14 DAY TRIAL // Former prisoner Stephen Slevin, serving time in New Mexico, is set to receive compensation for being neglected, while in solitary confinement for almost 2 years.
Huffington Post writes that he was arrested on DWI charges in New Mexico in 2005. Allegations of driving a stolen vehicle ensued, even as Slevin told authorities he was driving a friend's car.
“He was driving through New Mexico and arrested for a DWI, and he allegedly was in a stolen vehicle. Well, it was a car he had borrowed from a friend; a friend had given him a car to drive across the country,” attorney Matthew Coyte explains.
The now 59-year-old Slevin was thrown in jail without a trial, soon after the arrest. He spent his 22 months there under solitary confinement, which he was ordered to serve three days after being locked up.
In 2007, the inmate was released because all the charges against him were dropped.
Las Cruces Sun – News details that he will receive $15.5 million (€11.9 million) for his ordeal, according to a decision made by a Federal Jury.
During his time in solitary, Slevin claims that he was denied basic medical attention, becoming ill and suffering great mental distress.
When he was freed, he was covered in bedsores and fungus, he had been delirious and at one point he was forced to pull out one of his teeth. He had toenails “so long they curled under his toes.”
“It has been a long and hard fight to bring Mr. Slevin justice.
“This settlement, although very large, does not give back to Mr. Slevin what was taken from him, but if it prevents others from enduring the pain and suffering he was subjected to, then the fight has been worthwhile,” his attorney says in a statement.