A New Mexico man has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Deming and several Deming Police Officers after they allegedly “subjected him to multiple digital penetrations and three enemas” among other “shockingly invasive medical procedures, all without finding any drugs all on an invalid warrant” his lawyer claimed.
David Eckert, 54, spent more than 12 hours in custody last January at a police station and local hospital after being pulled over for failing to make a complete stop at a stop sign outside a Wal-Mart parking lot. After ordering Eckert out of his vehicle police insisted that Eckert was clenching his buttocks, claiming the action was probable cause to suspect illegal drugs were hidden inside his anal cavity.
“Defendants acted completely outside the bounds of human decency by orchestrating wholly superfluous physical body cavity searches performed by an unethical medial professional,” states the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this year. According to a police affidavit accompanying the lawsuit, Eckert was pulled over, by a Deming Police office who stated that Eckert “was avoiding eye contact with me,” his “left hand began to shake,” and he stood “erect (with) his legs together.”
Eckert was told he would be able to go home after a third officer issued him a traffic citation, but before leaving, Eckert voluntarily consented to a search of him and his vehicle. A K-9 dog subsequently hit on a spot in the Dodge’s driver’s seat, though no drugs were found. The affidavit also stated that a Hildalgo County K-9 officer was informed that he had dealt with Eckert on a previous case and that Eckert was known to insert drugs into his anal cavity and had been caught in Hidalgo County with drugs in his anal cavity.
Law enforcement then successfully obtained a cavity search warrant after contacting a local judge. Police then drove to a local hospital where a doctor refused to carry out the search, telling police the task was “unethical.” Despite the warrant that only covered Luna County, Police illegally drove Eckert to Silver City’s Gila Regional Medical Center in Grant County, where he soon underwent an intensive search. Eckert was held against his will, while doctors x-rayed his abdominal cavity, only to have the results find absolutely nothing. After doctors were then ordered to examine and penetrate Eckert’s anus with their finger, searching deep inside Eckert’s body without his permission, only to find nothing. Despite the warrant being invalid due to the location change, police carried out the search past the warrant’s 10 p.m. time limit, spending 14 hours with Eckert. According to medical records, Eckert’s colonoscopy did not even begin until 1 a.m.
By Eckert simply looking nervous during a traffic stop the lawsuit claims that authorities ended up violating his constitutional rights against unreasonable searches and seizures on a number of grounds.
Late last year, two Texas women forced to undergo roadside body cavity searched during a routine traffic stop. According to a lawsuit later filed, the anus and vagina of both women was touched with the same latex gloves, never changed between searches. Another incident in 2011 while going through a Dallas TSA security point, Susie Castillo, who became Miss USA in 2003, was singled out for an extensive pat-down by an older female TSA employee. According to Castillo, the TSA employee touched Castillo’s vagina 4 times, an experience she had never once before had at any other airport. Eckert’s situation represent a dangerous trend among government agencies.
