By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE — Corrections officers allowed inmates to enter Avery Hadley’s Metropolitan Detention Center cell and stomp on his head so severely that he suffered a permanent brain injury and now has a titanium plate in his head.
That misconduct will cost Bernalillo County taxpayers about $2.5 million under terms of a settlement approved Tuesday by a federal judge.
Had ley’s medical bil ls exceeded $600,000 and the settlement includes more than $400,000 to attorneys Joshua Simms and Matt Garcia. An additional $1.5 million will be placed in a trust account and managed by a bank trust officer to take care of Hadley, who now lives in an apartment with regular assistance from caregivers.
It also provides for reimbursement to Medicaid and to Hadley’s sister Sandra Foster, who had out-of-pocket expenses taking care of her brother.
Hadley was first beaten in November 2008 and was in the infirmary for weeks before a similar incident in March 2009. The second beating left him hospitalized and in a coma for weeks.
Publicity about the beatings led to criminal prosecutions as well as a review of the jail by a team of prisoner rights experts.
U.S. District Judge William “Chip” Johnson on Tuesday quizzed lawyers for Hadley and Sandra Foster, Hadley’s sister, about the fairness of the settlement.
Attorney Maureen Sanders, the appointed guardian- ad-litem for Hadley, said the attorney fees were reasonable, especially in light of the lawyers’ agreement to reduce them from a 30 percent contingency fee to 20 percent.
The settlement talks were conducted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Torgerson.
Johnson asked Sanders if investigations by Hadley’s attorneys led to any conclusion about racial motivation in the attacks. The judge took note of the presence in the courtroom of an assistant U.S. attorney who is a liaison with the Department of Justice on civil rights cases.
Sanders said there had been allegations that some inmates weren’t pleased with racial remarks made by Hadley, who is African-American, and had gotten correctional officers to let them into Hadley’s cell.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Baker said after the hearing he couldn’t comment on whether there is a civil rights investigation, but Sanders told the judge the settlement would not keep lawyers from sharing what they had learned with federal officials.
Metropolitan Detention Center director Ramon Rustin, reached Tuesday at a conference in Denver, said he has made major changes since coming on board in January 2011.
“We’ve made significant improvements in training and overall reporting so that any incident will be immediately recognized and investigated and followed through,” he said. “So I don’t think an incident that resulted in a significant injury will go unnoticed.”
He said that since MDC got approval to hire 98 more officers, it’s possible to “go back and screen out individuals that were not a good fit for the environment and lacked job readiness.”
The jail also intends to begin new psychological testing that will cover all applicants. Currently, Rustin said, such testing is done only for specialized program officers such as those in community custody and transport. “This is a work in progress,” Rustin said.
“The most important thing is that the jail undergo a culture change. We need to increase our level of professionalism. I want the public to know most officers are very good officers who’ve done their jobs for years without incident. (And) those officers that don’t belong — we get rid of right away.”
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal