In a KOB Eyewitness News 4 report yesterday, what started as a routine traffic stop for a man leaving a Deming, New Mexico Wal-Mart has turned into a lesson on the Constitution, as well as how to make sure you don’t look like you’re clenching your buttocks lest your anal cavity be thoroughly searched. Yikes!
On Jan. 2, David Eckert didn’t make a complete stop driving out of the Wal-Mart parking lot and was stopped by police. What happened to Eckert next is now part of a lawsuit:
Law enforcement thought (appearing to be clenching buttocks) was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.
The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.”
But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.
You’re going to want to carefully sit down for the following list of all the procedures Eckert was put through:
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.
All along, according to the report, Eckert never consented to the procedures, and he’s been asked to pay for them. Wow, something bizarre happened and it wasn’t in Arizona.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2013.
No, it didn’t happen in Arizona, but I’m sure Joe will remedy that and top it in fairly short order.
Stop the stupid drug war.
Charge these rapists!
Three enemas, two xrays and a forced colonoscopy? I’d either OWN the city of Deming, New Mexico and its police department, or spend the rest of my life trying to. They’d have no idea what kind of monster they created!
I hope the police in Deming have to sell their first born to pay the judgment against them.
I hope he BANKRUPTS the city of Deming.
This is a very good reason to never stop on I-10 when passing through the city of Deming. What a complete disregard for personal dignity and human rights. I hope the city is faced with a successful lawsuit that results in a special election to raise funds to keep the crummy place alive…
Free enemas? Sweet!
Bernie, somehow, I don’t think those enemas were given with love and care. :-/
This one’s going to be a doozy of a lawsuit and all the more to the man!
Let’s make “Deming” a new euphemism for illegal search and seizure-“I got Deminged at the checkpoint last night because my dog’s in heat and theirs smelled it.”