Innocent Man Given Forcible 14-Hour Anal Cavity Search, X-Rays, Colonoscopy After Rolling Through A Stop Sign

Police State USA
Nov. 05, 2013

DEMING, NM — A man has filed a lawsuit stating that a traffic stop led to a series of forced medical procedures when a police officer thought he was clenching his butt cheeks. His lawsuit says that without his consent, he was taken to a medical facility and where he was forcibly X-rayed multiple times, sedated, given several enemas, required to give multiple stool samples, subjected to fingers penetrating his anus during multiple cavity searches, followed by an actual colonoscopy where cameras probed his intestines for drugs. The startling 14-hour ordeal failed to find any contraband inside his body.

The incident happened on January 2, 2013, when David Eckert says he had just wrapped up shopping at a Wal-Mart store in Deming. As he pulled out of the parking lot, his vehicle allegedly did not stop completely at the posted stop sign. Deming police promptly stopped his car and began fishing for charges that they could apply to him.

While stopped, Eckert was required to exit the vehicle by police officers intent on searching his car. Police claimed that his seat smelled like narcotics and that his butt cheeks appeared to be clenched.

Eager to get an arrest, police conspired to search Eckert’s anus for contraband. They took him into custody and got a judge to stamp out a search warrant for Eckert’s intestines.

Police were turned away at a Deming emergency room, after a doctor told him that the search was “unethical.” But that jarring statement wouldn’t be enough to sway police officers from seeking another place to violate Eckert’s body in the name of prohibition.

Medical professionals at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City were more than happy to comply with the police in their hunt for drugs. After a few hours, Eckert was admitted to the hospital and a grueling series of examinations began.

According to medical records and the lawsuit examined by KOB4 Eyewitness News, the Eckert’s captors performed the following procedures on him:

Doctors X-rayed Eckert’s abdominal area.

Doctors performed a finger penetration exam of Eckert’s anus.

Doctors performed a finger penetration exam of Eckert’s anus for a second time.

Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.

Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.

Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool.

Doctors then X-rayed Eckert again.

Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.

At no point was any evidence of narcotics found. The humiliating procedures took 14 hours, according to KTVU.

“This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees,” said Shannon Kennedy, the victim’s attorney.

America’s Drug War practices may sound like science fiction but it is indeed a disturbing reality that citizens can be raped by the state — figuratively or literally — in the name of finding drugs. Unfortunately things have sunk that far.

The DOJ’s own definition makes this a very clear case of rape. But somehow a piece of paper signed by a judge makes it a “legal” and acceptable practice.

Rape is: "The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

– U.S. Department of Justice

Any protesting or resisting on the part of the victim could have resulted in the use of violence on him and punishing legal charges. Eckert was forced to endure more than half a day of demented torture because of a suspected victimless crime.

The doctors’ compliance to these disturbing orders reflects the outcome of the Milgram experiment, in which unwitting research participants were able to be convinced by a figure of authority to participate in a staged electrocution of an innocent person. As Stanley Milgram demonstrated in 1961, the vast majority of people can be led to commit atrocities if they believe that the “authorities” compel it. Even respected and educated members of the community will violate a man for hours, if a man with a badge tells them its OK.

The wild-goose chase for drugs in Eckert’s anus is only one of the more visible injustices in a broader menace: the deadly and oppressive War on Drugs. The perpetual quest to stop people from getting high has proven over and over how quickly men can be turned into monsters. Economically, politically, and socially, the Drug War is far worse than problem it purports to solve.
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