Imagine if you will . . .
You've just finished some shopping at your local Walmart, and as you are exiting the parking lot, you come to a "rolling stop" at a stop sign. Sure enough, your rearview mirror is immediately filled with flashing red and blue lights. Your heart drops into your stomach and your biggest concern is if you can get away with a warning instead of a ticket.
You pull over and the officer slowly approaches your window. You hand over your license, registration and proof of insurance when asked to do so. After what seems an interminable time, the officer again walks towards your car, but you notice that another squad car has rolled up behind the first.
Instead of handing you back your papers and issuing either a ticket or a warning, the officer tells you to exit your vehicle. This is not supposed to happen. Now you're worried. Your heart rate and blood pressure go up instinctually, and your breathing becomes rapid and shallow. You climb out of your car and stand up straight, and naturally you are nervous and tense.
Without warning, the cop lunges forward, forcefully spins you around, and pins you to the hood of your car. Your hands are roughly handcuffed behind your back and you are told to sit down on the curb. Now two more policemen are pacing about the scene while the original officer searches your car.
After quite some time, although you have no accurate reference point considering the circumstances you are in, the "arresting" officer informs you that a warrant has been issued by a duly appointed judge, authorizing the police to conduct a full body cavity search based on "suspicion" that you are harboring drugs upon your person.
You are placed in the back of a cruiser and taken to a medical facility. When faced by the police, the doctor in charge refuses to admit you due to "ethical concerns." You are placed back in the cruiser while several officers stand outside talking on their cell phones. You are then transported to another medical facility in a different county, where the intake staff reluctantly agrees to admit you.
Over the course of the next fourteen hours you are x-rayed with no visible signs of concealed narcotics, you are subjected to repeated anal probes, you are given not one but three enemas and forced to defecate in front of medical personnel and uniformed police and then probed again, all without the slightest sign of hidden contraband. Then you are given a sedative and prepped for surgery and summarily forced to undergo a complete colonoscopy where a scope with a camera is inserted into your anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics are found.
When you are finally released, you are subsequently presented with a bill demanding immediate payment in full for the procedures you were forced to undergo without your consent and constant objections. Failure to pay will result in your account being turned over to collections where you will be further harassed and have your credit rating ruined.
Nice huh? Well this is exactly what happened to David Eckert in Deming, New Mexico on January 2nd, 2013.
Eckert filed suit in August against the City of Deming, Deming Police Officers Bobby Orosco, Robert Chavez, and Officer Hernandez (no first name available), Hidalgo County, Hidalgo County Deputies David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Green, Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty and the Gila Regional Medical Center including Robert Wilcox, M.D and Okay Odocha, M.D.
The case has rightfully drawn national attention as specifics of the incident and the lawsuit were recently made public.
Eckert's attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. The officer claims to have noticed Eckert's "posture to be erect" and that "he kept his legs together." Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity.
Attorneys representing the defendants in the lawsuit all declined to comment on the situation. The attorneys said it's their personal policy to not comment on pending litigation. But when asked by KOB New Mexico Investigative Reporter Chris Ramirez, "As the police chief what reassurances could you give people when they come through your town that they won't be violated or abused by your police officers?" Deming Chief of Police Brandon Gigante responded, "We follow the law in every aspect and we follow policies and protocols that we have in place.”
"If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they're standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent, then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this," Kennedy said.
According to Kennedy, not only was the issued search warrant overly broad and lacking in probable cause, but it was also only valid in Luna County, where Deming is located and Eckert was arrested. After the first hospital refused to perform the anal search, police took Eckert to Gila, which is located in a separate county altogether. If that is the case, then doctors performed all eight of the previously mentioned procedures illegally and without the consent of the patient.
To make matters worse, the search warrant expired at 10 p.m. while doctors didn’t even begin prepping Eckert for the colonoscopy until 1 a.m. the next morning, when the warrant had been expired for hours.
“The thought that they could do this to a man in our country is terrifying,” said Kennedy. “Our community should be outraged ... This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees.”
These police officers, the doctors, and the judge who signed off on the warrant should all be facing criminal charges of sexual battery, assault, and false imprisonment. They need to serve time in Federal prison for willfully violating this man’s rights and his body.
"The colonoscopy targeted an area of [the plaintiff] which is highly personal and private," the suit said. "The colonoscopy was extremely invasive and a total intrusion of personal privacy, especially as it physically penetrated his body."
Ya think?
[It should be noted that assertions have been made by law enforcement and their supporters, that David Eckert has prior Felony arrests or convictions for possession of controlled substances with intent to sell, as justification for their actions.
However, Eckert was not detained on January 2nd for commission of a violent crime, probable cause, or an outstanding warrant. He was stopped for a routine traffic violation. What happened next was police payback, pure and simple.
A colonoscopy is defined as a surgical procedure with a proscribed regimen of diet and prescription laxatives for several days before arriving at the hospital. What was done to Mr. Eckert, while in police custody, violated every Constitutional protection against illegal search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the fundamental principle of the Hippocratic (not hypocritic) Oath, to "never do harm to anyone."
The State, via its armed authorities, and others under its dominion, was sending a message, and it would behoove us to listen well.]
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