Davis V. the Board of County Commissioners of Dona Ana County

Davis v. The Board of County Commissioners of Dona Ana County

April 28, 2014

1. What was the legal issue in this case?

Mesilla Valley Hospital (MVH) is a psychiatric hospital that provided patient care service

for patients. On January 29, 1995, MVH hired Joseph Herrera (Herrera) as a mental health technician to manage patients in their psychiatric need. Herrera was assigned a female patient to assist her in her psychiatric therapy. Herrera took advantage of her and began to sexuality harass her. In addition to the sexual harassment, he sexually and physically assaulted her.

Prior to Herrera working for MHV, he was employed with Dona Ana County Detention

Center as a Sergeant an Cclassification officer. Herrera was provided with a recommendation letter from his prior supervisor/director, Frank Steele (Steele) and his captain, Al Mochen. The recommendation letter indicated that Herrera was an excellent hard worker and a good person and they would rehire him if need be. .(Walsh, 2010)

The legal issues in this case would be negligent reference and misinformation supplied by

the Detention Center. Steele and Mochen supplied MVH with a false reference letter for Herrera. While Herrera was employed with Detention Center he was investigated for sexual harassment of females’ inmates and this was not provided to MVH and because of Steele, Mochen and the Detention Center negligence, a lawsuit has been filed by a female patient alleging Herrera sexually assaulted her while a patient in his care.

2. Why does the court conclude that Doña Ana County could be held liable for

negligent referral (misrepresentation)?

While Herrera was employed by Dona Ana Detention Center (The Detention Center), he

was accused of sexually harassing the female inmates that were in his care as a detention sergeant and a classification officer. The Detention Center was informed of the complaint in 1993 and an investigation was conducted. In 1994, the investigation had revealed that some illegal activity between Herrera and the female inmates had taken place whereas; Herrera had abused his authority and sexually harassed the female inmates.

While Steele provided a recommendation letter stating Herrera was qualified for the

mental health technician position at the MVH, however, they failed to mention that he had a prior record of sexual harassment and assault. They omitted the truth by not mentioning he was under disciplinary action, demoted, suspended