“It’s absolutely unimaginable that this could happen in America” Eckert’s attorney said.
“It’s absolutely unimaginable that this could happen in America” Eckert’s attorney said.
According to KOB Eyewitness News 4 in Albuquerque, a New Mexico man is filing a federal lawsuit against police, doctors, a DA and two counties.
Records show, without protest from police or their lawyers, that David Eckert was made to go through an absolutely insane series of medical procedures on his butt, including but not limited to three enemas and a colonoscopy in search of drugs.
On January 2, 2013, Eckert allegedly failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign, exiting a Wal-Mart parking lot in Deming, in southwest New Mexico. Officers then observed him appear to clench his ass-cheeks, after he complied with their request that he exit the vehicle.
The plausibility that police were actually able to determine if Eckert was indeed clenching his ass cheeks, let along disseminate his reason for clenching his ass cheeks, is one debate; but the ensuing events open a Pandora’s Box of posterior principals.
The police managed (somehow?!) to get a search warrant from a judge including the ability to search his “anal cavity.” They proceeded to take him to one emergency room where doctors there flatly refused the procedure, citing it to be “unethical”.
This whole story is riddled with understatements. Nonetheless, those doctors set a precedent that police ignored, but absolutely made the right call.
Police proceeded to take Eckert to another hospital, Gila Regional Medical Center, in nearby Grant County. This is similar to asking your grandmother to buy you a drum set after your mom says no, except instead of drums, it’s a look into someone’s anus.
The details of Eckert’s endeavor have been released by his lawyers, and they are specific and lengthy – here’s the list, which reads more like a Guantanamo Bay torture check list, 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.
Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.
Eckerts attorney, Sharon Kennedy, believes her client’s civil rights were not only abused by the doctors and police, but pretty much everyone involved.
Among the defendants are the City of Deming, Deming police officers Robert Chavez, Bobby Orosco, and an “Officer Hernandez” whose first name is not in the KOB report, as well as Hidalgo County, Hidalgo County Officers David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez, and Patrick Green. Eckert is also suing Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty, Gila Regional Medical Center, which Kennedy described as “The Gila Hospital Of Horrors”, and doctors Okay Odocha and Robert Wilcox.
She told KOB 4 that not only was the search warrant too broad and murky, but it had no jurisdiction once they entered Grant County in search of a more willing, or complicit, hospital. In addition, the warrant expired at 10 pm, but the probing began at will after that around 1 am.
“It’s absolutely unimaginable that this could happen in America.” Kennedy told KOB 4. “This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees.”
While the scope of Eckerts terrifying experience was Orwellian and Kubrick-esque, the premise of poor oversight of malicious policing is not one of science fiction. It’s happening in America, and the unimaginable part is that each story is so different and often worse than the last. From disturbing , to flat-out heartbreaking.
“We follow the law in every aspect and we follow policies and protocols that we have in place,” Deming Police Cheif Brandon Gigante told KOB 4, and that was all he had to say. He might be the only person in the world right now with only 17 boring and evasive words to speak on the man who was forced to defecate in front of police officers not once, not twice, but three times, and forced to be sedated to have a colonoscopy. These things are the opposite of fun when voluntary; one can only imagine how it must have been for Mr. Eckert, who’s only say in the whole ordeal was his decision to run a stop sign and then clench (or not, who knows) his ass cheeks.
For a hilarious/terrifying video of this story, check out the local’s take on the issue:
