A New Mexico man is waging a federal lawsuit against the Gila Regional Medical Center and several police officers in Deming, N.M. for forcing him to undergo extensive anal searches.
David Eckert claims that he was anally probed eight times after a routine traffic stop. Eckert says that he was stopped by Deming police after rolling through stop sign, according to the lawsuit. He claims that he was then subjected to digital searches for drugs, as well as enemas and a colonoscopy, according to The New York Daily News
David Eckert claims that the humiliating search began on Jan. 2, when he drove out of a Deming Walmart and did not make a complete stop at a parking lot stop sign. He was stopped by traffic police for the minor violation.
His attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said officers told him that he appeared to be "clinching his buttocks," and thought he might have been carrying drugs in his rectum.
Deming police took him to an emergency room, but the E.R. doctor refused to probe the man's anus, according to Kennedy.
Kennedy said in a lengthy interview with KOB-TV that Eckert was taken to another medical facility where he was x-rayed, then had two digital exams and two enemas, followed by a colonoscopy. Kennedy said that no drugs were found.
She also said that Eckert did not give consent to undergo the medical procedures.
"This is like something out of a science fiction movie - anal probing by government officials and public employees," she said.
The lawsuit names the Deming Police Department, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office and medical employees at Gila Regional Medical Center, which is where the procedures were done.
The defendants declined to comment due to ongoing litigation.