Posted on 12/07/2016 9:38:43 AM PST by george76
Santa Fe County has agreed to pay $75,000 to a man who claims a Pojoaque Pueblo police officer assaulted him after a traffic stop seven years ago.
Tribal Officer Glen Gutierrez was acting under authority of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office when he pulled over Jose Luis Loya of El Paso on a claim that the motorist was driving recklessly.
The settlement, reached last month, is the final installment in a years long dispute over which government agency is legally responsible when officers from other jurisdictions who are cross-commissioned by the sheriff are sued. Santa Fe County since then has discontinued the practice of cross-commissioning officers unless the partner agency agrees to accept liability for its own officers.
Loya in 2010 filed his civil suit in state District Court, saying he was passing through Pojoaque on his way home to El Paso when Gutierrez braked abruptly in front of him and then pulled Loya over for swerving. Loya claimed in the suit that the officer kicked one of his legs out from under him and pinned him against his truck, aggravating a neck injury.
Santa Fe County countered that it shouldn’t be liable for the actions of an officer that it neither trained nor supervised. It claimed Gutierrez did not fit the definition of a county employee under state law.
Then-District Judge Barbara Vigil agreed with the county in 2012, and the Court of Appeals affirmed her ruling. But in May 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled that the previous judges had gotten it wrong and that Santa Fe County was responsible for defending Gutierrez.
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Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office revoked commission agreements it had with more than a dozen agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service
(Excerpt) Read more at santafenewmexican.com ...
Not surprised, Tribal Officer Glen Gutierrez misread the smoke siginals and arrested the wrong guy.
NM Ping List.
Was there fire water involved?
Only at the Pow Wow.
You can't turn around without gettin' busted.
The federal agents have been illegally using their weapons and uniforms on non federal property . Pulling over cars on state roads, etc.
Several local sheriffs have even gone to DC / Congress to try to stop it.
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