Dismissal of suit over dog poop incident affirmed

SANTA FE — The state Court of Appeals affirmed a District Court decision to dismiss a Santa Fe civil suit over an incident that started with dog poop.

Mateo Romero, a well-known Native American artist, sued the city of Santa Fe as well as police officers Louis Carlos and Christopher Mooney in 2015 for an incident that happened the year before.

Romero pulled into a driveway on Old Santa Fe Trail after his Shih Tzu defecated in his car, to clean the mess up. The woman who lived at the house arrived and started pulling into the driveway and called police, thinking there was possibly a burglary in progress.

The lawsuit says Mooney responded and held a rifle on Romero to get him to the ground. Romero was then handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car for 20 minutes before he was let go, the suit says.

The city’s response, which citing police audio and video recordings, argued that Romero was handcuffed for 13 or 14 minutes and said that the artist acknowledged it was “unwise” to pull into the driveway and thanked the officers for their professionalism.

But his lawyers say the officers waited to uncuff and release Romero for some time after they knew no crime had been committed. They also said it was unnecessary to use an assault rifle to get Romero to the ground.

In 2017, District Court Judge David Thomson, now a state Supreme Court justice, dismissed Romero’s suit based on “qualified immunity,” the legal tenet that officers on duty aren’t liable when they don’t violate “clearly established law.” Romero appealed that decision shortly after.

The appeals court decision, written by Judge Briana Zamora, says the court agrees with Thomson’s conclusion in finding that the officers’ actions were “objectively reasonable” and that Officer Mooney didn’t violate clearly established law.

“Consequently, we affirm the district court’s determination that Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity,” the decision says.

Last year Romero filed a separate case against the city for allegedly violating the state Inspection of Public Records Act for not providing police belt recordings from the incident. The case is still pending.