On February 17, 2025, Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), signed an agreement accepting a $480,000 payment to resolve claims for records made in a suit filed in state court against Centurion of New Mexico LLC, the contracted medical provider to the state Corrections Department (NMCD).

HRDC, the nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, won a massive trove of records from Centurion in a state court in 2024, after the medical contractor fought hard to keep them secret. As PLN reported, those documents revealed that Centurion had made almost $8.4 million in payouts to settle 47 suits filed over substandard medical care to NMCD prisoners—including 13 cases that resulted in prisoner deaths. All of that botched care was delivered during a relatively short period, too; Centurion won the contract at NMCD in June 2016 and held it just 40 months. 

HRDC then moved for sanctions, and the state court agreed that Centurion was liable under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), NM Stat § 14-2-1 (2023), for wrongfully withholding the documents—doing so long enough to owe $148,000 plus legal fees and costs. [See: PLN, Dec. 2024, p.1; and p.19.]

The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement, under which HRDC agreed to accept $480,000 as payment in full for all of Centurion’s outstanding obligations in the case. The nonprofit was represented by a group of outstanding attorneys: Adam C. Flores, Laura Schauer Ives, Alyssa D. Quijano, Henry A. Jones, and Andrew J. Pavlides of Ives & Flores, P.A. in Albuquerque, and Jonathan Picard, HRDC litigation director. See: Hum. Rts. Def. Ctr. v. Centurion Corr. Healthcare of N.M., LLC, N.M. 1st Jud. Dist. (Santa Fe Cty.), Case No. D-101-CV-2021-01620

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