Illegal Arrest and Detention Leads to Lawsuit and Settlement in New Mexico

I recently had the opportunity to help a man who was illegally held in a New Mexico jail. He was a convict, but he had completed his sentence, and the judge had ordered him to be released. Even though he was no longer on probation or parole, a parole officer arrested him a few days after his release. This was an illegal arrest.

Even though there was no warrant or court order for this man to be held, the county jail kept him in custody. Strangely, the jail even transferred him to a prison. Even more shocking, the prison held him over a weekend, all without any paperwork to justify the detention. All told, he was kept in custody illegally for more than a week.

He hired me to help him with the case. I immediately sent out several public records requests to build the case. New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) requires governmental entities, like the county jail and the New Mexico Corrections Department, to provide access to public records. The records confirmed that my client had been held in custody illegally, by both the jail and the prison. This was directly contrary to the court’s orders.

I filed a lawsuit and achieved a settlement for this client. If you or a loved one has been held illegally in a New Mexico jail or prison, sometimes called overdetention or unlawful detention, please give my firm a call.