New Mexico Watchdog Group Sues for Video Allegedly Showing Jailers Killing Detainee
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NMFOG) has filed an enforcement complaint under the state Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) against the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners, seeking release of video and other records from the County’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), as well as a declaration whether MDC records fit within the IPRA’s “law enforcement” exception.
NMFOG and Albuquerque Journal reporter Matt Reiser sought video showing former MDC Sgt. Stephen Gabaldon and a group of guards escorting pretrial detainee John Sanchez. The complaint alleged that during the escort, video would show Gabaldon performed a “leveraged takedown” of Sanchez, causing him “to land forcefully on his face and head.”
MDC Nurse Natasha Bustamante allegedly offered no diagnostic testing nor any treatment; 45 minutes later Sanchez was found in a cell vomiting blood and having a seizure. He was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where a “large brain bleed” and fractures to the neck and spine were diagnosed. Sanchez was declared brain dead and removed from life support on June 16, 2023. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office conducted an investigation and forwarded its results to the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s (DA’s) Office in November 2023. As of July 25, 2024, the DA’s Office had “not made a decision whether or not to prosecute,” said spokesperson Nancy Laflin.
Reiser and NMFOG filed separate requests to obtain a video of the incident. MDC responded by permitting only on-site viewing and prohibited any recording device, including paper and pen. MDC cited as authority a 2023 legislative amendment to IPRA, NMSA 1978, §14-2-1, provided an exception for “law enforcement records” that include a “visual depiction of great bodily harm, as defined in Section 30-1-12 NMSA 1978, or acts of severe violence resulting in great bodily harm, unless a law enforcement officer, acting in that capacity, caused or is reasonably alleged or suspected to have caused great bodily harm or act of severe violence.”
NMFOG countered that the exception “does not apply to records held by MDC or any other agency that is not a law enforcement or prosecution agency.” It further alleged that the exception does not apply to MDC because it is a county jail. In its complaint, filed on July 24, 2024, NMFOG sought an order granting release of the video and complaints against former MDC Warden Jason Jones, as well as prohibiting the Defendants from claiming that the materials fall under the “law enforcement records” exception to the IPRA. The group is also seeking relief for the Defendants’ failure to comply with the IPRA’s time limits, plus attorney’s fees and costs. See: N.M. Found’n for Open Gov’t v. Bernalillo Cty. Bd. of Comm’rs, 2nd Judicial District Court (Bernalillo Cty.), Case No. D-202-CV-2024-06008.
Sanchez’s estate also sued the County in federal court for the District of New Mexico, alleging excessive force by the guards and deliberate indifference to Sanchez’s resulting serious medical need by Nurse Bustamante. Her motion to dismiss the complaint was denied on September 19, 2024, leaving the case to proceed toward trial. The Estate and Personal Representative Rachel Higgins are represented by Albuquerque attorneys Nicholas T. Hart of Harrison & Hart, LLC, and Taylor E. Smith of Smith & Marjanovic Law, LLC. See: Higgins v. Bernalillo Cty. Bd. of Comm’rs, 749 F. Supp. 3d 1159 (D.N.M. 2024).
Additional source: Albuquerque Journal
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