New Mexico’s Santa Fe County was hit with another suit in October 2023 over a detainee’s drug-­related death at the county jail, just over a year after agreeing to pay $787,500 to the father of a young woman who died at the jail under similar circumstances. The more recent suit was filed by Barbara Romero as personal representative of the estate of her daughter, Brianna Romero, and next friend to the dead woman’s son, Michael.

Romero was arrested on September 30, 2021, after allegedly taking part in a drive-­by shooting spree with her sister and a 16-­year-­old friend that damaged several buildings and cars. She was booked into the Santa Fe County Detention Center but transferred to a hospital after she collapsed in her cell. Discharged the next day, she was returned to a holding cell at the jail, where she was found unconscious again hours later and returned to hospital. She died there on October 10, 2021. A state medical examiner attributed the death to fentanyl and cocaine toxicity.

Aided by Santa Fe attorney Sam P. Ruyle and Dallas attorney Kenneth D. Perrin of the Perrin Law Firm, the Estate filed suit in state court in October 2023, accusing the County and its jailers of ignoring the hospital’s discharge instructions to keep Romero under close watch, in deliberate indifference to her serious medical needs. On November 27, 2023, Defendants removed the case to the federal court for the District of New Mexico, where it remains pending, and PLN will update developments as they are available. See: Romero v. Santa Fe Cty., USDC (D.N.M.), Case No. 1:23-­cv-­01056.

The case bears disturbing similarities to that of another jail detainee who died in custody, Carmela DeVargas. As PLN reported, her estate also sued the County and its employees alleging that jailers failed to provide adequate medical treatment as she slowly died of meningitis and other bacterial infections. [See: PLN, Sept. 2021, pg. 44]. On September 16, 2022, the county settled the case with an agreement to pay a total of $787,500, as well as covering expenses related to DeVargas’s end-­of-­life medical care and guardian ad litem services necessary for managing settlement funds on behalf of her minor children.

DeVargas, 34, developed a severe fever and abdominal pain that would not abate about two weeks after being booked into the jail in September 2019. Jail medical staff knew that DeVargas was an IV drug user, putting her at increased risk of infections and other medical complications. But guards, medical staff and the attending physician, Dr. Melequides Olivares, ignored DeVargas’s worsening condition until it was too late. DeVargas got only Ibuprofen as her temperature skyrocketed. Dr. Olivares never bothered to personally examine DeVargas or order any additional diagnostic tests, instead dismissing her complaints as the whimpering of a drug addict in withdrawal.

By the time DeVargas was finally sent to the hospital, she was suffering from a serious internal infection requiring transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU). Doctors there determined that DeVargas was suffering from a variety of infections, including MRSA bacteremia, meningeal inflammatory response and pneumonia, which had been left untreated for several weeks. DeVargas’s infections spread throughout her body and into her brain stem, rendering her quadriplegic and unable to live without life support. After a short visit with her father and sister, DeVargas told doctors to disconnect life support, and she died on November 9, 2019.

Though DeVargas was detained only for a probation violation stemming from a non-­violent offense, and her condition had left her attached to a ventilator and paralyzed, jailers left her shackled to the ICU bed—over protestations from hospital staff that the restraints interfered with her treatment. Jail staff also limited DeVargas’s visits with her family as she died, permitting only her father and sister to see her for short periods—while chained to a hospital bed like an animal.

Antonio DeVargas, acting as personal representative of his daughter’s estate and on behalf of her minor children, filed suit against the jail and its employees, alleging a litany of constitutional torts related to their deliberate indifference to DeVargas’s serious medical needs and her cruel and excessive treatment as she lay dying in the hospital. The complaint also chronicled the jail’s long history of abuses, including medical neglect, noting millions of dollars paid out to settle detainees’ claims. The complaint further detailed how the county had hired a reform-­minded corrections chief, Annabelle Romero, two years after the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an investigation into systemic constitutional violations at the jail in 2003—only to fire Romero as soon as DOJ settled with the county in 2008.

Faced with these grim facts, the county decided not to risk a jury trial. Without admitting any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay DeVargas’s estate a total of $787,500, plus another $3,000 to the hospital for end-­of-­life care provided to her, and an undetermined amount for a guardian ad litem to manage the settlement funds on behalf of her minor children. The payout included costs and fees for the estate’s attorneys, Katherine Murray of Egolf+Ferlic+Martinez+Harwood LLC and fellow Santa Fe attorneys Daniel Yohalem and Richard Rosenstock. See: DeVargas v. Bd. of Cty. Comm. Santa Fe Cty., USDC (D.N.M.), Case No. 1:21-­cv-­00271.  

Additional sources: KOAT, Santa Fe New Mexican

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