The sheriff of Hudspeth County illegally detained a group of El Paso officers on a drug stakeout, then laughed as he told them that their operation was blown and they were free to leave, a lawsuit against the sheriff alleges.
El Paso Police Officer Michael Short alleges that Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West violated his Fourth Amendment rights by stopping him and his fellow EPPD officers at a roadblock and forcibly taking them to the Hudspeth County Sheriff substation in Fort Hancock.
"At that moment, Plaintiff was placed under restraint of his liberty, without probable cause," states the lawsuit.
Michael Wyatt, the lawyer for Short, said that the EPPD officers acquiesced to the detention at the roadblock because "if at any point any of these EPPD officers had said 'I'm free to go, I'll be on my way,' we would have seen the situation escalate into something very ugly."
West was not available for comment before deadline, but will be added to this story as he becomes available.
According to the lawsuit (see the document via link below), the events unfolded like this:
-- Short, who along with several other EPPD officers is deputized by District Attorney Jaime Esparza to work narcotics in Hudspeth County, were notified on or about Dec. 4, 2008, of a possible drug load moving from Fort Hancock to El Paso. They "designed a plan to identify and stop the load vehicle, which included staking out the highways passing through Fort Hancock."
-- This was before 8 a.m.. Shortly after 8 a.m., officers stopped a vehicle matching the description of the "load car." While engaged in the stop, a Hudspeth County deputy arrived. Short told him about the operation and explaining that the sheriff's office was closed before 8 a.m. when the operation started, "and therefore it had not been possible to notify the Sheriff about the operation," states the lawsuit.
-- The car was not the one police were looking for. Police returned to the stakeout and according to the lawsuit received a call from the operational supervisor telling them that the "Hudspeth County Sheriff was attempting to arrest all of the El Paso Police Department officers who were participating in the narcotics task force operation that morning."
-- After an encounter with another sheriff's deputy, in which the police supervisor refused to submit his team to the sheriff's command, the lawsuit states that "Acting on the orders of his supervisor, Plaintiff began driving back to El Paso." He came upon a roadblock, stopped and was ordered to the Fort Hancock substation.
-- "Once the narcotics task force was assembled at the Sheriff's substation, Sheriff West arrived and stated that he had not been given notice of the presence of the task force within his jurisdiction. He stated that he would have to receive notice of any further task force activity within his jurisdiction," states the lawsuit. "He concluded his presentation by announcing with a laugh: 'Whatever you were working on is f----d up now, and you're free to leave.' "
Short is suing as a citizen, and not in his official capacity. He seeks damages as assessed by a jury and legal fees.
His lawyer, Wyatt, said that "The Fourth Amendment protects everybody from being arrested without probable cause. In this instance there was no probable cause that anybody had committed a crime yet the sheriff of Hudspeth County ordered that several El Paso police officers be arrested and detained."
When asked why the officers did not have off-hours contact information for the sheriff, Wyatt said, "That's probably something that will be explored during the discovery phase of this case."
Hudspeth County is sparsely populated, on the border, and crossed by major highways leading to El Paso. West has been a frequent face on national news talking about the Drug War and the challenges he faces trying to police wide open spaces heavily used for smuggling routes by drug cartels.
Wyatt said that West clearly overstepped his bounds, calling the sheriff a "rogue cop."
"And what you see here is that a rogue cop isn't good for law enforcement," Wyatt said. "It sounds like he deliberately disrupted an investigation in progress. My client's not the only person who heard that … and (he) said that with a touch of glee."
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