Ex-Dona Ana Inmate Awarded $22 Million For ‘Inhumane Treatment’

A former inmate at the Dona Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces was awarded $22 million dollars in damages Tuesday for what his attorney called inhumane treatment at the jail.

Stephen Slevin was booked in 2005 on DWI and driving-related charges. He was released 22 months later after a judge dismissed those charges.

“The conditions of (Slevin’s) confinement were so inhumane, he and other people were driven insane,” said Slevin’s Albuquerque-based attorney Matthew Coyte.

Court documents filed by Coyte allege Slevin was placed in solitary confinement for most of his time at the county jail. Slevin claims he was placed there without a proper hearing because he was mentally ill with depression at the time.

He said he was denied resources for medical treatment and hygiene, making his body break out in bed sores and fungus. Court documents claim he even pulled his own tooth out in a moment of desperation.

“If you have a policy of putting people in cells and leaving them there for months at a time without letting them out, you are gonna have damaged human beings as a result,” said Slevin’s attorney.

The county filed its own court documents in response to Slevin’s complaint in which it denies allegations of mistreatment or indicates it does not have sufficient information to verify Slevin’s specific claims.

In the end a federal jury in Santa Fe sided with Slevin and ordered the county to pay him $22 million in damages.

A spokesman with Dona Ana County would not comment on specific allegations in this case, but said the legal team “has strong legal issues upon which to appeal the case.”