Many New Mexicans rely on our state for resources and services. Some are even court-ordered to state programs. This summer, a 31-year-old man died at a state-operated facility in Belen.

Questions surrounding his death could impact every single person putting trust in our state systems.

The Estancia ICF/IID facility in Belen looks impenetrable. It’s surrounded by large fencing with security systems locking from the inside out. People who live at that facility are not free to leave.

It’s the only house of its kind operated by NMHealth in the state.

“As for residents, these are individuals who have been determined to be at risk in terms of being a danger to themselves or to others. All are court-appointed commitments,” according to a Department of Health spokesman.

There were just three people in the facility last Memorial Day, according to police reports.

Residents and staff were out fishing when 31-year-old resident Jacob Lopez told workers a car drove by and threw out a bag of meth, that he ate.

Lopez was developmentally disabled, living with numerous health conditions and a criminal past. Hours after he told staff about the meth, he collapsed at the facility and stopped breathing, according to police reports.

Staff called for first responders, but never told them about apartment meth use, according to body camera footage released by first responders, Valencia County Sheriff’s Office.

Employees at that home are part of a much larger group of 170 direct care staff working at NMHealth’s group homes. There are 22 homes within Valencia County, according to Robert Nott a communications director with the New Mexico Department of Health.

But supervision at the Estancia home is more intense. Training documents we obtained require one-on-one staffing for clients like Lopez. They also require line-of-sight supervision.

Lopez’s death might have seemed like an accident to deputies, but Department of Health policy requires an internal review.

State investigators gave Valencia County Sheriff’s deputies a warning.

“No story lined up exactly the same. We’ve been doing this long enough, when we start seeing that, there’s obviously something else going on,” said one of the state investigators in a meeting with Valencia County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Jacob Lopez’s assigned staffer that day said other state employees used corporal punishment as a consequence for lying about taking meth while he was fishing.

“…had called back hysterical, almost cry screaming. ‘They made him run, they forced him to do this,’” said a state investigator to Valencia County Sheriff’s Deputies.

The staffer said state caregivers made Lopez clean, move furniture and run outside in the heat for hours. Investigators even took reports that Lopez collapsed outside, and workers carried him inside before calling 911.

“It kind of lined up with something one of the individuals said. So, he is someone who has DD as well. When we were talking to him he said that staff had, he’d actually seen staff carry him in from outside and put him in his room and he appeared to be already dead,” said a state investigator to Valencia County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Lopez did overdose on meth, according to an OMI report obtained by KOB 4.

But state investigators said records showed no recent visitors and or calls. There was no mention of where else that meth could have come from.

Lopez’s grandmother wasn’t told any of that about his final hours. Just that Lopez had a good day.

NMDOH refused to sit down with us, citing privacy concerns and protected health information. Protections the department claims extend to DOH staff and really anything related to care at that facility.

A spokesperson did release a statement:

“A death occurred at the Department of Health’s intermediate care facility in Los Lunas earlier this year. The Department and local law enforcement conducted investigations at the time, which were inconclusive.

In early September, the Department received a death certificate for the individual and has referred the matter to New Mexico State Police for further investigation.

Our agency will not comment on the investigation, and we are referring all calls on the matter to New Mexico State Police.”

While the Estancia house is the state’s only intermediate care facility right now, DOH is looking to open another six-bed center in Los Lunas if they can get the funding for it.