Lawsuit: Guards mistook dentures for contraband, beat inmate

Lawsuit: Guards mistook dentures for contraband, beat inmate

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SANTA FE, N.M. -- A man was brutally beaten by corrections officers and denied medical treatment at a county jail in a small New Mexico community after guards mistook dentures in the inmate's mouth for contraband, according to a civil rights lawsuit. The New Mexico Prison and Jail Project, a watchdog group for improving prison conditions, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court this week on behalf of former inmate Marvin Silva. The group said Silva was left naked in a holding cell at the Valencia County Adult Detention Center with no security cameras after a medical checkup, when a guard insisted that the inmate was hiding contraband in his mouth. The lawsuit said said several other corrections officers arrived and beat Silva at the lockup in the community of Los Lunas, about 30 minutes from Albuquerque.

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According to the lawsuit, medical personnel at the jail denied Silva's requests for medical care before he was released to walk 5 miles (8 kilometers) toward home and hitched a ride the rest of the way. An ambulance later transported Silva to an Albuquerque hospital that treated him for fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, injuries to the spleen and other injuries to the head, neck and abdomen.

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