[Traffic Stop Nightmare] or [There's a New Mexico?!?]

David Eckert Appears To Clench His Buttocks; Cops Order Enemas, Colonoscopy, X-Ray For Non-Existent Drugs

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...colonoscopy-drugs-traffic-stop_n_4218320.html

A New Mexico man is alleging abuse after authorities conducted three enemas, a colonoscopy, an X-ray and several cavity searches on him simply because he appeared to clench his buttocks.

David Eckert's attorney recently filed a federal lawsuit on his behalf over the Jan. 3 incident, in which police and doctors co-opted an "unethical," 14-hour series of cavity searches, KOB-4 reports.

Court documents state that Eckert was driving out of Wal-Mart in Deming when he failed to fully stop at a parking lot stop sign. He was immediately pulled over.

When he stepped out of his vehicle, an officer reported that he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. That fact was cited as probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. Officers obtained a search warrant and Eckert's humiliating examination began at a nearby medical center.

From KOB-4:

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.
Eckert's attorney told the Herald-Sun that the case needed to go public because it could set a scary precedent.

"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," Shannon Kennedy said.

Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante argued that his officers "follow the law in every aspect." Kennedy said that the officers' warrant allowing them to search Eckert expired hours before his ordeal was over, and the warrant wasn't even valid in the county where the procedures were performed.

Eckert is suing the City of Deming, Deming police officers Bobby Orosco, Robert Chavez, Officer Hernandez, and Hidalgo County deputies David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Green. He's also suing Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty and the Gila Regional Medical Center.

 

I heard about it on the radio this morning driving into work. Everything about the way things happened was just so wrong... Aside from just the obscene overstepping of boundaries, the warrant to search him expired at 10pm (about half the procedures happened around 3am)... and the warrant was only valid in the county where the traffic violation occurred (yet the police took him to a hospital in a neighboring county). It's just insane that at no point did anyone in the hospital question this stuff either. You'd think that maybe after steps 1 and 2 that the doctor would say, "Hey, officers... based on my medical expertise, I think this guy may not be hiding anything up there after all."