Ex-inmate denied prison reinspection

SANTA FE — Santa Fe District Court Judge Sarah Singleton on Wednesday denied former prisoner Samuel Chavez’s motion to impose sanctions on the Department of Corrections and allow him to reinspect parts of the Old Main building at the Penitentiary of New Mexico.

Chavez asked for sanctions against Corrections after he wasn’t able to inspect an area above the mental health unit and beneath the basement at an Aug. 17 inspection of the now unused Old Main building. Chavez also wanted Corrections to provide a backhoe for him to dig under the basement, in a search for ledgers and other evidence he maintains would prove poisoning of inmates and sale of their body parts in the past.

Corrections officials said during the August search where Chavez was allowed to dig in the Old Main yard and visit cells that they didn’t have keys to the area above the mental health unit and that doors to a boiler room that would give Chavez access to a crawl space were welded shut. Chavez argues they violated Singleton’s prior order of inspection by not allowing him to access those areas.

Singleton denied all aspects of Chavez’s latest motion Wednesday morning, saying there’s no evidence that Corrections recently welded the door shut. She also said it’s “unreasonable for someone to use a backhoe” to dig underneath the building.

Chavez is suing the state for alleged abuse and other wrongdoing during his time at prison, where he served time for a 1988 murder conviction. The case, which was filed in 2007, is likely to go to trial in the coming months.