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Title: Former inmate wins $22 million over 'forgotten' solitary confinement
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-25/ ... ess-civil-rights?_s=PM:JUSTICE
Published: Jan 25, 2012
Author: Bill Mears, CNN
Post Date: 2012-01-29 03:47:30 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 188
Comments: 3

A New Mexico man held in solitary confinement in a county prison for nearly two years without ever being prosecuted has won a $22 million jury award for violation of his constitutional rights, officials said.

It is one of the largest federal civil rights settlements in history involving an inmate. Stephen Slevin alleged he was essentially forgotten while in custody.

"This has never been about the money," Slevin said in a halting voice outside the federal courthouse in Santa Fe, just after the jury's decision.

He suffers from post-traumatic stress from what he called physical and mental mistreatment by corrections officials in Dona Ana County, in the southern part of the state.

"We made a statement about what happened to me," he said of the verdict.

Slevin, 58, was arrested in August 2005 and charged with driving while intoxicated and receiving a stolen vehicle near Las Cruces. His lawyers said the prison segregated him because he had a lifelong history of mental illness.

Albuquerque civil rights attorney Matthew Coyte said his client then began to deteriorate while in isolation.

"They threw him in solitary and then ignored him," said Coyte. "He disappeared into delirium, and his mental illness was made worse by being isolated from human contact and a lack of medical care."

Slevin's lawsuit alleged he became malnourished, lost significant weight, developed bedsores, fungus and dental problems and was not aware of his situation or surroundings.

He was transferred to another state facility for two weeks, where he was given a psychiatric evaluation and then sent back to the Dona Ana County Detention Center, where he was again placed in solitary confinement. Coyte said Slevin did receive a brief competency hearing a year into his imprisonment, but the case against the man never proceeded.

After 22 months as a pre-trial detainee, Slevin was released and the charges dismissed. He then filed suit, claiming his rights of due process were violated since he was not given a hearing before being placed in solitary confinement.

Photos taken before and after his confinement show dramatic appearance changes. The plaintiff said things were so bad he was forced to pull his own tooth while in custody, and that his pleas for help were dismissed.


Poster Comment:

More bungling by bureaucrats. They do nothing in the way of vocational rehab, don't even provide necessary medical attention. Just cost taxpayers money.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.

#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)

There's some detail that we're not being told. This evidently wasn't a jury award, this was a "settlement". I cannot New Mexico voluntarily giving up $22M without a serious fight. Even a sympathetic jury would probably give less than that amount.

Shoonra  posted on  2012-01-29   22:58:29 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Shoonra (#1) (Edited)

This evidently wasn't a jury award, this was a "settlement".

It really helps if you read the article Shoonie.......

"has won a $22 million JURY AWARD for violation of his constitutional rights"

Say, Shoonie, what would 22 months of your life in solitary confinement without a trial be worth?

abraxas  posted on  2012-01-29   23:19:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 2.

#3. To: abraxas (#2) (Edited)

You are right, but the word "settlement" in the second paragraph made me think this was a last minute deal while the jury was out.

Checking on other news reports of the case, it turns out that New Mexico tried to argue that it couldn't sued - because it had kept Slevin locked up for two years he had therefore missed the one year deadline for suing over the decision to lock him up in solitary! At some point the state offered a lousy two million dollars as a settlement, which Slevin rejected. So the jury really hit the state.

Very probably the state will appeal on the pretext that the jury award is "excessive" but the magnitude of the award is probably the jury's gentle way of telling the state that there should never be a repetition of this sort of "mistake".

On the other hand, there was a much less generous out-of-court settlement in a horrendous DC case about 15 years ago. A young man named Jonathan Magbie had been a quadraplegic since an auto accident in early childhood. As a result of his injuries he was unable to move anything but his head. He required constant physical attention, and a motorized wheelchair with a controller that fit in his mouth, and an around-the-clock breathing machine. He was spotted one day, outside with a cousin, smoking a joint and arrested - his first and only brush with the law. In court, from his wheelchair, he pled guilty but because he would not promise the judge that he would never smoke mj again -- he said he needed it medicinally for his chronic pain -- the judge sentenced him to a mere ten days in the DC jail. .... Where they had no wheelchair, no breathing machine, and nobody to tend to his needs. He was simply locked into an infirmary room alone. Within a few days he was in severe respiratory distress; the jail staff dithered and dawdled about taking him to the DC General Hospital two blocks away (a hospital that would be substandard even in a third-world country), where he was mostly ignored, brought back a few hours later and put back in the infirmary room. He didn't live to see the fifth day of his sentence.

The judge made some lame excuse about not realizing how fragile he was. His mother sued and got a settlement which is secret but I'll bet a hell of a lot less than $5M.

Shoonra  posted on  2012-01-30 11:07:14 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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