Santa Fe County is still cleaning up a mess that erupted more than six years ago at its Youth Development Program.

Five former workers at the juvenile detention center on Airport Road were paid more than $636,000 to settle lawsuits they made against the county between 2004 and 2007, alleging problems that ranged from sexual harassment to retaliation, county records indicate.

Two additional lawsuit from former workers there are still pending, and attorneys have suggested that one worker get $200,000 to settle her claim.

The county's bottom line isn't affected by the payouts because of insurance policies, but County Attorney Stephen Ross said deductibles in the cases have cost the county about $60,000.

What's more important, Ross says, is that a "boys club" that was running the show has been broken up.

The county's settlement of the cases stipulates that officials are not admitting claims had merit, but Ross said in an interview last week that from where he's sitting, problems appear to be over.

"We inherited a culture from the private company that had been running the facility [until 2004]. We took over all the employees when we inherited the youth facility, and I think we took over all their problems — a lot of things that they couldn't get a handle on that may have been tolerable in private industry but are completely intolerable in government," Ross said.

The county has also done more training with all its supervisors about issues like sexual harassment and risk mitigation, he said. In addition, a new management structure in the Corrections Department is "more vertical" than it was at the time.

"So, it would be harder and harder to have a little boys club like we had at the juvenile," Ross said. "It would be harder for that to exist without somebody knowing about it now. I hate to say that it could never happen again, but I think it would be detected more quickly."

County officials made it public in 2006 that they had fired several supervisors and other workers at the facility after women who worked there made repeated claims that supervisors were misbehaving, including that they were looking at Internet porn in the offices, exchanging lewd emails and having sex at work.

Others said supervisors made unwanted sexual advances and touched them inappropriately. When they complained, the lower-level workers were forced out of their jobs, several alleged, including former employee Andrew Martinez.

Martinez, the only male to receive a payout from the county's insurance policy over the ordeal, received the most money. His settlement was for $325,000.

Charlene Sandoval is another worker who says supervisors lashed out at her and used power inappropriately.

Sandoval, now 29, said she had consensual sex outside the facility with one of the supervisors, but when she told the man it would never happen again, she was called in to work on her day off and fired in 2006.

"I called it off," she said. "There was a bunch of them that plotted against me."

Sandoval worked at the facility for about a year, and said the incident was hurtful to her because she liked her job and wanted to stay.

She's skeptical, however, of some of the claims made by some of her former co-workers, especially those from Stephanie Oshel, who says that her termination in 2009 was also retaliation for reports about similar problems and who is in line to receive $200,000 after final approval of her settlement.

Sandoval's case, as well as the one from Martinez and several other women, was handled by attorney David Sandoval, no relation. He did not respond to inquiries for this story.

Oshel's attorney, Charlie Gerin, said earlier this month that he couldn't comment about the case until it's concluded.

The Board of County Commissioners discussed the proposed settlement for Oshel behind closed doors on Nov. 9 and are scheduled to take it up again as soon as next month.

In recent years, the character of the county's juvenile detention program has shifted. Instead of functioning as a three-tiered system with housing for federal detainees, local youth and those in residential treatment, the facility now just serves local youth in short-term detention. Kristine Mihelcic, county spokeswoman, said this week it averages about 30 residents.

Sandoval, Oshel and others began their cases by making complaints to the state Human Rights Division, which considers workplace civil-rights violations.

A state spokeswoman said there have been 24 complaints to the division against Santa Fe County since 2004, but confidentiality rules prevent the state from disclosing details about the status or the resolution of those cases.

When lawyers take cases to District Court, according to one attorney, they typically remove them first from the Human Rights Division process.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.