A federal jury in Santa Fe has awarded a man $22 million in damages for enduring inhumane conditions during 20 months in the Doña Ana County jail.

Stephen Slevin, 57, of Las Cruces was jailed on charges of driving while intoxicated, transferring a stolen vehicle and other crimes on Aug. 24, 2005.

"It is the worst case of solitary confinement in the country," said his lawyer, Matthew Coyte of Albuquerque. "He's suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder."

Slevin was physically healthy when he entered the jail, but his clinical depression went untreated and he became delirious while under solitary confinement, Coyte said.

Coyte said that by May 8, 2007, when Slevin was transferred to the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., he had lost a third of his body weight, had a beard reaching to his chest, "toenails curling around his toes," fungus on his skin, bed sores and "had been driven mad."

Slevin's condition improved during his two weeks at the Las Vegas hospital, but he was returned to solitary confinement at the Doña Ana County jail, where his conditioned worsened, Coyte said.

Coyte said all charges against Slevin eventually were dismissed because his mental condition reached the point where he could not participate in his defense. Slevin was freed on June 25, 2007.

Standing outside the U.S. Courthouse in Santa Fe after the verdict Tuesday, Slevin told KOB-TV that because jail personnel refused to let him see a dentist, he was forced to pull his own loose tooth.

"People were walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate day after day after day and did nothing, nothing at all to get me any help," he said.

On Dec. 23, 2008, Coyte sued the Doña Ana County Board of County Commissioners, the Doña Ana County Detention Center, jail Director Chris Barela and the jail's former medical director, Daniel Zemek, for violating Slevin's civil rights. Jury selection for the trial began Jan. 17 before U.S. District Judge Martha Vázquez.

On Tuesday afternoon, the jury returned a verdict calling for $15.5 million in compensatory damages against all defendants, plus $3 million in punitive damages against Barela and $3.5 million in punitive damages against Zemek.

John Caldwell, the lawyer who represented the defendants, did not returns messages left at his office in Fairacres, near Las Cruces.

Coyte did not want to reveal where Slevin lives due to the size of the verdict, but court documents indicate he now lives in Virginia Beach, Va.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.