Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies and state police accused of civil rights violation | Native Information

A Santa Fe woman has filed a lawsuit accusing Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Representatives and the New Mexico State Police of violating their civil rights by handcuffing and arresting them at gunpoint in 2018 while they were investigating a murder unrelated to her.

Yatsiri Manriquez says in her lawsuit filed in the District Court on February 11th that she was 16 years old when officers ran over a truck in which she was driving on NM 503.

Her cousin was driving her and another passenger when the police followed them. “They were on their way to their house in Pojoaque to see recordings of their quinceañera after visiting a nail salon,” the complaint said.

After following the truck for about 20 minutes, according to the lawsuit, the officers dressed Manriquez’s cousin and ordered all three of them to get out of the vehicle at gunpoint.

“The officer had drawn guns and pointed at Ms. Manriquez,” the lawsuit said. “They then told Ms. Marinquez and the other passenger to back up to her voice. The officers then handcuffed Ms. Manriguez for no apparent reason and threw her in the back of a police car, which was an unreasonable search and seizure.”

After the officers held them for a while, they released the trio.

“The police report following the incident incorrectly stated that officers were arrested and not arrested [Manriquez] or the other vehicle occupants, “the lawsuit says.” This is not true, however, as all three inmates were handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police car. ”

Within a day of the incident, the complaint said, one of the officers called Manriquez to discuss the arrest and “gave her his phone number and address.”

Manriquez’s attorney Jerry Todd Wertheim said Monday he couldn’t comment on the suit without first speaking to his client.

The lawsuit lists two sheriff deputies, unidentified state officers, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office as defendants. An unspecified amount of actual and criminal damage is sought.

The lawsuit or incident report does not reveal which murder case MPs investigated or what role state police officers played in the incident.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Assistant Adrienne Ames – one of two deputies named in the lawsuit – wrote in an incident report that she began following the vehicle because the driver and vehicle “matched a description … for a possible murder suspect.” “from Edgewood.

Ames wrote in her report that she followed the truck and watched it stop at a house in Spain and then drive off when she called for help. She and another deputy, as well as two officers from the Pueblo of Pojoaque Police Department, were “performing a high-risk obstruction” on the vehicle, she wrote.

“All inmates were arrested,” wrote Ames, “and advised not to be arrested.”

After taking a picture of the driver’s sweatshirt and mailing it to another deputy who said it did not match the suspect’s sweatshirt, Ames wrote, “All inmates were released immediately.”

Sheriff’s deputy Jonathan War was also named in the lawsuit.

A Santa Fe County sheriff spokesman declined to comment on the pending litigation on Monday.

A state police spokesman referred questions to a spokesman for the state Department of Public Security, who did not respond to an email asking for comment.