Bernalillo County corrections officer indicted in alleged attack on inmate and subsequent cover-up attempt

A grand jury indicted a Metropolitan Detention Center officer for allegedly encouraging an attack on a mentally ill inmate and intimidating another inmate to keep quiet about the incident afterward.

Nathan Shpiller was indicted Jan. 16 in 2nd Judicial District Court on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, bribery of a witness and conspiracy charges in the case, which stems from a July 15, 2024, incident.

Shpiller’s attorney did not respond to calls and a message for comment Tuesday. Shpiller was never booked into MDC and was immediately ordered to be on pretrial release as the case moves forward, according to court records.

MDC spokeswoman Candace Hopkins said Shpiller, who joined MDC in 2022, remains on paid administrative leave.

Court records show that one of the witnesses listed to testify against Shpiller is an MDC lieutenant, who “requested an investigation into incidents involving the defendant” and “provided video recordings of the three incidents.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office began investigating in late July after Shpiller was accused of allowing or urging inmates to attack Bruce Davis and another mentally ill inmate on two occasions and that Shpiller sprayed Davis’ genitals with pepper spray in a separate incident.

Shpiller is not charged in the pepper spray usage, but the indictment said he “did touch or apply force” to Davis with a broomstick. BCSO’s investigation found Davis was assaulted with a broom by MDC inmates under Shpiller’s watch and possible direction.

Davis, a 66-year-old stuck in a cycle of bouncing between jail cells and living on the streets, told BCSO that he was not medically treated after the incident despite complaining of injuries to MDC staff. The detective turned the case over to the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office several months ago for possible prosecution but, according to BCSO, was told by the DA’s Office to issue Shpiller a summons for misdemeanor aggravated battery “as the case did not amount to a felony.”

In its indictment, however, a grand jury found Shpiller committed three felonies.

The allegations against Shpiller were detailed in BCSO reports of three incidents between July 13 and 27. In footage reviewed by BCSO, “several inmates were observed attacking other inmates while under the supervision of CO Shpiller,” according to the reports, obtained by the Journal through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

The indictment revolves around only one of the alleged attacks, on July 15, which took place in a pod that holds a combination of inmates detoxing and those with mental illness.

On that day, Davis told BCSO he had smeared feces on his cell and was led to the showers by Shpiller before two inmates entered, sprayed him with disinfectant and hit him with a broom. The inmate who the indictment said was “intimidated or threatened” by Shpiller to keep quiet told BCSO that Shpiller did not check on Davis for a half-hour during the attack and said, “don’t say anything about this,” afterward.

The inmate told BCSO he believed Davis and the other inmate were targeted because they were “not all there” and wouldn’t be taken seriously, according to BCSO. Two inmates who said they helped in the attacks told BCSO the inmates had called them racial slurs, but that their actions were initiated by Shpiller.

Three of Shpiller’s fellow officers told BCSO they were not aware of the attacks and did not see any wrongdoing, although one said they would not have used pepper spray to threaten Davis, as Shpiller did.