July 13 – A Galina man is suing New Mexico State Police for violating his civil rights when an officer used unreasonable power and filed false felony expenses towards him final 12 months.
In a lawsuit filed in state District Courtroom, Juan Chavez mentioned he suffered a shoulder harm after a July 9, 2022, encounter with New Mexico State Police Officer Alex Powell.
The lawsuit accuses the state police company of violating Chavez’s rights below the 2021 New Mexico Civil Rights Act and seeks an undisclosed quantity in damages from the New Mexico Division of Public Security.
Spokesmen for the Division of Public Security and the New Mexico State Police didn’t reply to an e-mail looking for remark Thursday.
Chavez, 60, was peeling cedar poles at his brother’s home in Cuba when a state police officer seen a automotive carrying a number of of his relations parked close by — together with his niece and daughter.
He later discovered that the youths had didn’t activate their lights after leaving the McDonald’s drive-thru, the criticism states.
Chavez — who walks with a limp on account of his accidents and has had a stem cell transplant to deal with leukemia — “slowly walked throughout the road towards the scene of the visitors cease,” in accordance with the lawsuit.
When he arrived on the scene, he “calmly” requested Energy what was happening, the go well with says. “The officer turned defensive and (Chavez) stood behind him and was falsely accused.”
The officer ordered Chavez to show round and put his palms behind his again, the go well with says.
When Chavez requested why, the indictment says, Energy advised him “as a result of I mentioned so” and arrested and handcuffed him.
The power extended the method of arresting Chavez “cruelly and needlessly” by holding his palms painfully tied behind his again whereas he conferred with one other officer for about 40 minutes earlier than beginning the hourly drive to the Sandoval County Jail in Bernalillo, the lawsuit alleges. The power sat within the automobile on the jail for about an hour earlier than taking Chavez in to e book him.
Chavez “was in extreme and apparent discomfort,” the lawsuit says. He cries and states that he’s in ache and asks Hail to cease “torturing and hurting him”.
The criticism forces the felony expenses towards Chavez to be “full of false and deceptive statements,” together with claims that Chavez was “forcefully approached” and “compelled with clenched fists” through the visitors cease.
Hail wrote within the felony criticism that Chavez was “affected person” and “gave the impression to be intoxicated” and tried to get away from him through the incident.
The officer charged Chavez with assault on a peace officer and two counts of resisting, eluding or obstructing an officer, the indictment mentioned, and that there was inadequate possible trigger for these expenses.
Chavez spent 11 hours in jail and later pleaded no contest to resisting arrest. He was sentenced to probation and fewer than a 12 months of unsupervised probation, in accordance with on-line court docket information.
“Holding his arms behind his again for 3 hours prompted (Chavez) extreme bodily accidents,” the lawsuit states.
“On the night time of the incident, he felt extreme ache and discomfort within the space of his proper shoulder and skilled extreme nervousness,” he mentioned in his criticism. “As the times glided by, the ache in his shoulder acquired worse and worse, and eventually it reached the purpose the place he wanted to hunt medical consideration and remedy.”
“In October 2022, on account of ache in his proper shoulder, he was unable to boost his proper arm above his head,” the criticism states. “He was discovered to have a rotator cuff tear on account of the excessively lengthy and pointless handcuffing. As well as, his proper pectoral muscle was broken by Officer Energy’s conduct.”