BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. – Bernalillo County has another lawsuit on its hands connected to an inmate death at the Metropolitan Detention Center last June.

The suit claims the inmate died from an overdose while the corrections officer in the unit was watching movies. It also claims the drugs she overdosed on didn’t come from fellow inmates. 

The 18-page lawsuit against Bernalillo County comes down to accountability. 

“MDC and the corrections officers that work there are not taking care of the people that they have to take care of,” said Jason Wallace with Huffman, Wallace & Monagle. 

Wallace is representing the family of April Peterson, an MDC inmate who died from an overdose last year after 26 hours in custody. 

“If you’re going to hold people against their will, and you’re going to put them in a situation where they have to rely on you for everything, then you got to step up to the plate and provide it,” said Wallace. 

The newly-filed lawsuit claims the county did the opposite. Starting with corrections officer Jason Malizia overseeing the unit where Peterson was staying that night. 

The lawsuit says he visited YouTube 48 times in a four-hour period, which is against the jail’s computer policy. 

“He was watching the Yankees play the Mariners on YouTube. He was watching movies on YouTube, he was playing brick breaker, you know, games on his computer,” Wallace said. 

Surveillance video shows Peterson approach the officer around 2 a.m. that night, go to the bathroom, and then return to bed about 10 minutes later – all while he’s watching movies and playing games. 

About an hour later, the officer does his rounds and finds Peterson unresponsive. 

“These folks are in the detox facility, because they’re going through detox, they need attention on them, or they’re going to have problems,” said Wallace. 

Policy says welfare checks are required every 30 minutes in that unit. According to an audit by the jail, this officer did 44% of welfare checks when he was required to. 

“The public just needs to know what’s happening. People are not safe there,” Wallace said. 

The suit also questions where the fentanyl and meth Peterson overdosed on came from. Pictures and videos show she went through a high-tech body scanner, and a strip search like any other inmate. 

“She didn’t come in with those drugs. The body scanner confirmed that. She didn’t pick them up along the way. She got them in the detox cell,” said Wallace. “You know who doesn’t go through the body scanner? Is the guards and the vendors that work there. So these drugs are coming in from a different source other than the inmates.”

The lawsuit also claims the officers didn’t administer narcan or do chest compressions, and the machine they brought to shock Peterson’s heart wasn’t charged. 

Attorneys claim negligence and violation of the New Mexico Civil Rights Act. 

“If the jail isn’t functioning the way it needs to function. People are gonna die, and they have died,” said Wallace. 

A Bernalillo County representative says the county “Will review the lawsuit, and address it accordingly.”