Judge overturns $1.35M award to Longsoldier family

Montana District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena reversed the decision that awarded the family of an 18-year-old Native American who died in the Hill County Detention Center six years ago $1.35 million.

The judge said the hearings that led to the overturned decision were riddled with “serious procedural irregularities.”

In his order document from Dec. 8, Sherlock explains the background of the case and details of the procedural errors that paved the way for his final decision.

A.J. Longsoldier led Hays-Lodge Pole High School to a state basketball championship title in 2007.

Longsoldier was taken into custody Nov. 19, 2009, by Blaine County deputies and brought to the detention center. He began hallucinating three days later while still in custody.

Longsoldier was taken to Northern Montana Hospital three times in the next two days. He was prescribed medicine for anxiety and depression on the first trip and nothing the next time. Sherlock’s order says that, during Longsoldier's second time in the hospital, the nurse told detention officers that he was “playing you.”

Longsoldier was brought back to the hospital a third time after he began showing “severe symptoms,” the report says. He died shortly afterward of alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

As a result of the death, the Longsoldier estate filed a human rights case against Hill and Blaine counties for discriminating against Longsoldier because he was an Indian and an alcoholic. The hearing was held Sept. 12-15, 2011.

Hearing Officer Terry Spear issued a 30-page decision in favor of the counties on Sept. 20, 2012. The document states, “there was no evidence that their actions (the counties) or inactions were the result of any discriminatory animus on the part of the counties.”

Longsoldier’s estate appealed Spear's decision, and the first hearing was held in front of the Human Rights Commission July 18, 2012. From there on, there was a back-and-forth tennis match of orders sending the case back to the hearing officer and cross-appeals until the HRC issued a final decision that awarded the Longsoldier estate $1.35 million.

The counties then appealed the HRC's decision, and that's when Sherlock got involved.

Sherlock ultimately reversed the HRC's decision. The following, taken from Sherlock’s order, shows why Sherlock concluded that the HRC hearings reached the wrong conclusions.

One of Sherlock's greatest concerns was that there was no record, written or taped, that explains how the HRC came up with the $1.35 million figure that was to be awarded to the Longsoldier estate. Records of the meetings had been a problem from the beginning, when a tape recorder was reported to have failed and no one had taken notes, the ruling said.

Another problem was that the HRC's rejection of Spear's initial decision had no specific findings that contradicted the hearing officer's decision.

“In stating with particularity that the hearing officer's findings are not based on competent evidence requires more than a ritual incantation of this phrase,” Sherlock wrote.

The document also said that HRC attorney and HRC staff talked about factual matters before the next hearing. The judge points out that procedural guidelines allowed only conversations along the lines of law, not facts about the case.

“Right before the July 18 hearing ... the attorney sent an email to a new commissioner ... In that email, the attorney comments on factual matters in the record,” the documents says.

Lastly, the affidavit of Gregory Bonilla showed “blatant bias” on the part of HRC Commissioner Dustin Hankinson, the judge wrote.

When asked to specify which of Hearing Officer Spear's findings he found to be contradicted by facts, Hankinson is reported to have said, “the ones where they win,” they being the counties. He also added that “he did not give a rat's ass what they (hospital staff) told the counties.”

Sherlock said his decision will probably not be the final word.

“This court fully anticipates that this decision will be appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. Of this,” he wrote, “there is no doubt.”