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November 5, 2013
No Narcotics Found
In January 2013 David Eckert was stopped by Deming, New Mexico, police for running a stop sign. The police thought he was clenching his buttocks, which gave them reasonable cause to search him for drugs. They got a search warrant that permitted them to go up his butt and look. The police took Mr. Eckert to an emergency room to perform the search, but the personnel there refused to do it. So they drove him to Gila Regional Medical Center in the next county. Despite Mr. Eckert's objections, doctors there performed a manual search of his rectum. Then they gave him an enema and searched through his stool. They repeated this two more times, finding nothing. Finally, they sedated him and performed a full colonoscopy. The report says nothing about whether they found any polyps, but it is clear they found no drugs.
Gila Regional Medical Center is trying to bill Mr. Eckert for all the procedures.
Mr. Eckert's attorney says the search warrant was only valid in Luna County, not in Grant County where the searches were performed. Mr. Eckert is suing:
- The City of Deming,
- Three Deming police officers,
- Three Hidalgo County deputies (the article doesn't say how Hidalgo County got involved),
- Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty who serves in Doña Ana County (the article doesn't say how Doña Ana County got involved),
- The Gila Regional Medical Center, and
- Two doctors at the medical center.
Deming is in Luna County. The Gila Regional Medical Center is in Silver City which is in Grant County, north and west of Luna County. Hidalgo County is the next county west past Grant County. Doña Ana County is east of Luna County.
Filed under Public Safety | permalink | November 5, 2013 at 03:19 PM
Comments
Here's a follow-up story that says a K9 indicated drugs in Mr. Eckert's vehicle, so it was more than just clenched buttocks. But they have found another incident of a man stopped for a minor traffic violation where the same K9 reacted positively for drugs. The man was taken to the same Gila Regional Medical Center and had the same procedures performed. No narcotics were found. The K9's certification expired in 2011. So, whatever settlements Mr. Eckert receives, let's just double that and split it with this second man, Timothy Young.
In the meantime, men should be very careful about their driving in Deming, New Mexico.
Posted by: Ron's Log at Nov 6, 2013 2:56:05 PM
