Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
The family of a man who asphyxiated while correctional officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center restrained him settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Bernalillo County for nearly $5 million last fall.
Vicente Villela
On Tuesday, two of the officers involved in the case – Jonathan Sandoval, 33, who knelt on Vicente Villela’s back, and Lt. Keith Brandon, 45, who gave the orders – were each indicted on one count of involuntary manslaughter, a fourth-degree felony.
The $4,560,000 settlement in the federal suit was one of the largest settlements involving law enforcement with either the city or county in recent years. The medical provider, Centurion Detention Health Services, also reached a settlement with the family but the amount was not disclosed. An attorney for the provider did not respond to requests for comment.
More than half of MDC inmates decline COVID vaccine
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Editorial: Big spike in inmate deaths at MDC raises some serious red flags » Albuquerque Journal
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Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
Over the past year, nine people in the custody of the state’s largest jail have died – and eight of those deaths occurred during a five-month period from August 2020 to January 2021.
It’s an unprecedented spike, says attorney Peter Cubra, a longtime advocate for inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
(Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Albuquerque Journal)
“I’ve been working around this jail since 1984,” Cubra said. “This number of deaths is astronomically higher than any other time in history and it should be treated as a crisis. If it’s not being treated as a crisis it means these people are being devalued by the government.”