Matt Coyte said, “He disappeared into delirium, and his mental illness was made worse by being isolated from human contact and a lack of medical care.”
Stephen Slevin, a 58-yeah-old New Mexico man has been awarded a $15.5 million settlement, one of the largest prisoner civil rights payouts in U.S. history, after he was thrown into solitary confinement in the Dona Ana County jail and essentially forgotten. According to NBC News, Slevin was arrested near Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a DUI and “receiving a stolen vehicle,” in 2005, and was sent to the Dona Ana County jail. Slevin’s civil rights attorney Matt Coyte told NBC, “When he gets put in the jail, they think he’s suicidal, and they put him in a padded cell for three days, but never give him any treatment.” After those three days Slevin was moved to solitary confinement, with no explanation and without ever seeing a judge. In fact, Coyte says Slevin didn’t see a judge one time in the 22 months he was incarcerated as a “pre-trial detainee.”
According to the lawsuit, Slevin was “forced to pull his own tooth because he was denied dental care,” he developed bedsores, his toe nails grew so long they began to curl around his feet, and he grew fungus on his skin because he wasn’t allowed to shower regularly. Coyte told NBC, “His mental health has been severely compromised from the time he was in that facility. That continues to be the same. No amount of money will bring back what they took away from him.” At the original trial last year Slevin told reporters that “it was never about the money,” but instead he wanted to send a message “that prisoners should be treated more humanely.”
How did they eventually discover him?
This is an insanely horrifying story.
They knew he was there they just basically ignored him for 22 months. I don’t know if it was just some mishap with paperwork but he never saw a judge, was never tried or convicted of anything. The had him as a “pre-trial detainee” and finally just dismissed the charges and let him go…
Horrifying and disgusting!