Lawsuit alleges prison failed to protect inmate from event that caused brain damage
Jun. 14—A new federal lawsuit accuses private prison operator Core Civic of failing to protect a 19-year-old New Mexico prisoner from other inmates, allowing him to suffer a beating that caused brain damage.
Ruben Romero's complaint alleges Core Civic, along with the warden and guards the company employed at the Cibola County Correctional Center in 2018, violated his civil rights. The company, which failed to implement a system to identify inmates who should be kept away from one another, placed him in a population with his co-defendant in a murder case, who participated in a violent attack on him, according to the complaint.
Romero, who stands about 5-foot-4 and weighed around 130 pounds at the time of the incident, was placed in a pod where he was one of the few inmates who did not have a red stripe on his uniform indicating he was a dangerous to the facility, the complaint says.
Meanwhile, his co-defendant, Rudy Valencia, was classified as one of the most dangerous inmates in the prison and had a history of violence in detention facilities.
On the night in question, the lawsuit says, a guard left Romero's unit, where prisoners had a shared common area. Three men including Valencia — who were all far larger than Romero — severely beat him, kicking and punching him in the head and face.
"[He] screamed for help," the complaint says, but other inmates in the pod continued milling about and looked the other way.
Had anyone been monitoring the unit, even remotely, the complaint says, they would have seen the three inmates "stomping [Romero] while he lay motionless on the ground."
After the assault, "stumbled down the stairs with blood pouring out if his face" and "called repeatedly for help with no response."
Meanwhile, the lawsuit says, his attackers were cleaning his blood from the floor.
About 30 minutes later, a guard noticed Romero standing bloodied by the door to the unit.
He was taken to a hospital with "severe and life threatening injuries," according to the complaint, and was found to have suffered brain damage in the attack.
Romero's attorneys are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages against Core Civic, one of the largest private prison operations in the nation.
