Johnny Noviello, shown in a photo shared by his family, was arrested by ICE in May of last year at a probation office and spent five weeks in detention before his death.Courtesy of family
A medical professional at a Miami prison allegedly failed to treat and log a Canadian ICE detainee’s symptoms of illness before he died in custody, according to a complaint sent to the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog and obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The complaint alleges that a Bureau of Prisons health provider was contacted to evaluate the detainee, 49-year-old Johnny Noviello, because he appeared dizzy and unstable. But it says the provider “did not document the interaction she had with Noviello and had no clear assessment or treatment plan for the inmate before his cardiac arrest.”
Mr. Noviello died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Federal Detention Center Miami on June 23, 2025. A preliminary assessment of his death cited cardiac arrest, and a full autopsy attributed that to idiopathic calcium oxalate nephropathy – a rare form of acute kidney failure that several experts told The Globe should have been detected and should not have been fatal.
The Globe first reported last year that Mr. Noviello’s death is the subject of an FBI probe. The FBI has declined to release any details about its investigation. The Noviello family told The Globe they haven’t heard from the bureau since the first few weeks after the death.
Autopsy of Canadian in ICE custody indicates his death was preventable, experts say
The Globe obtained a document last year through U.S. freedom-of-information laws that noted the existence of the complaint, which was made on June 25, 2025, but much of the information had been redacted. The Globe subsequently requested further records from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog – its Office of the Inspector-General – and obtained a more complete version of the complaint that shows the nature of the allegation and gives insight into the parties involved.
Although the names of the complainant and the woman who is alleged to have inadequately treated Mr. Noviello are still redacted in the latest tranche of documents, their job classifications are listed on the complaint form. The complainant’s job code refers to a health system administrator, a U.S. Office of Personnel Management document shows. The code for the subject of the complaint is associated with the position of a nurse, according to a human resources page on the Bureau of Prisons website.
The nature of the complaint is described as “job performance failure.” The document does not state how much time allegedly passed between Mr. Noviello’s evaluation and his death.
FDC Miami is among the Bureau of Prisons locations that ICE has tasked with housing detainees amid the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown. In the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, 149 Canadians were detained by ICE.
Canadian man subjected to poor conditions in Texas ICE detention centre, says fiancée
Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Emery Nelson would not discuss potential allegations of staff misconduct or whether a specific employee was disciplined. He also would not confirm or deny the existence of a Department of Justice investigation into a complaint.
“Incidents of potential criminal activity or misconduct inside BOP facilities are thoroughly investigated for potential administrative discipline or criminal prosecution,” he said in an e-mail.
John Lavinsky, senior counsel to the Inspector-General, said the office could not confirm or deny the existence of continuing investigations.
The FBI has a mandate to investigate violent crimes and public corruption. It is also the primary federal agency responsible for enforcing civil-rights law. This includes abuse of power by government officials, such as use of excessive force or the deprivation of medical care to people in custody. The FBI can investigate in-custody deaths that occur at federal detention facilities upon the request of a local, state or federal agency.
In an e-mail last September, before The Globe learned the nature of the complaint, FBI public affairs officer Special Agent Willie Creech said the investigation request “most likely” came from BOP personnel. The FBI did not respond to The Globe’s recent questions about the complaint or the status of its investigation.
Mr. Noviello moved to Florida from Quebec as a child and was a U.S. permanent resident. In 2023, he was convicted of several drug-trafficking charges involving opioids, making him subject to possible deportation as a non-U.S. citizen. He was arrested by ICE in May of last year at a probation office and spent five weeks in detention before his death.
Mr. Noviello’s family says he was prepared to leave the U.S. and that there was no reason for him to be held at FDC Miami.
In 2024, advocacy organization Physicians for Human Rights published a study on deaths in ICE detention between 2017 and 2021. The report found that 95 per cent of the fatalities reviewed by the organization’s medical experts could have been prevented by appropriate medical care.
The study said ICE’s death investigations have also “allowed the destruction of evidence, have failed to interview key witnesses, and have omitted key inculpatory facts.”
Federal Detention Center Miami is among the Bureau of Prisons locations that ICE has tasked with housing detainees amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.Wilfredo Lee/The Associated Press
The federal prison system has also faced long-standing criticism over medical staff shortages and preventable deaths. Testifying before a Senate committee in 2024, the U.S. Justice Department’s Inspector-General said BOP staff repeatedly displayed significant shortcomings in responding to medical emergencies.
ICE is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has no authority over the Bureau of Prisons – the correctional arm of the Department of Justice. ICE spokesperson Nestor Yglesias did not respond to questions about the complaint and referred The Globe to the Bureau of Prisons.
Earlier this year, The Globe obtained Mr. Noviello’s autopsy report and provided it to six kidney specialists for their review. They stressed that more information is required to make definitive conclusions about what caused the extensive deposit of calcium oxalate crystals in Mr. Noviello’s kidney, but four of them said the most likely cause is the ingestion of ethylene glycol – a key ingredient in chemical solutions such as antifreeze.
The other two experts pointed to the possibility that Mr. Noviello had an undiagnosed condition in his liver or digestive system that caused excess oxalate to accumulate, which could have been exacerbated by severe dehydration in detention.
But Mr. Noviello’s acute kidney failure, regardless of what caused it, would have prompted symptoms of illness in the hours or days prior to his death, all of the experts said.
A toxicology report did not detect any ethylene glycol in Mr. Noviello’s system. However, experts said this does not rule out a chemical solution as the cause because the ethylene glycol may not have been detectable owing to how it is metabolized in the body. It is possible for a person to ingest such solutions several days before going into kidney failure.
Symptoms of kidney failure include shortness of breath, vomiting, confusion, loss of appetite and swelling in the legs, ankles and feet. The symptoms of ethylene glycol poisoning include dizziness, imbalance, slurred speech and extreme drowsiness. Dizziness and instability – both cited in the complaint – are considered non-specific symptoms that could be associated with a variety of conditions.
A mortality review, conducted by ICE and obtained by The Globe last year, says Mr. Noviello was found on June 23 “slumped over, sitting on the floor, pulseless, breathless, and unresponsive with fixed pupils.”
On June 25, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector-General received the complaint related to Mr. Noviello’s death, according to the first tranche of documents obtained by The Globe.
The complaint was referred to a division of Homeland Security that reviews and investigates alleged contraventions of departmental policy or civil-rights violations involving the department’s personnel. The complaint was subsequently recommended for referral to the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector-General, since at the time there was “no alleged misconduct on the part of any DHS employee” and Mr. Noviello was “actually under the care/custody/control of the U.S Bureau of Prisons.”