By Phil Parker
Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe County has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of a woman who suffered permanent brain damage after she hanged herself by a television cord in jail four years ago.
County jail employees discovered Nanette Romero hanging by her neck in the facility’s television room a few days after her arrest in July 2006. She wasn’t breathing when they cut Romero down, but they managed to resuscitate her. A lawsuit filed two years ago alleges she should have been under constant suicide watch, which would have prevented her resulting state. “She has permanent brain damage from the oxygen being cut off,” her lawyer Bob Rothstein said Tuesday. “There’s serious memory loss, loss of IQ and ability to function. She’s totally disabled.”
Among the defendants in the civil suit were Sheriff Greg Solano, then-acting director of the jail Bob Ortiz, then-Santa Fe County Director of Corrections Greg Parrish, then-jail Medical Director Laura Kay, and then-jail psychologist Terri Greer. Rothstein said only Ortiz and Solano are still employed by Santa Fe County.
A county representative declined comment on Tuesday. A message left with jail director Annabelle Romero’s office was not returned.
Rothstein said Nanette Romero, 27, earned the large settlement in part because “it’s such a strong liability case.” He said defendants took turns pointing fingers at each other.
“Each deposition, there was a new villain,” he said. “Nurses accusing guards, the psychologist accusing nurses, one after another they incrim-inated each other and we just sat back and said, ‘Can you tell us anything else bad about how you ran this place?’” According to court documents, Romero was booked on July 17, 2006, for aggravated assault against a household member. According to the lawsuit: She told staff she was a methadone and heroin user, but she was cleared for housing in the general population. She was placed on suicide watch the next morning when severe withdrawal symptoms kicked in, and while being held in the jail’s medical unit she tried to cut her wrists with a name badge. Two days later her withdrawal continued, causing trouble sleeping, dehydration, a loss of appetite and suicidal thoughts. Jail employees, however, couldn’t agree on whether she should be placed on constant suicide watch, even after an incident in which she claimed to have given birth, despite evidence she had not. She was also supposed to have received a “kick kit” to soothe her withdrawal pain, but it wasn’t available for her that morning, nor were clothes available that are specially designated for suicidal patients.
During an examination with a doctor, Romero wrote on a piece of paper: “I love Christian (Romero’s 6-year-old son); I love my Mom and Brother; I love myself and others; I need to go back.”
Doctors were discussing Romero’s case shortly afterward while she was alone in the TV room. They found her hanging there, cut her down and administered CPR. Rothstein said money for the settlement came from the New Mexico Association of Counties and the state’s Risk Management Division. Romero and her son are being cared for by her mother, Della Sherwood, who was the plaintiff in the suit, he said.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal