Media Coverage
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Inside One Lawyer’s Quest to End Solitary Confinement
October 23, 2020 In 2008, Matthew Coyte, an attorney with a tiny private practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was approached by a potential client. Stephen Slevin had spent nearly two years in solitary confinement in Doña Ana County Detention Center, where he developed fungal infections and bedsores, removed his own aching tooth, suffered deteriorating mental illness and descended into a delirium. Coyte took one look at the transformation between Slevin’s booking photo and release photo — during which time his hair and beard had grown long, matted, and unkempt — and took the case. “Those two pictures were so dramatically different,” recalls Coyte. “It demonstrated what horrors had been wreaked upon him.”... |
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'Forgotten' inmate gets $15.5 million settlement from N.M. county
March 8, 2013 Stephen Slevin's 22 months in solitary confinement in a county jail left him traumatized and physically weak, but he'll soon be a multimillionaire for his suffering. The New Mexico county that locked him up on a drunk driving charge, isolated him from other inmates and accused of essentially forgetting about him for nearly two years agreed this week to settle his lawsuit for $15.5 million. Slevin, now 59, went to jail in August 2005 as "a well nourished, physically healthy adult," but emerged with a long beard, bed sores, bad teeth and weighing just 133 pounds in June 2007, according to the lawsuit... |
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Lawsuit: Inmate's in-custody death could have been prevented
June 11, 2021 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- A newly-filed lawsuit claims an inmate died at the Doña Ana County jail because the facility was too cheap to pay for an ambulance. Hector Garcia was being held for unpaid fines on Aug. 4, 2019. Video from the jail shows him slump over and fall to the ground. There is no sound on the video, but the lawsuit states he told jail guards that his pain was a 10 out of 10, and begged for help... |
“He was treated like an animal for almost two years...Worse than an animal. You wouldn’t put an animal in a cell that size, and not let them out, and if you did, you’d be arrested.”
- Matthew Coyte in January 26, 2012 Albuquerque Journal article about Stephen Slevin-
- Matthew Coyte in January 26, 2012 Albuquerque Journal article about Stephen Slevin-
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Criminal defense lawyer asks public safety community to rethink who goes to jail during pandemic
April 1, 2020 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Lawyers are asking the public safety community to rethink the rules about who goes in and out of jail amid the coronavirus pandemic. “The things that we know for sure, infections will occur in jails and prison and it will spread rapidly,” said Matt Coyte, former president of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Coyte said New Mexico’s jails and prisons are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks and that law enforcement and jail officials should reconsider who goes in to protect public health. “You are going to have infection and it will spread rapidly. You are also going to have staff rates diminish because people on staff will get sick, they will be isolated, so the staffing will get reduced and then likely social disorder,” he said.... |
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New Mexico Police K-9 attacks unarmed man during welfare check, officer under investigation
May 24, 2019 CLOVIS, N.M. -- Three police officers and the department are facing a lawsuit after a man said the officers allowed a police dog to attack him in his living room for no reason in Clovis, New Mexico. The man's attorney says this isn't the first time the officer with the dog has been accused of excessive force, KOAT reports. The man who was attacked has mental health issues and his attorney says bringing the K-9 escalated the entire situation. The officers entered the man's apartment, identified as Dan Lucero, after Lucero's mom called for a welfare check on her son on February 22, 2019... |
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Ex-inmate wins $2M lawsuit in New Mexico over hot prison van
April 5, 2019 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A former New Mexico inmate's attorney says he has won a $2 million verdict in a lawsuit accusing two officers of leaving him and others in a prisoner transport van to suffer on a hot summer day in 2013. The decision comes more than three years after Isaha Casias sued the New Mexico Department of Corrections and the officers. Attorney Matthew Coyte says the verdict was reached late Thursday in federal court in Roswell... |
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New Mexico county sees more lawsuits on inmate abuse claims
December 10, 2019 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico county involved in one of the largest prisoner civil rights settlements in U.S. history is facing more federal lawsuits over its treatment of inmates in its jail. Attorney Matt Coyte recently filed two lawsuits in U.S. District Court on behalf of inmates who allege mistreatment and abuse at the Doña Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. According to a lawsuit filed Monday, Susan Hylton, now 42, was placed in solitary confinement after she requested to report sexual and physical abuse. Hylton made the request after correctional officers ordered her to strip during a search for drugs, the lawsuit said. |
“We need to take a whole new approach on how to run our jails, such that staff and inmates are not subjected to these repetitively traumatizing events."
- Matthew Coyte in December 28, 2017 Albuquerque Journal article about MDC settlements
- Matthew Coyte in December 28, 2017 Albuquerque Journal article about MDC settlements
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Sierra County, former inmate settle case for $750K
December 23rd, 2015 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sierra County has settled for $750,000 a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of a former inmate who was held in solitary confinement without his medications for over two weeks in 2012, and left the detention facility with post-traumatic stress disorder added to his list of disorders. Albuquerque attorney Matthew Coyte, who has litigated multiple cases involving solitary confinement, filed the dismissal notice Tuesday on behalf of Michael Faziani against the Sierra County Commission and six employees at the now-closed county detention facility... |
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Valencia County pays $1.6 million in jail case
February 7, 2014 LOS LUNAS – A federal lawsuit against the Valencia County Detention Center by a mentally ill inmate who was held in solitary confinement for long periods and who claimed she was denied feminine hygiene products and not allowed to shower has been settled for $1.6 million... |
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Solitary in New Mexico: Part 2
May 5, 2014 Jan Green isn’t sure of cell 135C’s exact dimensions at the Valencia County Detention Center. It was small. “It was a shower stall, but I couldn’t use the shower,” she said. “It had the steel toilet and sink combination. It had a cement L-shaped bench and two drains. It had a steel door with a window that looked out into the walkway. “ She saw those objects every day all day during her months-long stints in solitary. She slept on a mat on the floor. She remembers that it was cold in there, the lights were kept on around the clock, and she couldn’t get the water running properly. The out-of-use showerhead dripped. All the time... |
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The Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Jail Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime
February 17, 2014 A 51-year-old mentally ill grandmother recently secured a $1.6 million settlement from a New Mexico county that she says jailed her for more than two years, much of which she spent in an isolation cell without a bed. That grandmother, Jan Green, has bipolar disorder and was charged with two minor incidents of domestic violence — both of which were ultimately dropped, her lawyer says. While the broad strokes of Green's case sound awful, the details she and her lawyer allege are by turns stomach-turning and heartbreaking. Green was allegedly kept in a roughly 7-by-8-foot solitary confinement cell for at least eight months, sleeping on a mat on the floor and bleeding on herself because she had been denied sanitary napkins. |
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Woman, 73, sues over month in solitary confinement
December 3, 2013 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 73-year-old grandmother with bipolar disorder has filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was kept in solitary confinement for more than a month at the state women’s prison after a popular antacid led to a false positive on a drug test. Carol Lester, the former executive director of the Ruidoso Board of Realtors, says she was in solitary lockup for longer than prison policy allowed and wasn’t given her medications for mental and physical illnesses, including a heart ailment. |
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