Posted on 11/05/2013 5:28:49 AM PST by ican'tbelieveit
This 4 On Your Side investigation looks into the actions of police officers and doctors in Southern New Mexico. A review of medical records, police reports and a federal lawsuit show deputies with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, police officers with the City of Deming and medical professionals at the Gila Regional Medical Center made some questionable decisions.
The incident began January 2, 2013 after David Eckert finished shopping at the Wal-Mart in Deming. According to a federal lawsuit, Eckert didn’t make a complete stop at a stop sign coming out of the parking lot and was immediately stopped by law enforcement.
Eckert’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.
The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.”
But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.
What Happened
While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures. A review of Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:
1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.
Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.
“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.
Search Warrant Concerns
There are major concerns about the way the search warrant was carried out. Kennedy argues that the search warrant was overly broad and lacked probable cause. But beyond that, the warrant was only valid in Luna County, where Deming is located. The Gila Regional Medical Center is in Grant County. That means all of the medical procedures were performed illegally and the doctors who performed the procedures did so with no legal basis and no consent from the patient.
In addition, even if the search warrant was executed in the correct New Mexico county, the warrant expired at 10 p.m. Medical records show the prepping for the colonoscopy started at 1 a.m. the following day, three hours after the warrant expired.
“This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees,” Kennedy said.
No Comment
KOB reached out to the attorneys representing the defendants in the lawsuit and all declined to comment on the situation. The attorneys said it’s their personal policy not comment on pending litigation.
4 On Your Side Investigative Reporter Chris Ramirez cornered Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante.
“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?” Ramirez asked Chief Gigante.
“We follow the law in every aspect and we follow policies and protocols that we have in place,” Chief Gigante replied.
“Do you think those officers in this particular case did that?” Ramirez asked.
Gigante didn’t answer, instead he referred Ramirez to his attorney.
The Lawsuit
David Eckert is suing The City of Deming and Deming Police Officers Bobby Orosco, Robert Chavez and Officer Hernandez.
Eckert is also suing Hidalgo County Hidalgo County Deputies David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Green.
Eckert is also suing Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty and the Gila Regional Medical Center including Robert Wilcox, M.D and Okay Odocha, M.D.
What makes you think I’m on the cops’ side on this?
Sorry. Just read your post as giving accomodation to executive authority. If I mis-interpreted, I apologize.
There are always simple ways out of such a situation and Mr. Eckert was unaware of them. LEO can exercise constitutional restraint or authoritarian tyranny. Us serfs can only sit and watch.
Again, I apologize if I offended you.
Ha! I got stopped (on a municipal street) for running a “stop sign” in a grocery store parking lot.
LEO said he was going to let me off with a verbal warning. I asked him if, since I appeared to violate the code, he would go ahead and issue me the citation.
He declined to issue the citation.
Rules say you must come to a complete stop and signal your turning intention when exiting from private proerty onto a municaipla thoroughfare.
I’ve paid a ticket for not stopping while backing out of my driveway in a cul-de-sac.
Defiant:
To add to my earlier post to you...Here is where we may have some separation.
It looks like you are assigning some sort of PERCEIVED wrong-doing on Mr. Eckert while giving a pass to LEO.
Now, in this report, we have no statement from LEO about probable cause. Your insinuation, in essence, is to give protection to the State by insisting, “if you haven’t done anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”
That concept is contrary to Amendment 4 and 5 of the US Constitution.
Thought you might like to see this one too.
I’m guessing he wasn’t subservient enough while dealing with them so they decided to teach him a lesson about power.
Cedar Dave
Until Police work to return to traditional powers, Police must be opposed. The pendulum has swung to far in the favor of the State.
Police have caused mistrust, and Police can repair mistrust.
Criminals? We have always have violent criminals, especially in Albuquerque. Albuquerque has a very broken culture and allows unfettered illegal immigration, and is willing to pay for said illegal immigration. The culture of Albuquerque says “we don’t have to pay our bills, we don’t have deal honestly with one another, and ignorance is fun.” I don’t know how to fix that. But Law Enforcement has become too powerful and acts with disdain for the public. Even if the public deserves the disdain of Law Enforcement that serves as no excuse for tyranny.
I am more scared of a member of Law Enforcement gone bad than a gang banger. The gang banger I can shoot. But I can’t possibly defend myself from a corrupt Police Department in collusion with a corrupt court and a corrupt mayor.
Law Enforcement must be defunded and stripped of powers until they can reform the culture that defines Police Departments across the country: Arrogance, disdain for the 4th Amendment, a petty misuse of laws to circumvent the traditional American freedoms and the constitutional prerogatives of citizens.
Yes I remember the mentally ill guy who killed two cops plus shot up a motorcycle shop and killed I think a trash man. What I remember about that is the two cops got a parade that shut down the city of Albuquerque at tax payers expense while the trash man and motorcycle shop worker got nothing. Again, a petty larceny of trust and an imagined superiority is a cancer in the Law Enforcement community that must be excised before trust is returned. Humility, Duty, Honor, Service.
So the Cop figured out a way to levy a tax on you in the name of “Safety”, and your neighbors and possibly you think that’s cool?
Load up on Mexican food before you go.
Just in case.
Not cool, no.
Creative tax? I agree.
Written into the municipal code and a violation...yes. Most fines are of the level to avoid litigation concerns.
The citation was for $25: Failure to yield when entering traffic. I paid that because the value was less than the value of my time showing up for court to argue that there was no on-coming traffic.
BTW, that was 1976.
Yes many/most are set up so you just have to pay it, not worth contesting. But remember, courts are made up of judges, who are just lawyers in robes. Legislative bodies are made up of lawyers, elected lawyers. So lawyers make laws that are advantageous to lawyers. Lawyers write code so complicated you cannot defend yourself without the use of... Wait for it... Another lawyer.
Law Schools keep pumping out lawyers, and the public keeps electing them! It’s hard for me not to be a Mark Twain cynic, but he had it right about the world.
Lordsburg man probably dissed the cops. Had he treated officers with respect, probably would not have happened
:: who are just lawyers in robes ::
Next time you are defending your actions in court, I dare you to point this out to the judge. If it is less than $100, I’ll pay your contempt citation! Let me know how that goes.
8-)
Yes!
Taunts of “Your mother wears combat boots!” should ALWAYS end up with rectal incursions by state sanctioned officers. It should be LAW!
/sarc
Law Schools keep pumping out lawyers, and the public keeps electing them!
***That is the essence of the problem with health care as well. The AMA restricts how many med schools there are, and they certainly don’t “pump out” doctors, they keep it to a minimum so that the doctors who are out there are able to get a high income. The purpose is to preserve high doctor income, not watch out for the health of our citizens.
This problem has been going on for so long that the guvmint decided to move in with their guvmint solution (which naturally fails), and the problem is even worse than before. The situation would be far, far better if the AMA simply opened up med schools until 40% of the QUALIFIED applicants are accepted, rather than the way things are now which is about 3% of QUALIFIED applicants.
Thanks for the second ping Dave. This is absolutely horrifying and extremely frightening. If this can happen to someone who “rolled through” a stop sign in a private lot, it can happen to any of us.
Amazing to me that no one, literally no one involved in this was smart enough to say wait, let’s think this through.
Shouldn’t this guy have been able to have a lawyer? Surely he asked for one. I hope KOB investigates the hell out of this story.
ALL of the doctors, ALL of the police officers, and the judge, who are collectively responsible for this outrage should be prosecuted for sexual assault, felonious assault, kidnapping, torture and anything and everything else a creative prosecutor can think of.
Theft, maybe?
_________________
The judge, the police chief and his officers involved in this should all be removed from their positions immediately. Those officers would NEVER have done this if they hadn’t thought they’d be backed up by their superiors.
Judges and cops who make these reckless insane decisions which totally violate peoples rights, need to be held civilly and criminally responsible.
The big question is, why are these judges and cops not being held responsible?
Why are these judges and cops allowed to continue working with the public?
It's reaching the point where reading these reports are like reading about what happened to prisoners in WWII Nazi Germany.
Lordsburg man probably dissed the cops. Had he treated officers with respect, probably would not have happened
Wow really? This is okay with you? We have no idea from this article if he “treated officers with respected” or “dissed” them. I can’t believe you think even if he was rude or dissing them, that this is okay!
I find it hard to believe that this happened without the OK of supervisors. At what level I don’t know.
As far as the Prosecutor goes... Well, the Prosecutor is one of “them” so don’t count on too much enthusiasm from that lawyer.
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