Police sniffer dog

A routine traffic stop turned into a 14 hour cavity search for one man in New Mexico after he failed to stop at a stop sign at a Wal-Mart exit.

David Eckart was asked by cops to exit his vehicle and when he did, the officer claimed that he was ‘clenching his buttocks’ and used that as a basis to suspect that he was hiding drugs.

Officers then called for police dogs to search the car, and the one which was used – Leo – appeared to signal that there was something in the car. However, a search of the car turned up no drugs and officers then detained Mr Eckart and obtained a search warrant for a cavity search. He was then subjected to three enemas, two rectal searches, two x-rays and even a colonoscopy – all in pursuit of non-existent narcotics.

First officers took him to Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming, but doctors there said the procedures police were requesting were ‘unethical’ for them to perform, according to court documents.

Determined to perform the invasive searches, officers then drove Mr Eckart out of the county – which in the US renders the warrant invalid and illegal. Additionally, the search warrant expired at 10 pm, while doctors didn’t even begin prepping Eckert for the colonoscopy until 1:00 am. the following morning.

Mr Eckart was taken to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City which then conducted an X-Ray of Mr Eckart’s abdominal area.

But despite the fact that the X-Ray turned up nothing, doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers and no narcotics were found.

However, this didn’t stop doctors performing a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers. The second examination turned up nothing.

This failed to satisfy the appetite of the police officers and doctors however, and so doctors then 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.

Despite this, doctors went on to probe Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers again. Again, no drugs were found.

Determined to find the non-existent drugs however, medical personnel penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. He was then forced to defecate in front of this persistent audience again. No drugs were discovered.

But despite this, Mr Eckart’s ordeal was far from over. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no illegal substances were found.

His humiliation was not over yet. Doctors then prepared Eckert for surgery that he didn’t want, drugged him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.

Colonoscopy is a particularly invasive surgery which carries the risk of rupturing the colon and triggering Crohns disease is some cases.

The lawsuit claims that Mr Eckert vocally objected to each search, but doctors performed the procedures anyway at the request of police officers, who were determined to get him.

Finally, at 2am in the morning, Mr Eckart was finally released without charge.

Remember these two faces. These are the cops who ordered the cavity search

After it was done, to add insult to injury, the hospital that performed all the procedures against his will even billed him for $6,000- and threatened to hire a collections agency if he didn’t pay.

Deming Police Officers Bobby Orosco and Robert Chavez were the ones who apprehended Mr Eckart.

When approached for comment by the media, police Chief Brandon Gigante claimed that his officers always act within the bounds of the law

Police chief Brandon Gigante

And what’s more, rather than getting fired and arrested, Detective Sergeant Bobby Orosco was then promoted to patrol captain following the incident.

Mr Eckert’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy, told KOB-TV that the case could set a worrying precedent for the way men and women are treated by police officers in the future.

She said: “It’s a nightmare, its unfathomable. You could never anticipate this happening in the United States of America. 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 and that’s why the public needs to know about this.

“This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees. What is so strange about this case is they held him with no evidence. They seized him to collect evidence, to go on a fishing expedition on someone’s body.”

She also explained how many police dogs in the US are trained to give false positives, which can often be triggered by the actions of their handlers.

In regard to the police dog that was used in this case, Kennedy added: “We have done public requests to find anything that would show this dog has been trained, we have evidence that this dog has had false alerts in the past.”

The doctors who performed the searches are Dr Robert Wilcox and Dr Okay Odocha.

Robert Wilcox was one of the doctors who performed the humiliating procedure

Okay Odocha was Robert’s partner in crime

A protest has been planned for November 16th near the medical centre where the invasive procedures took place.

A Facebook group ‘Gila Regional Protest’ has been started up in protest at the blatant
disregard for human rights.

But scarily enough, Eckart isn’t the only person to be tortured in this manner. Another victim, Timothy Young was pulled over for failure to use his blinker properly. Literally the same dog, Leo, signaled positively on Young’s vehicle. Young was then taken to the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, and subjected to medical procedures including x-rays of his stomach and an anal exam. No drugs were found; Young was innocent.

In the same state, a woman was stripped naked, asked to spread her legs, while officers inserted their fingers into her vagina and buttocks, after a sniffer dog gave a false signal.

But her ordeal was far from over. She was then transported to University Medical Center in El Paso, where authorities subjected her to a bio-manual cavity search of her anus and vagina, an extensive search of her bowel movement, and eventually, a CT scan

Her lawyer, Laura Schauer Ives, said that she is concealing her clients name as she believes she is the victim of sexual assault and as a result of her humiliating ordeal, she is now afraid to leave the house.

Ives added: “It made no difference that these were physicians. It was not like a gynecological exam. This was done against her will. She was terrified.”

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