Posted on 11/02/2015 3:17:05 PM PST by CedarDave
Elementary school principal Stephen Maresca was heading home from hiking in the Sandias with his wife, three children and their dog when the family was arrested by armed deputies after a rookie Bernalillo County Sheriffâs Office deputy typed in a wrong license plate number.
Responding officers had the couple and their children exit the truck, walk backward with their hands up and lie face-down on the pavement. The officers aimed firearms at the parents and children, including two boys ages 17 and 14 and a 9-year-old girl, according to a summary of evidence in an opinion by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
The reversal was based not on the mistyped number itself, the appeals court said. Instead, it was based on the fact that the deputy failed to notice the difference between a 2009 Chevrolet sedan with expired plates, which was the vehicle reported stolen, and a 2004 Ford pickup with current plates, the vehicle Maresca was driving, or to check the information. That information was in front of Fuentes on a computer screen the entire time.
The court ruled last month that the arrest was illegal â reversing an earlier decision that gave the arresting officer, Deputy J. Fuentes, immunity. The county is now on the hook for that 2013 arrest by Fuentes.
Maresca held up his hands with his driverâs license in one hand and repeatedly told the officers there must be a mistake, the complaint says. Deputies yelled at them to lift their shirts to show that they were unarmed and ignored Marescaâs pleas to check his ID and vehicle registration.
Other officers arrived, but none verified that the license plate belonged to a stolen car, the complaint says.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
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Albuquerque has a serious problem with idiot police. It’s a no-go place for me right up there with NYC partly because the police can’t be trusted to not kill each other let alone everyone else.
Next question will be did the arrest and subsequent litigation cause stress that contributed to his heart attack and death?
That’s possible given that each of the victims suffered from “road rash” meaning they were forcibly taken to the ground as they were arrested. With Maresca having a heart problem this was no doubt a contributing factor to his death.
The usual boot to the back of the neck, obscenity shouting, and dog shooting warm ups were skipped? Slipping fella's! Getting soft on us!
Yes a family with young children were brutalized, but fortunately no cop’s ego was bruised during the illegal detention.
In the end, those fragile police egos are all that really matter.
Spent a bit of time in Farmington, where my daughter was born, and ventured only once to Albuturkey. That was back in the late 70’s. Even then, people said stay out of there, if you could.
Just the 99% making the 1% look bad.
Thank God that this family did not have their Golden Retriever with them. This is a clearly example that nazis are stupid, clearly incapable interpreting the information stream that is provided to them, and more likely than not to misjudge the situation. When they are incapable of interpreting this information, people die, dogs die, and children are traumatized for life. But, all of these nazis went home safely, they’ve got that going for them.
Until we start to applying the letter of the law to these people and require that their training be adjusted to conform to the requirements and the Constitution, these people are dangerous to law abiding citizens everywhere.
The family is being represented by the same law firm that has won cases of cops arresting at least two persons in the Deming area for drug offenses based on an uncertified drug-sensing dog alerting on their vehicles. After a search did not turn up drugs in the cars, they focused on the individuals, did strip searches, did cavity searches, required their taking laxatives to search their feces, then took them to a hospital in Silver City for x-rays of their internal stomach and intestines. In both cases drugs were not found.
Denver also. You should read the horror stories coming out of that city.
Even worse, they should be drummed out of the mam club for making such an idiotic mistake.
That is, “man club”. Around here, a quick way to get into a fight might be to ask a new F-150 owner how his new Chevy is doing.
The list of people who made mistakes is huge: The cop, his partner(s) the Sargent, the DA, the Judge and many more I am sure.
From the article:
“...nothing in the facts suggested intentional misconduct.”
So, does that imply that plain old dumbass misconduct is OK? If so, then we are in a great deal of trouble. Seems like it would give great incentive for governments to find the dumbest people that they can find to hire, because then it gives them a certain level of immunity.
My thoughts as well. Those officers should be sued for millions for contributing to the poor man's death. Not just the county, but the arresting officers as well. Make them lose their homes, or their jobs at the least. Too much strong-arming of innocent folks by cops these days; send a strong message.
Here is one for you.
I like the "lying on their faces" thingee, especially.
Lets 'em know they're LESS THAN DIRT.
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