9/17/09
A series of legal complaints against Rio Arriba County’s jail and sheriff’s department have inflated the County’s insurance bill this year.
The cost to insure the County’s law enforcement more than doubled — from $43,585 to $91,331 — between the 2008-2009 fiscal year and the 2009-2010 year, according to a report from the County’s insurance broker. The County buys coverage through Daniels Insurance, which has an office in Santa Fe.
The cost increase came after a series of lawsuits and tort claims last year involving the Sheriff’s Department and the County Jail. According to a report by Daniels Insurance, the County filed nine law enforcement-related claims during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, resulting in $452,501 in losses. County Manager Lorenzo Valdez said those claims were for lawsuits, tort claims or personnel issues that involved litigation.
Jamie Koch, president of Daniels Insurance, told the County Commission at a June meeting that law enforcement was the only area of County government that had been a concern for the company recently. According to minutes from that Commission meeting, Koch specifically mentioned that Sheriff Joe Mascareñas’s Department needed to reduce the County’s liability.
Mascareñas said a representative from OneBeacon Insurance, the County’s carrier for law enforcement coverage, held a class for the deputies previous to the June meeting in hopes of reducing the chance of future lawsuits.
“I didn’t attend, but he did bring up some points about what we could do, what was legal, what was not legal,” Mascareñas said.
Some of the complaints against his deputies have been serious, Mascareñas said, but others have been frivolous.
In December 2008, the County paid Jeff Fararr, 47, of Velarde, $15,000 to settle a federal lawsuit in which he accused two Sheriff Department deputies of entering his home without a warrant and beating him. That suit stemmed from an incident June 1, 2005.
A request by the SUN for citizens complaints against the Sheriff’s Office has so far turned up no records. The Sheriff’s Office indicated the complaints were held by the County’s Risk Management division, but Elipio Mercure, head of Risk Management, said he doesn’t have the records. Most complaints are made by phone, leaving no paper trail, he said.
Koch did not return calls for comment for this story. Steve Crawford with Daniels Insurance said the company would have no comment.
Valdez said the County’s deductible varies depending on the type of claim, and the deductible for law enforcement claims is $25,000. Valdez said that cost has been the same for the past several years.
Valdez said the County had more claims than usual last year and the payouts for each were generally higher than normal, which he blamed for the increase in the premium.
“If you have a series of them, it can add up,” Valdez said.
County Jail Administrator Larry DeYapp, who took over the detention center’s top post in June, said he knew of no changes made at the jail in the past year aimed at reducing the chance of lawsuits. Jail staff are expected to follow the same policies and procedures that have been in place for years, he said.
“We do everything we can to prevent lawsuits,” DeYapp said.
Employees at the jail have been involved in several lawsuits in the past year (see box), most filed by inmates who claimed they were mistreated while in custody.
The County settled a suit March 2 filed by former jai guard Esther Lopez who claimed she was sexually harassed by former Jail Administrator Bidal Candelaria and then fired from her job without just cause.
Lopez was fired in June 2007 for allegedly fraternizing with inmates and giving them cigarettes, but she denied both accusations.
The County paid Lopez $17,000 to dismiss the case, which Valdez called a “nuisance suit.”
DeYapp said he doesn’t dispute that some of the complaints are made for good reason.
“Some of these lawsuits are frivolous — some of them have merit,” DeYapp said. “Those are left to judges and juries to decide.”