FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 24, 2008
CONTACT: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or 507-9898; [email protected]
ALBUQUERQUE—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a lawsuit today against the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) for failing to protect inmate Roman Gallardo from physical and sexual assault by another prisoner while Gallardo was incarcerated for a DWI offense in 2006.  The rape took place after Gallardo, an openly gay man, was forced to share a cell with an inmate who was known to have sexually assaulted at least one other prisoner.
“Jail officials knowingly placed Mr. Gallardo in a dangerous situation,” said Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director.  “Their failure to adequately train and supervise detention officers and provide safeguards against physical and sexual violence amounted to deliberate indifference towards Gallardo’s safety, rights, and bodily integrity.”
According to ACLU legal papers, inmates and custody officers knew that Gallardo was gay and ridiculed him on a daily basis.  The director of MDC, Ronald Torres, failed to address the situation and, in January, 2006, allowed Gallardo to be housed in a cell with inmate Niklas Trujeque.
Months earlier, Torres and former jail director Harry Tipton had received a letter from an Albuquerque attorney informing them that the attorney’s client had been raped by Trujeque while incarcerated at MDC.
Roman Gallardo made the following statement, “I was denied my rights as a human being while I was under the care of MDC, and they didn’t care for my well being. I don't want this to happen to anyone else, male or female.  It is wrong and can be prevented.”
Attorneys in the lawsuit are Kari Morrissey, cooperating attorney for the ACLU and George Bach, ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney.  In addition to Ronald Torres, the ACLU’s legal complaint cites the City of Albuquerque and the Bernalillo County Commission as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

###

Related Documents:

MDC Complaint

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 17, 2008
CONTACT: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or 507-9898
CARLSBARD – A paraplegic man is suing Eddy County Sheriff's Deputies for seizing marijuana plants and equipment to grow marijuana, which he uses to control pain resulting from a spinal cord injury.  Leonard French received a license to cultivate and use small quantities of marijuana for medicinal purposes from the State of New Mexico under the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, which represents French, says the deputies' actions violated not only that law, but also state forfeiture laws and a constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
"The New Mexico state legislature, in its wisdom, passed the Compassionate Use Act after carefully considering the benefits the drug provides for people who suffer from uncontrollable pain, and weighing those benefits against the way federal law considers cannabis,” said Peter Simonson, ACLU Executive Director.  “With their actions against Mr. French, Eddy County officials thwarted that humane, sensible law, probably for no other reason than that they believed federal law empowered them to do so."
On September 4, 2007, at least four Eddy County deputies, acting as members of the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force, arrived at French's home in Malaga, New Mexico and announced, "We're here about the marijuana."  Thinking that the deputies had arrived to check his compliance with the compassionate use law, French presented the deputies with his state license to grow marijuana, then showed them his hydroponic equipment, including two small marijuana plants and three dead sprouts.  The deputies seized the equipment and plants, and later turned them over to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.  French has not been charged with any violations of federal drug laws.
A physician prescribed marijuana for French after other medications lost their effectiveness in controlling pain and severe muscle spasms stemming from a 1987 motorcycle accident.
Simonson said, "With the Compassionate Use Act, New Mexico embarked on an innovative project to help people who suffer from painful conditions like Mr. French's.  The law cannot succeed if the threat of arrest by county and local law enforcement hangs over participants in the program.  With this lawsuit, we hope to clear the way for the State to implement a sensible, conservative program to apply a drug that traditionally has been considered illicit for constructive purposes."
The ACLU’s complaint is available online at: https://www.aclu-nm.org/PDF/French_1_17_08.pdf
For more information about the national ACLU Drug Law Reform Project, go to: http://aclu.org/drugpolicy/index.html

###

Related Documents:

French Complaint

.

14-Feb-2008 Affidavit

15-Feb-2008 Press Release

ACLU Drug Law Reform Project

Group Calls Action Unconstitutional and Discriminatory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 15, 2008
CONTACT: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or 507-9898; [email protected] or Rachel Myers, national ACLU, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; [email protected]
ALBUQUERQUE - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Mexico filed a lawsuit in federal court today on behalf of several New Mexico residents and advocacy organizations who were made to stand more than 150 yards away from the site of a fundraiser being attended by the president as they peacefully protested the views of the administration, while a group of people expressing support for President Bush were allowed to stand only a few feet from the fundraiser site.
“People who disagree with the president have as much a right to be heard as those who wish to praise him," said Catherine Crump, staff attorney with the ACLU.  “The unequal treatment of the ACLU’s clients violates their constitutional right to free speech.”
On August 27, 2007, President Bush was in New Mexico to attend a fundraiser for Senator Pete Domenici at the home of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque Mayor Larry Abraham. In anticipation of the presidential motorcade, several individuals, including the ACLU’s clients, gathered along the street leading to the mayor’s house holding signs expressing their disapproval of the Iraq War.
According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, law enforcement officials forced the peaceful protestors to stand 150 yards away from the motorcade route, on the opposite end of the street from where the president would arrive, where they were blocked from the president’s view by a wall of parked police cars and officers on horseback. A group of people holding a banner reading “God Bless George Bush! We Pray for You!” was allowed to stand only a few feet from the fundraiser site, in plain view of the motorcade.
“Law enforcement officers gave Bush supporters front row seats and made those who disagreed with the president stand behind a wall of cars and horses,” said Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director. “Officials went to great lengths to shield the president from viewing the people who disagreed with him, which just isn’t how a free society should operate.”
The New Mexico lawsuit comes in the midst of an ongoing challenge by the ACLU to a White House policy that unlawfully excludes individuals perceived to be critical of the administration from public events where President Bush is present. The policy is laid out in the official Presidential Advance Manual, which includes a section called “Preparing for Demonstrators.”  In that section, the manual directs members of the presidential advance team working at the site of a presidential appearance to “work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jeanne Pahls, Rebecca Wilson, Alma Rosa Silva Banuelos, Carter Bundy, Merimee Moffitt, Laura Lawrence, Stuart T. “Terry” Riley, Mary Lou “Mitzi” Kraft, Jason Call, and the organizations Stop the War Machine and CODEPINK Women for Peace, Albuquerque chapter.
Attorneys in the lawsuit are Catherine Crump, Chris Hansen and Josh Hsu of the national ACLU and George Bach of the ACLU of New Mexico.
The ACLU’s complaint is available online at:www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/33653lgl20080115.html
For more information about the ACLU’s work to protect free speech at presidential events, go to: www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/protest_president.html

###

Related Documents

Protest Complaint

More info about the ACLU's work to protect free speech at presidential events.