Lawsuit: Española officer used excessive force
Former police sergeant accused of breaking suspect’s arm during arrest
A Rio Arriba County man’s new lawsuit against a former Española police sergeant, alleging the officer broke his arm during a 2017 arrest, is just the latest in a carousel of civil suits, criminal complaints, demotions, firings and leadership shifts that have rocked the small department in at least the last couple of years.
Former Sgt. Eric Gallant seemed to be at the center of much of the turmoil.
Jason Martinez, 39, alleges in a complaint filed Monday in the First Judicial District Court that Gallant, serving as a deputy chief at the time, reached into a vehicle and grabbed his right arm so forcefully it frac- tured during a suspected drug transaction in August 2017 in a Walmart parking lot.
The complaint — which also accuses the city of Española of negligent hiring, retaining and supervising of police officers — claims Gallant had a history of using excessive force.
Martinez was arrested and charged with resisting an officer and drug possession. He later pleaded guilty to resisting an officer and received a 60-day suspended jail sentence. Gallant’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment. Martinez’s attorney and Sgt. Jeremy Apodaca, a spokesman for the Española Police Department, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Apodaca acknowledged, however, the department has faced upheaval in recent years, with constant turnover at the top.
In the last two years, the agency, which has just 20 officers including command staff, has had five police chiefs, each of whom has doubled as the city’s public safety director. Among them was Gallant, who briefly served as acting chief three weeks after Martinez’s arrest.
Previous Chief Matthew Vigil, appointed to the position in May 2017, had been charged with abusing a household member and retired from the force.
Nearly a decade earlier, Gallant also faced domestic violence charges after his ex-wife accused him of physical and emotional abuse, according to court records. In 2008, he was convicted on two petty misdemeanor charges of battery and received a suspended jail sentence. More severe charges of aggravated battery against a household member and interference with communications were dismissed in the case.
In late August 2017, Raymond Romero, a former Española police officer and investigator for the state Public Education Department, was hired as the long-term police chief. He lasted less than a year.
He and Gallant clashed, according to a whistleblower lawsuit Gallant filed in March 2018 against the city and Romero, alleging the new chief quashed his investigation into misconduct by other officers and supervisors.
The pending suit, which seeks $2 million in damages and is scheduled for trial next year, says Gallant became aware of misconduct in the agency when he was serving as acting chief; he cited an August 2017 incident recorded on video in the department’s training room.
Officers can be seen and heard in the video failing to respond to police dispatches and using racial epithets, profanity and “gender specific aspersions,” Gallant says in the suit. Supervisors, meanwhile, did not direct officers to respond to the dispatches or take corrective actions during the incident, he claims.
He ordered an investigation into the incident and told city officials about it, the complaint alleges, but when Romero took over, he halted the probe and demoted Gallant over negative news reports about the agency.
In May 2018, Gallant was placed on leave. According to a report by the Rio Grande Sun, the agency was investigating him following reports of misconduct.
Days later, Louis Carlos, a former Santa Fe police captain, took over as Española police chief. His tenure also lasted less than a year. He resigned in March amid an investigation into a complaint against him.
Deputy Chief Roger Jimenez, a former Santa Fe officer who has been with the Española department for a little over a year, was appointed interim chief in April.
Apodaca said he hopes the appointment will be made permanent.
“He’s getting us advanced training,” Apodaca said. “He really does come off with genuine care for the officers, the department, and that transfers over to the citizens. It’s really a nice change of pace.”
Española Mayor Javier Sanchez said Friday he was looking at a few possible candidates for the job — some within the department, including Jimenez, and some from elsewhere. The mayor’s recommendation for a new chief would have to be ratified by a majority of the Española City Council. Jimenez might be a tough sell. The Rio Grande Sun reported in May the City Council voted down Sanchez’s initial recommendation to promote Jimenez to the position. One councilor, Peggy Martinez, said he had been put on probationary status over a series of derogatory text messages between him and another officer, ridiculing a woman’s appearance and joking about the paternity of an officer’s child, the Sun reported. She also questioned his handling of a crash between two officers.
On Friday, Sanchez said, “I’m very confident in the work that interim Chief Roger Jimenez is doing at the moment.”
The mayor said he hopes to name a long-term chief within about two months.
Sanchez, who has been in office about a year and four months, said a main challenge for him and the City Council over the next year will be creating stability citywide. He acknowledged the difficulty of hiring and retaining good public servants, not only in the police department, but in all city departments.
“It’s a challenging environment out there, all the way around,” Sanchez said, “with regard to finding positive people who can put the city’s interests first.”