SANTA FE(New Mexico),Jan28,2012(AFP): A US man has been awarded $22 million for inhumane treatment after being jailed in solitary confinement for 22 months for drink driving in the southern state of New Mexico.Stephen Slevin, 57, said he suffered clinical depression after being jailed on charges of driving while intoxicated, transferring a stolen vehicle and other offenses in Dona Ana County in August, 2005. “People were walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate day after day after day, and did nothing, nothing at all to get me any help,” said Slevin, after Tuesday’s verdict at the US District Court in Santa Fe. He told jail authorities he needed treatment for his mental condition, but his pleas were ignored and he became delirious, said his attorney, civil rights lawyer Matthew Coyte. By May 2007, when Slevin was transferred to a mental hospital, he had lost a third of his body weight, had a beard down to his chest, toenails curling around his toes, fungus on his skin, bed sores and “had been driven mad.” “It’s the worst case of solitary confinement in the country,” said Coyte. The lawyer said Slevin improved at the hospital, but after two weeks he was returned to solitary confinement at the Dona Ana County jail and began to deteriorate again. On June 25, 2007, a county magistrate judge found Slevin incapable of participating in his own defense, dismissed all charges against him and ordered him freed. Coyte sued the Dona Ana County Commission, the jail, jail director Chris Barela and the jail’s former medical director, Daniel Zemek, charging they had violated Slevin’s civil rights. A jury trial began on January 17 before US District Judge Martha Vazquez. On Tuesday, a jury returned a verdict calling for $15.5 million in compensatory damages from all defendants, $3.5 million in punitive damages from Zemek and $3 million in punitive damages from Barela. A county spokesman said the verdict would be appealed.
