inmates in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a federal lawsuit in Johnstown seeking the release of information concerning an inmate who died in December 2023 when housed in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg.

MVPC inmate Frankline Okpu was 37 years old when he was found unresponsive in his cell on Dec. 6, 2023.

The ensuing investigation by state police and the Clearfield County coroner determined that his death was due to ecstasy toxicity accompanied by multiple other medical concerns reflecting heart and coronary artery issues.

R. Andrew Free of Atlanta is a former attorney who said he now is a researcher and freelance journalist.

Free took an interest in the Okpu story because, to his knowledge, the inmate’s death was the first overdose fatality in an ICE facility.

He also believes the full story of Okpu’s death has not been made public.

For instance, he understood that an autopsy found fentanyl in Okpu’s system.

He alleges that fact was unreported.

Free also believes that the death is possibly an indication that the use and distribution of drugs at MVPC may be a problem that also has remained unreported.

On Nov. 4, he filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown seeking records of the federal government’s investigation of the death.

He states in his lawsuit that ICE has not given him the information he needs to thoroughly investigate the death and that he is entitled under the Freedom of Information Act to “agency records” as well as a video record of Okpu’s stay at the prison.

He said the videos he requested would “have widespread public interest surrounding detained people’s deaths in ICE custody, about which there exist serious questions of government wrongdoing and included a number of internet links on Frankline’s death.”

His eight-count lawsuit contends that ICE, by not fulfilling his request, has violated not only the Freedom of Information Act, but the Declaratory Judgment Act, also dealing with public release of government records.

He asks the federal court to “order the Defendant (ICE) to proactively produce and make available to the public all records responsive to Frankline’s death.”

Free has met with Clearfield County’s District Attorney Ryan P. Sayers regarding Okpu’s death.

Sayers can’t confirm Free’s argument that the Okpu death was the first drug overdose death experienced in an ICE facility, but he noted it was the first at the Moshannon Valley facility.

“What I can say, most institutions are not perfect and drugs get into the institutions in Clearfield County and around the country,” Sayers said.

As to fentanyl being involved in the Okpu death, he said he accepted the report that concluded Okpu died of ecstasy toxicity.

The ICE report stated Okpu was found unresponsive in his cell at 11:14 a.m. Dec. 6, 2023.

Staff immediately administered CPR, as well as at least three doses of naloxone.

At 11:30 a.m., EMS personnel arrived and continued treatment until Okpu was declared deceased at 12:02 p.m.

Okpu, a native of Cameroon, entered the United States as a non-immigrant fiance of a U.S. citizen.

He became a permanent resident on March 24, 2020.

The record showed that he was eventually convicted of wire fraud in the Southern District of Texas and sentenced to confinement for 36 months.

In March 2023, he was released by the Bureau of Prisons, but upon release, he was transferred to Moshannon Valley.

Okpu leaves behind his U.S. citizen son and other children.

His mother, in Cameroon, while viewing her son’s photograph a year after his death, died of a broken heart, Free said.

Free in his lawsuit is being represented by attorney Daniel Melo of Raleigh, N.C.

The case has been assigned to District Judge Stephanie L. Haines.