Man Subjected To Anal Probes, Enemas, And Colonoscopy In Police Search For Nonexistent Drugs
![policestop](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/262014/policestop.jpg?w=500&f=3a9d297defc52beea17e104d271ce187)
David Eckert got pulled over Wednesday, Jan. 2, after rolling through a stop sign. He was leaving a Wal-Mart. After the police asked Eckert to exit his car, they observed him clenching his buttocks, which they considered probable cause that he was concealing drugs in his anal cavity. Over the next several hours, that one observation would lead to eight anal searches, including two X-rays, two anal probes, three enemas, and a colonoscopy.
Every examination was carried out without Eckert’s consent, according to his attorney, Shannon Kennedy. A review of medical records, police reports, and the federal lawsuit shows Eckert undergoing a series of violating, humiliating procedures over the course of several hours, some of which the medical center is now billing Eckert for.
“It’s terrifying,” Kennedy told KOB4. “It’s absolutely a nightmare.”
Police originally acted on their suspicion by soliciting a search warrant from a local Deming, New Mexico judge so that they could take Eckert to a medical facility. They obtained the judge’s signature and first tried to admit him to an emergency room at Deming’s Mimbres Memorial Hospital, but the acting doctor refused, saying the procedure would be “unethical.” So police turned to medical professionals at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, who agreed to accept Eckert for examination.
Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB4, show the raw, painstaking approaches the personnel took while he was there.
First, they performed an X-ray of his abdominal area. Nothing. Then they performed a rectal exam with their fingers. Still nothing. Then they performed a second rectal exam. Then the doctors performed three consecutive enemas, forcing Eckert to defecate in front of police and doctors, and then watch as doctors inspected his stool for narcotics. They found nothing. He received a second X-ray. Finally, the doctors prepped him for a colonoscopy — a procedure involving a long, flexible scope inserted rectally that snakes through the length of the patient’s colon. Again, the drug search produced nothing. By this point, it was 1 a.m. The police officers’ warrant expired at 10 p.m. the previous day.
"This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees," Kennedy said.
Worse, all of these procedures took place outside of the warrant’s jurisdiction. The traffic stop occurred in Luna County, yet it was in the neighboring Grant County where all the medical procedures took place.
"If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they're standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent,” Kennedy said, “then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this.”
Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante remained tight-lipped about the incident, claiming that his department does indeed “follow the law in every aspect,” and claiming that “we follow policies and protocols that we have in place.” When KOB4’s Chris Ramirez probed deeper into whether the acting officers behaved in accordance with that stance, Gigante directed Ramirez to the department’s attorney, Tony Ortiz. Ortiz offered no comment, save for adding that “the city of Deming will prevail in this matter.”
Personnel at Gila Regional Medical Center declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. As for Eckert, Kennedy says the entire process has him “terrified.”
“He’s absolutely terrified,” she emphasized, “that he’s living in a community where police are able to harass people traveling through this community, and people that live there, basically unchecked.”
Eckert is suing The City of Deming and Deming Police Officers Bobby Orosco and Robert Chavez, as well as Officer Hernandez; Hidalgo County Deputies David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez, and Patrick Green; Deputy District Attorney Daniel Dougherty and the Gila Regional Medical Center including Robert Wilcox, M.D, and Okay Odocha, M.D.