More than a year later, state agency still reviewing Yakima jail death

A Washington state agency has spent more than a year reviewing a violent death at the Yakima County Jail. But the agency still hasn’t determined whether the case will receive a new, independent criminal investigation.

The Office of Independent Investigations has been looking at Hien Trung Hua’s death since early 2025 in response to a request from Hua’s cousin. The request came after reporting by the Seattle Times detailed how Hua was pepper sprayed, tackled, shackled and restrained face down by jail guards.

Although Hua’s case appears to meet the state’s criteria for a new investigation, the Office of Independent Investigations says staffing and workload challenges have slowed its reviews of old cases like Hua’s.

“No one really understood the level of work these cases would require” before the office launched a few years ago, spokesperson Hector Castro said.

Hua, 41, was experiencing a mental health crisis when he was jailed in 2023 and died days later after his heart failed during a struggle with jail guards.

An internal investigation by the jail cleared the guards of wrongdoing. The county coroner reported the manner of death as natural. Yakima police found the guards used minor force. The county prosecutor took no action.

But reporting by the Times in 2024 showed guards grappled with Hua for minutes and held him prone before his death, in violation of a jail policy.

The forensic pathologist who conducted Hua’s autopsy changed his manner of death finding for Hua to negligent homicide after the Times asked him about videos of the incident. The coroner relabeled Hua’s death an accident.

The Office of Independent Investigations is a civilian-run agency created by the state Legislature in 2021 to address conflicts of interest that can arise when law enforcement officers investigate their peers for using deadly force.

The office’s main purpose is to investigate new deadly force incidents but it’s also authorized to reinvestigate old cases if new evidence is brought forward “that reasonably could affect a decision” by a prosecutor.

Hua’s cousin, Celyna Ly, submitted Hua’s case in late 2024, based on the Times’ reporting and the forensic pathologist’s revised finding. The Office of Independent Investigations subsequently agreed to conduct a review. The point of the review is to assess the importance of the new evidence.

Reviews of cases like Hua’s are taking a long time because the office prioritizes new deaths over old ones and because the reviews involve a lot of work with case documents, said Castro, the office’s spokesperson.

For example, the office must scrub any trace of statements made by officers during employer investigations they had to participate in, like the Yakima County Jail’s investigation of Hua’s death. These are “compelled” statements by public employees that can’t be used in criminal investigations.

Hua’s death is one of eight old cases under review by the Office of Independent Investigations. Most of the others were submitted before Hua’s.

The office has no charging authority. Once it completes an investigation of a death like Hua’s, it sends the results to the local prosecutor. The prosecutor decides whether deadly force was justified or criminal charges should be filed. Ly said her hope for accountability has dimmed over the past year. She believes the state office could benefit from broader authority, she said.

Certain Yakima County leaders involved in the original handling of Hua’s case are gone or on their way out. Coroner Jim Curtice resigned last year after being accused of using illicit drugs taken from corpses. County Prosecutor Joe Brusic recently announced he would not seek re-election this year.

In 2024, the Times contrasted Hua’s experience with that of Curtice, who was arrested during a mental health crisis of his own in 2023. Curtice kicked a sheriff’s deputy while intoxicated but was hospitalized rather than jailed and kept his job. Brusic declined to prosecute Curtice for that incident.

Hua’s mother has sued the county over his death. Tim Hall, an attorney for the family, said he will be watching to see who runs to replace Brusic as prosecutor and whether they will take another look at Hua’s case.