Doctors discovered several years ago that he had an intestinal mass. It was determined to be colon cancer which, if treated in a timely manner, would have given him a 71% chance of long-term survival, according to a doctor interviewed by the referee, known under the name of special master. Instead, it progressed to metastatic liver cancer.
In November 2020, Mr Bardell, who had experienced bouts of bleeding, applied for compassionate release on the grounds that his condition was terminal. But an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of Florida, Emily CL Chang, opposed his release, citing the office’s Covid-19 protocols. She also said Mr Bardell was not terminally ill and could be treated in prison.
Judge Dalton took the government at its word and rejected Mr Bardell’s release – a decision he said he now believed was based on false information.
“As we now know, it was not true that Mr. Bardell could receive adequate care in custody,” the judge wrote. “And, unfortunately, his condition was indeed terminal.”
On February 2, 2021, Mr. Bardell filed a second application, supported by an affidavit from a board-certified oncologist. The U.S. attorney’s office responded that he underwent an exam that found “no evidence of malignancy” and questioned whether he had cancer, Judge Dalton wrote.
This time, the judge quickly granted Mr. Bardell’s request and ordered the Bureau of Prisons to create a court-approved release plan, which was to include details of transporting him to Florida, where his parents lived.
But the bureau ignored the order, Judge Dalton wrote. He immediately released Mr. Bardell without a plan, billed his parents for his airfare and had him “dropped off on the sidewalk at the Dallas/Fort Worth (“DFW”) airport to fend for himself” – bleeding, incontinent and with the tumor protruding from his abdomen.