ATTORNEY: Woman “tortured” when Santa Fe officer “shoved” her face into ant mound during 2021 arrest • Santa Fe ISD police chief named in lawsuit says allegations don’t tell the whole story A federal lawsuit against the Santa Fe Police Department, a City of Santa Fe Police Officer, and the current chief of the Santa Fe ISD Police Department claims officers used excessive force during an August 2021 arrest. Among the allegations, the lawsuit claims a Santa Fe police officer shoved a Santa Fe mom’s face into a fire ant bed after she was pulled from her car after going the wrong way during student dropoff at RJ Wollam Elementary School. For the department and city’s part, Santa Fe City Manager Alun Thomas says that despite the allegations and an 18-second edited clip from police body cam video, the city is backing its officers and the department’s investigation into the incident. Taylor Rogers was taking her son to school at Santa Fe ISD’s RJ Wollam Elementary School, 3400 Avenue S, on August 19, 2021, when she said she turned into the "buses only" lane of the school. The 33-year-old mother said that’s when someone began "banging on her car," and people started yelling at her. She claims an officer even pulled a gun and pointed it at her as if she was fleeing the scene. "I never left school property," she said. "I didn’t go that far." That’s not what happened, said Santa Fe ISD Police Chief Rueben Espinoza, who is named in the lawsuit and was a sergeant with the ISD police force at the time. “She was fleeing in her vehicle and approaching the front of the school in reverse as elementary kids were arriving to school,” Espinoza said. "This was after two other attempts to block her. I feared she would run someone over, so I used my vehicle to stop her.” Espinoza said he rammed his police vehicle into the one driven by Rogers. That prompted a multiple-officer response. Even the limited video clip released to the media shows several ISD police officers and units on the scene. Walter Braun, then the Santa Fe ISD police chief and now the city’s police chief, is seen in the video watching the arrest. “She was acting very erratic and non-compliant during the whole incident,” Espinoza said. Galveston County criminal court records show that a Galveston Grand Jury indicted Rogers in January 2022 on the charge of evading in a vehicle. Court records show that she pled guilty in exchange for a deferred adjudication sentence, which could remove the conviction from her record if she follows all conditions of her probation. In a lawsuit, initially filed in a Harris County-based federal court but moved to the federal court in Galveston earlier this year, Rogers said she was frightened and confused and continued a short distance until her car was rammed by a Santa Fe ISD police vehicle. Rogers claimed in the lawsuit and said during Saturday's press conference she battles mental illness and said officers failed to recognize her mental struggles. The lawsuit alleges she was pulled from her car, and Santa Fe police Officer Christian Carranza took her to the ground and while she was in cuffs and “hog-tied” her then pushed her face into a fire ant mound while he had her on the ground in cuffs. Rogers’ attorney, Randall Kallinen, said "torture" would be the word to describe what happened. Ants covered Rogers’ face and bit her more than 300 times, he said. An 18-second clip from an officer’s body camera captured one part of the takedown. Rogers is heard screaming in agony, claiming the circulation in her arms is being cut off and that ants are covering her face and biting her. The video released by Rogers’ attorney does not show the officer pushing her head into the ground, but much of the video evidence was not made public. During a press conference outside of the Santa Fe Police Department on Saturday (5/11/2024), Rogers said she spent 2 days in the Galveston County jail on charges of attempting to flee police in a vehicle and was never given proper treatment for any bites. It was only after she was released from jail that she went to an emergency room, she said during the press conference. The Galveston County Jail, however, has a medical staff that is supposed to check all inmates during initial processing and determine if further medical treatment is needed. Allegations about the excessive use of force by police were part of a motion to get recorded statements made by Rogers tossed from her criminal case. According to those records, Judge Patricia Grady rejected the defense motion. Kallinen, flanked by Rogers’ family and two Houston-based former cops turned community activists, called on punishment for the officers involved, including members of the city police department and ISD police force. While saying the video “tells the whole story,” he would not commit to releasing all of the obtained body and dash camera videos of the incident. Santa Fe Police Chief Walter Barun could not be reached for comment, but Santa Fe City Manager Alun Thomas said he backs the officers involved, the department, and the chief’s review of what happened. He said he was satisfied with the internal investigation into the city officers' actions. "We have a process in place and certain standards we expect our officers to meet," Thomas said. "When officers fall short of those standards, appropriate action is taken against them." He said if a court finds that any of his officers overstepped, “appropriate” action would be taken. Thomas said city policy prevented him from commenting further on the case or the lawsuit.

Posted by i45NOW TJ Aulds at 2024-05-11 23:43:05 UTC