Former MDC sergeant and his wife found dead in Colorado

Elise Kaplan, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Jul. 15—Eric Allen, a sergeant who was fired from the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, charged with beating an inmate, and whose conduct led to the settlement of three lawsuits, was found dead along with his wife by the side of a highway in southwest Colorado late last month.

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said that, on June 30, deputies were called to the side of the well-traveled U.S. 160, near the county line, for reports of a blue Ford Expedition that had been sitting there for several days. When they arrived, they found Eric Allen and his wife, Yong Allen, both 56, dead.

Nowlin said Eric Allen had been shot in the head and deputies found a handgun in the car. He said it was "very possible" that the wound was self-inflicted, but that detectives are still investigating.

Yong Allen had no signs of trauma and investigators are waiting for a forensic evidence examination to determine how she died, Nowlin said.

"The mystery is how did she die...," Nowlin said. "We found a lot of other information I can't reveal yet that probably makes sense of how this all came about."

Nowlin said it appeared as though the couple — who lived in Roswell — had been traveling for months and deputies are still trying to trace their steps.

Eric Allen, the one-time vice president of the correctional officer union, had been with the jail since 2003 and was fired in 2018. He joined other former employees in a whistleblower lawsuit against the county, alleging he was charged with a crime and wrongfully terminated for his union advocacy. That suit is pending and a settlement conference was set for December 2021.

Allen frequently made headlines after three inmates alleged that he used excessive force or directed excessive force to be used on them in the fall of 2015. Video footage showed that one was shocked with a stun gun and then Allen told guards to twist her wrist "until she shuts up and stops crying." Allen used a "knee strike" and "pressure point compliance techniques" on another and slammed his face into a cabinet, according to court documents. And a third said Allen used a Taser and mace on him after he requested his antidepressants and a breathing medication.

All three inmates sued Bernalillo County in separate suits. Their lawsuits settled for $1.1 million in December 2017. That same month Allen was indicted on charges of aggravated battery with great bodily harm. However, a jury acquitted him in 2018.

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