By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The city of Albuquerque has agreed to pay $275,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was Tasered by city police at least six times.
The settlement came after an independent review officer determined that the two officers involved lied to a grand jury and a federal magistrate judge ordered that their Internal Affairs files be released after concluding that they had been “involved in numerous city complaints.”
The two APD officers reportedly told a grand jury that Andres Arellanes had grabbed or shoulder tackled a police horse, a claim that an independent review officer determined to be false.
The chain of events began with a verbal exchange between Arellanes and police at bar closing time on Sept. 8, 2007. Arellanes alleged that he was subject to unlawful seizure, excessive force and malicious prosecution by Albuquerque police and Department of Public Safety officers.
Felony charges in a grand jury indictment against Arellanes were eventually dismissed, but only after he had complained to an oversight body and an independent investigation was conducted.
Jason Clarke and Dayna Brock are no longer with APD. Both resigned in 2008.
The Journal was unable to reach officials at the city attorney’s office for comment Wednesday.
According to Arellanes’ version of events, he was walking down Central Avenue in Downtown about 1:30 a.m. to meet his brother for a ride home when he heard horse hoofs approaching from behind and a vehicle drove by blasting mariachi music. Arellanes said that he did a little cha-cha step to the music and that one of the mounted officers told him to stop and do it again.
Officers said he had grabbed a police horse by the shoulder.
Arellanes said he was immediately surrounded by foot and mounted officers. He claimed that Clarke demanded that he produce identification and grabbed his wallet, began interrogating him and calling him “faggot” and “queer” - terms the officers denied using.
He alleged that Brock grabbed his arm and that, when he reflexively jerked back, he was tackled and thrown to the sidewalk, hitting his head, and officers began hitting and kicking him.
Arellanes said he was thrown into a patrol vehicle, violently shaken, handcuffed and Tasered. Brock, the complaint says, used her Taser to administer several cycles of a “drive stun tase” to Arellanes’ back.
Officers denied wrongdoing and said Arellanes was combative, refused orders to leave as they were clearing the streets, tried to conceal his identity and kicked at them during the encounter.
“There were a lot of facts in dispute, but what wasn’t in dispute was he was Tazed repeatedly, 6-7 times ...” said Zach Ives, one of Arellanes’ attorneys in the civil case.
In the course of the federal lawsuit, Arellanes’ lawyers persuaded a federal magistrate judge to release Internal Affairs files on Brock and Clarke. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert H. Scott ordered APD to produce the files after concluding that the officers “have been involved in numerous city complaints, many of which were sustained and resulted in disciplinary action.”
Ives said the settlement with the city includes attorney fees.
The state Department of Public Safety Special Investigations Division, which had officers at the scene monitoring the bars, has also agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount, though Ives said plaintiffs viewed their involvement as more minimal. The Albuquerque Police Oversight Commission reviewed Arellanes’ allegations and issued a 14-page report in June 2008.
“There is no question force was used against Arellanes but as to whether it was unwarranted as Arellanes claimed or necessary in order to gain custody and control over him cannot be determined from the evidence available,” the report said.
The POC report exonerates officers on some of Arellanes’ claims, but, on others, the investigation found that the evidence was inconclusive. Independent Review Officer Bill Deaton, however, sustained his complaint about the officers’ truthfulness in testifying before the grand jury.
“Both (officers) stated in their interviews as well as their grand jury testimony that Arellanes grappled or shoulder tackled a police horse ... Yet they did not write about this in the narratives contained in police reports,” Deaton wrote in an addendum in July 2008. “None of the horse-mounted officers recalled Arellanes doing anything to their horses ...,” he wrote.
The mounted officers said that, if something had happened, they would have remembered it, written a report about it and probably criminally charged Arellanes, Deaton wrote. “The horse officers, complainant, and witnesses all agree this incident did not happen ...” Deaton concluded.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal