Routine traffic stop results in nightmare 14-hour anal cavity search at hospital for male driver who 'failed to halt at stop sign'

• David Eckert was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign in Deming, New Mexico
• Police allege that Eckert appeared to be 'clenching his buttocks' and believed he was hiding drugs in his anus
• Officers obtained a search warrant and took him to a hospital in a neighboring county
• Eckert is suing the police and the hospital saying multiple searches were invasive and violated his civil rights
• Hospital billed him for procedures they performed against his will and threatened to turn a collections agency on him
• No drugs were ever found

A New Mexico man stopped for rolling through a stop sign earlier this year was subjected to a nightmarish 14-hour anal cavity search after police became suspicious that he was hiding drugs.

David Eckert says he was subjected to three enemas, two rectal searches, two x-rays and even a colonoscopy - all in pursuit of non-existent narcotics. 

After it was done, the hospital that performed all the procedures against his will even billed him - and threatened to hire a collections agency if he didn't pay, he alleges.

Now, he is suing the police officers who held him against his will and the doctors who performed the invasion procedures.

The hospital in question and police have refused to comment on the lawsuit.

KOB-TV reports that Mr Eckert was pulled over on January 2 as he was pulled out of the Walmart in Deming, New Mexico. Officers say he failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign.

They asked Mr Eckert to get out of his car. When he stood, an officer claims, he was clenching the cheeks of his buttocks - which the officer believed was a sign he was hiding drugs.

That single observation kicked off the horrific cavity searches that kept Mr Eckert in captivity for 14 hours.

'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, then anyone can be seized and that's why the public needs to know about this,' Mr Eckert's lawyer, civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy, told the TV station.

After officers noticed Mr Eckert's posture, they called a drug dog, which indicated a small on narcotics on Mr Eckert's driver seat.

A search of the car revealed no drugs.

So, officers held him until a judge issued a warrant authorizing a body cavity search.

First officers took him to Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming, but doctors there said the procedures police were requesting were 'unethical' for them to perform, according to court documents.

Then, the officers him across county lines to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City. Kennedy argues in the lawsuit that transporting Mr Eckert to another county violated the terms of the search warrant and made the entire search illegal.

Once at Gila Medical Center, according to the lawsuit, doctors put Mr Eckert through several hours of invasive, humiliating searches.

The lawsuit claims that Mr Eckert vocally objected to each search, but doctors performed the procedures anyway at the request of doctors.

At the hospital, doctors probed his rectum with their fingers. When they didn't find anything, he was given an X-ray.

When the X-ray came up negative, he was probed again.

Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante said his officers always act within the bounds of the law

Then, he was given an enema and forced to defecate in front of the doctors and police officers and watch as they sifted through his stool.

Doctors then performed a second and third enema. None of the enemas discovered drugs.

He was then X-rayed for a second time.

After the final, X-ray he was sedated and given a colonoscopy, a complex medical procedure that involved the doctors inserting a camera into his anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines.

Finally, after 2am, when the colonoscopy came up negative, he was released without charges, according to the lawsuit.

Read more:

• KOB-TV: 4 On Your Side investigates traffic stop nightmare

Song:

GWAR (X-Cops) "Cavity Search"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXPLr7l1ftY

Lyrics:

It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it
So open up your ass so I can look into it
'Cause you never know what you're gonna find
When you ram your fist up a person's behind

Cavity Search on the side of the road
I'm almost positive I'm breaking a code
But I'm the one who's in control
It's my job to search your hole

With a rubber glove pulled on my fist
I search your every orifice
Probing you with icy tools
I search for drugs and stir your stools

Cavity Search on the side of the road
I'm almost positive I'm breaking a code
But I am here to protect the souls
Of the people who pay me to look up prisoners holes
So drop 'em
Spread 'em wide
This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me

It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it
So open up your ass so I can look into it
'Cause you never know what you're gonna find
When you ram your fist up a person's behind

Cavity search by the side of the road
I know damn well that I'm breaking a code
But I am here to protect the souls
Of the people who pay me to look up your hole