Oct. 25 – A police officer at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center is accused of orchestrating shower attacks on two mentally ill inmates and spraying a man’s genitals with mouse flower 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 year-long cycle of incarceration and homelessness as they battle mental health issues.

A few inmates involved in the alleged attacks corroborated parts of the case against Shpiller. His fellow investigators said they saw no wrongdoing.

Davis, 66, and Sandoval, 61, told investigators they were not treated medically after the alleged incidents despite complaining of injuries.

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

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

A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office detective investigated the alleged incidents and has 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 their detective he could issue Shpiller a misdemeanor aggravated felony summons “because the case did not amount to a felony.”

She said that, before issuing a summons, the detective was told to consult with the MDC “to make sure that the suspect/officer’s actions were not something he was trained to do by the MDC.” Gonzales said the detective asked for some of the jail’s training materials to review and “that process is currently underway.”

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

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

The report, obtained by the newspaper through a public records inspection 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 in a 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 facility, which in recent years has been embroiled in a string of deaths involving inmate detoxification, back-to-back wrongful release of inmates, a former warden resigning under unknown circumstances and several police officers being 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 reportedly took place in a pod that contains a combination of detoxing inmates and those with mental illness.

Complaint

According to the BCSO incident report:

On July 30, an MDC lieutenant told BCSO that Sandoval had made a complaint against Shpiller and supervisors were looking at footage of the three incidents.

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

In the first incident, on July 13, the footage showed Shpiller repeatedly aiming his spray of mouse flower into the food port of Davis’ cell. At one point, Davis, who was naked, angled her genitalia toward the food gate.

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

BCSO said Davis told them Shpiller then sprayed her genitalia with mouse flower and “it hurt a lot.” An inmate who also worked as an orderly in the pod told BCSO he saw Shpiller trying to hide his muscle from the camera as he sprayed it.

On July 15, Davis was led to the showers by Shpiller and after Shpiller left, two inmates were seen entering the shower with cleaning supplies. BCSO said Davis told them the two sprayed him with cleaning spray and hit him with a broom while expressing 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 this” afterward.

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

Sandoval told BCSO that Shpiller had handcuffed him and that he had to turn on the water with his nose and take a bar of soap with his teeth. Sandoval said three inmates showed up and assaulted him with brooms and afterward Shpiller said “something that taught him a lesson.”

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

The inmate told BCSO he believed Sandoval and Davis were targeted because they were “not all there” and would not be taken seriously. He said he was “uncertain about Shpiller’s tactics” but that Shpiller “gets pretty hyped when he gets to use force.”

Two other inmates in the attacks told BCSO 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 attacks and saw nothing wrong, although one said the handcuffs should have been removed from Sandoval before the shower and that they should not have used mouse flower to threaten Davis, as Shpiller did.

Johanna Sandoval said she last saw her son a few weeks ago. He was stabilized on medication and staying 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 for him to go to. When things go bad, rather than end up in a mental institution 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 “really erratic” and she can tell he hasn’t taken his medication.

“For some reason, they incarcerate people who are mentally ill instead of putting them in a facility. And that’s not the place for them. It really isn’t. And they’re not getting their medication, and they’re not getting the help that they need, and then things spiral out of control,” she said.