STATE SETTLEMENTS, FY 2017
Following is a list of settlements the state’s General Services Department and Risk Management Division agreed to in fiscal year 2017. The settlements were finalized in that fiscal year; the cases may have been in litigation for years.
Paid: $16,000 to Teresa Kear and $46,000 to Mark Bowman to settle a lawsuit over a 2010 accident in which the couple crashed their motorcycle after encountering defective pavement on N.M. 346. The settlement shows $250 of the payment was to ensure the plaintiffs kept the agreement confidential for at least six months.
State’s outside legal costs: $59,842.
Paid: “valuable consideration” to Phillip G. Ramirez to compensate the former Children, Youth and Families Department worker for his legal expenses after the Gallup man won his 2008 lawsuit claiming the state retaliated against him after he returned from an Iraq War deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The state did not provide the amount of the settlement, but Ramirez’s lawyers said they received $235,000, Ramirez got $36,000 awarded by a jury, plus a $115,00 payout to drop his lawsuit in a separate but related case.
State’s outside legal costs: $598,857.
Paid: $75,000 to the estate of Mary Jane Paiz-Piedra to settle a 2011 lawsuit claiming the state bore responsibility for her death. Paiz-Piedra was stabbed to death by her son within 24 hours of his release from the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas after he had told staff he intended to harm her, according to the suit.
State’s outside legal costs: $182,486.
Paid: $325,000 to Martin O. De La Garza, a former Public Regulation Commission employee who claimed in a 2010 lawsuit that PRC officials violated his constitutional rights and the state Open Meetings Act by attempting to ban him from attending public commission meetings after his firing.
State’s outside legal costs: $157,756.
Paid: $325,000 to Richard Candelaria to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit against University of New Mexico Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $199,934.
Paid: $135,000 to former inmate Samuel P. Chavez, who served as a prisoner representative during the implementation of the Duran Consent Decree following the 1980 riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, south of Santa Fe. Chavez claimed in a 2007 lawsuit that prison officials retaliated against him for advocating for his legal rights and those of fellow inmates by subjecting him to torturous living conditions.
State’s outside legal costs: $206,810.
Paid: $85,000 to Lester Sam and $25,001 to Karla Sam to settle their 2014 wrongful death claim against the Department of Transportation after Donna Sam (their wife and mother, respectively) was killed in a car crash on N.M. 264 near Gallup. The plaintiffs claimed the state was responsible for fencing livestock off the highway.
State’s outside legal costs: $168,501.
Paid: $15,500 to cover legal costs incurred by a Eugenia McEaddy, who filed a wrongful death claim against the New Mexico State Agency for Surplus Property in 2012 after her husband was struck by a piece of a state-owned bucket truck on Interstate 40 near Tucumcari.
State’s outside legal costs: $89,987.
Paid: $85,000 to settle a Whistleblower Protection Act complaint filed in 2010 by former Secretary of State’s Office spokesman James Flores, who claimed he was fired in retaliation for having spoken to the FBI about his boss, then-Secretary of State Mary Herrera.
State’s outside legal costs: $85,750.
Paid: $1,000 to Peggy Lynn Miller, the mother of state prison inmate Joseph C. Perry, to settle his 2014 lawsuit against the New Mexico Corrections Department. She claimed her son was held in solitary confinement longer than allowed by department policies and that the state did not follow its own inmate classification polices.
State’s outside legal costs: $0; handled in-house.
Paid: $31,250 to Denise Lopez to settle her 2014 personal injury complaint against the New Mexico Corrections Department in which she said she fell and injured herself while visiting her son at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility.
State’s outside legal costs: $12,844.
Paid: $25,000 to Lori Ann Gonzales to settle the 2015 personal injury complaint she filed against Expo New Mexico.
State’s outside legal costs: $13,167.
Paid: $350,000 to former Pecos Mayor Eddy Duran to settle his 2014 medical negligence complaint against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $93,063.
Paid: $5,000 to settle a 2014 excessive use of force claim filed by Jaime Diaz against the New Mexico State Police.
State’s outside legal costs: $75,118.
Paid: $150,000 to settle a 2015 Whistleblower Protection Act complaint filed by former state Corrections Department bureau chief Patricia Brainard, in which she claimed she was fired for questioning the hiring of a firm to administer educational tests to prison inmates.
State’s outside legal costs: $36,335.
Paid: $102,726 to former Department of Health bureau chief Amber Espinoza-Trujillo — wife of former Santa Fe City Councilor Ron Trujillo — to settle her 2015 Whistleblower Protection Act complaint in which she claimed former Health Secretary Retta Ward retaliated against her for reporting short staffing.
State’s outside legal costs: $84,893.
Paid: $300,000 to Catherine Osborn to settle her 2015 medical negligence claim against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $32,374.
Paid: $175,000 to settle a 2014 Whistleblower Protection Act complaint filed by a former employee in the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office. She claimed her supervisor forced her into a sexual relationship and she was fired when she reported the incident.
State’s outside legal costs: $102,684.
Paid: $15,000, to Amanda Perez to settle her 2015 medical negligence complaint against Miners’ Colfax Medical Center in Raton.
State’s outside legal costs: $45,756.
Paid: $450,000 to settle 2016 medical negligence filed by Angelina Gurule and Joseph Gurule against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $29,031.
Paid: $63,000 to settle a 2015 sexual harassment claim filed by a former Children, Youth and Families Department employee in which she claimed she was sexually harassed by her supervisor and fired for refusing his advances.
State’s outside legal costs: $24,347.
Paid: $20,000 to settle a 2014 age discrimination complaint filed by UNM Golf Course employee Charles Murphy.
State’s outside legal costs: $49,350.
Paid: $42,500 to settle a 2015 civil rights violation case filed in U.S. District Court by Phillip O. Lopez and Feliz Gonzales, a Las Cruces couple who claimed they were unlawfully struck with a stun gun multiple times by Las Cruces police.
State’s outside legal costs: $67,706.
Paid: $150,000 to settle a 2015 medical negligence claim filed by Celia S. Duran against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $40,795.
Paid: $225,000 to the estate of James Arthur Kennedy Jr. to settle a 2015 medical negligence and wrongful death claim against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $41,271.
Paid: $450,000 to family members of Josie Salgado, who filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice claim in 2016 against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $23,873.
Paid: $13,000 to Mario Bujanda to settle any claims arising out of “that certain incident of May 5, 2015, on Church Road in Doña Ana County.”
State’s outside legal costs: $45.
Paid: $325,000 to Rena Marlowe, widow of Gordon Wayne Marlowe, who filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death suit in 2016 against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $6,116.
Paid: $8,810 to Cara Alunno settle claims “arising out of a Jan. 15, 2015, incident near the Toney Anaya building in Santa Fe.”
State’s outside legal costs: $1,273.
Paid: $53,000 to Elizabeth Gomez to settle her 2016 medical malpractice suit against a doctor employed by UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $47,747.
Paid: $200,000 to settle a 2015 personal injury suit filed by Larry Otero against UNM.
State’s outside legal costs: $42,910.
Paid: $110,000 to Rose Andrews to settle a personal injury suit filed by the 85-year-old Albuquerque woman, who claimed she was was injured after falling at the downtown Albuquerque Rail Runner station in 2013.
State’s outside legal costs: $124,800.
Paid: $4,500 to Andres Barrera-Guerrero to settle claims “arising out of that certain incident of Sept. 12, 2014, at the New Mexico State Fair Grounds in Albuquerque which resulted in damages.”
State’s outside legal costs: $1,220.
Paid: $155,000 to Annabelle Farrington, who filed a personal injury complaint against Rio Arriba County and the state of New Mexico after she collided with another motorist while turning from N.M. 84 onto N.M. 76 in 2013.
State’s outside legal costs: $35,592.
Paid: $750,000 to family members of Jireh Bounda to settle their 2016 wrongful death complaint against UNM Hospital.
State’s outside legal costs: $17,559.