Bernalillo County Jail Officer Accused of Overseeing Attacks on Mentally Ill Inmates

Oct. 25 — An officer at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center is accused of orchestrating shower attacks on two mentally ill inmates and spraying a man’s genitalia with mace over a two-week period in July.

Nathan Shpiller, an MDC corrections officer, has been on paid administrative leave since the allegations came to light.

Bruce Davis and Jeffrey Sandoval, the inmates who made the allegations against Shpiller, have been in a long cycle of incarceration and homelessness while struggling with mental health issues.

Several inmates involved in the alleged attacks corroborated elements of the case against Shpiller. His fellow corrections officers said they saw no wrongdoing.

Davis, 66, and Sandoval, 61, told investigators they did not receive medical treatment after the alleged incidents despite complaining of injuries.

Johanna Sandoval, Jeffrey Sandoval’s mother, said the allegations, if true, are “appalling.” She said her son has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and requires daily medication.

Relatives of Davis, who has been found incompetent to stand trial in several minor cases, could not be reached.

A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office detective investigated the alleged incidents and turned the case over to the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office for review and possible prosecution.

BCSO spokeswoman Jayme Gonzales said the DA’s office told the detective it could issue Shpiller a felony citation for aggravated assault “because the case is not a felony.”

She said that before issuing a subpoena, the detective was told to check with the MDC “to make sure the suspect/officer’s actions were not something he was trained to do by the MDC.” Gonzales said the detective requested that some of the jail’s training materials be reviewed and “that process is ongoing at this time.”

Shpiller, who has not been charged, declined to comment for this article.

According to a BCSO incident report, “While reviewing the camera footage, several inmates were observed attacking other inmates while under the supervision of CO Shpiller.”

The report, obtained by the Journal through a Public Records Inspection Act request, details three separate incidents involving Shpiller between July 13 and 27.

When the BCSO detective investigating the case tried to interview Shpiller in early August, Shpiller responded via text message: “My legal counsel advises me not to grant you an interview.”

MDC spokeswoman Candace Hopkins said Shpiller remains on leave “pending the outcome of an internal investigation.” She said he was hired in November 2022.

The charges are the latest controversy for the unit, which in recent years has dealt with a series of deaths involving inmate detoxification, back-to-back wrongful release of inmates, a previous director who resigned under undisclosed circumstances and several officers fired or on leave. in various incidents — including a use-of-force incident that left an inmate dead.

Hopkins declined to answer several questions about the allegations against Shpiller, citing the ongoing internal investigation into the case, which allegedly took place in a pod that contains a mix of detox and mentally ill inmates.

Complaints

According to the BCSO incident report:

On July 30, an MDC lieutenant told BCSO that Sandoval filed a complaint against Shpiller, and supervisors watched footage of the three incidents.

“Due to the fact that CO Shpiller was the supervising commander at the time of each of these incidents, there was concern that he may have enabled or orchestrated the two incidents involving inmates in the shower area,” according to the report.

In the first incident, on July 13, footage showed Shpiller repeatedly pointing his mace spray at the food port of Davis’ cell. At one point, Davis, who was naked, tipped his genitals toward the food port.

Minutes later, Davis was seen washing his genitals as other inmates walked past his door and “appeared to be laughing” at him. Davis told BCSO that he used feces to write a vulgar message on the cell window, and Shpiller became enraged, telling him to “clean it with his mouth.”

BCSO said Davis told them Shpiller had maced his genitals and “it hurt a lot.” An inmate who also worked as an orderly in the bridge told BCSO that he saw Shpiller trying to hide his mace from the camera’s view when he sprayed him.

On July 15, Davis was led to the shower by Shpiller, and after Shpiller left, two inmates were seen walking into the shower holding cleaning supplies. BCSO said Davis told them the two sprayed him with cleaning spray and hit him with a broom as they expressed frustration with him for “keeping them up at night.”

One of the inmates in the alleged attack told BCSO he “thought it was weird” that Shpiller didn’t check on Davis for half an hour while the attack took place and told him “don’t say anything about it” afterward.

On July 27, Shpiller led Sandoval, who was handcuffed behind, to the shower and left the area. Three inmates were seen entering the area and closing the curtain before kicking and hitting Sandoval with brooms for several minutes.

Sandoval said BCSO Shpiller left him in handcuffs and had to blow water through his nose and grab a bar of soap with his teeth. Sandoval said three inmates appeared and assaulted him with brooms, and then Shpiller said “something to the effect of teaching him a lesson.”

One of the inmates who attacked Sandoval told BCSO that Shpiller said “if something happened … he wouldn’t be able to hear” and, in the earlier attack on Davis, told them to “show (Davis ) a lesson. .”

The inmate told BCSO that he believed Sandoval and Davis were targeted because “they weren’t all there” and wouldn’t be taken seriously. He said he was “unsure of Shpiller’s tactics” but that Shpiller “gets pretty excited when he gets to use force.”

Two other inmates in the attacks told BCSO that they did what they did because Sandoval called them racial slurs, but that the incidents were initiated by Shpiller.

Three of Shpiller’s fellow officers told BCSO they were unaware of the assaults and saw no wrongdoing, though one said the handcuffs should have been removed from Sandoval before the shower and that they would not used mace to threaten Davis, as Shpiller did.

Johanna Sandoval said she last saw her son a few weeks ago. He was stabilized on medication and living at an extended stay motel.

She said her son has struggled with mental health issues for 10 years and it has been difficult to find stable support for him or a facility to go to. When things go wrong, instead of ending up in a psychiatric facility like the University of New Mexico Hospital, which is often full, he ends up in a cell.

Johanna Sandoval said that when her son calls from prison, he is often “very erratic” and can tell he hasn’t taken his medication.

“For whatever reason, they lock up mentally ill people instead of putting them in a facility. And it is not the place for them. It really isn’t. And they don’t get their medication and they don’t get the help they need, and then things get out of hand,” she said.