Hobbs Police Beat Down Another Black Man. Cop with Racist Brutality Past is the Arresting Officer

(BrownWatch) On October 4, 2004 Ross Lee Mackey, a Black man, age 26,  was arrested and allegedly beaten by Hobbs police officers  (New Mexico). Detectives Carter and Rodney Porter went to Mackey's house to question him about his whereabouts during a shooting that had taken place in the neighborhood.  After a brief interrogation in front of his mother's house, the police announced that they would be back later that day to arrest him.

Specifically Detective Carter asked him where he was when a homicide occurred and whether he knew what happened. Mackey responded that he was in the street when he heard four gun shots fired and that he fell to the ground for safety. At that point in the interrogation, Detective Porter allegedly interrupted Mackey and said "I don't have to listen to this crap. We will be back for your arrest".

When the officers returned later that day, they slammed him to the ground head first, kneed him in the back and stepped on his neck. Police held him in this position for at least 30 minutes. According to Mackey and witnesses Mackey did not resist arrest and he had voluntarily submitted himself to the police. When Mackey asked police why they were doing this Detective Porter said "you're a drug dealer."

As this police beating was taking place a truckload of men wearing black masks raided his family's house with their weapons drawn. Mackey's nine year old niece and older sister were in the house when the police broke in. According to Mackey, the Hobbs police never produced a search warrant and never identified themselves as police.

Mackey explained  "I asked them ' Do you have a warrant'  I was ignored and suffered numerous indignities both verbally and physically for my question.  About 30 minutes later I was picked up from the dirt and brought inside my moms house and taken up first to the bathroom by detective Carter and told to strip. A black masked officer came into the bathroom and said never mind we found the dope. I was never asked if what they found was mine or not.  I was taken to my mothers sofa where the task force and Detectives Carter and Porter sat around and told me that I was going to do a life sentence.  Then they told me that they were going to turn me over to the Feds(which they did).  I asked Detective Walker of the Hobbs Police Force if it was standard procedure to be dumped on my head the way Detective Carter and Porter did me. Detective Walker said this was acceptable only if I resisted.  I told him that I did not resist, He told me, ?then no, they should not have used excessive force. Detective Walker told me this while he was using my mother's exercise machine."

Mackey said that he has injuries on his back, neck and legs and that he is in constant pain. Mackey is being held without bond at Otero County Prison on a drug possession charge. He has been placed in solitary confinement in the prison.

Arresting Officer has a History of Police Brutality Claims Against him

One of the arresting officers, Detective Rodney Porter is no stranger to police brutality or racial discrimination claims. On August 24, 2004 a court awarded Jimmie Marshall, a 58 year old Black man $580,000 for police brutality claims he brought against Porter and the City of Hobbs. Specifically, Porter took a blood sample from him without his permission and without a warrant following a Dec. 26, 1996, traffic stop. Marshall claimed Porter only tried to stop him after determining Marshall was black and then used a racial slur during the arrest -- a claim Porter denied. The jury awarded Marshall $390,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for Porter's actions (the remainder was for the liability of another officer's actions).[more]

Before working for the Dobbs police force Porter worked for the Midland (Texas) Police Department. Officer Porter was forced to resign from the Midland police force after an internal investigation uncovered evidence of serious misconduct. Midland documents show an extensive pattern of misconduct and violation of citizens' constitutional rights by Officer Porter when he was on the Midland force. These documents provide evidence that in more than thirty cases, Officer Porter falsely charged arrestees with possession of narcotics, seriously mishandled narcotics evidence, or both.  These criminal cases largely targeted Black and Hispanic suspects.
[more] and  [more]

Further, in other cases, Officer Porter was accused of planting evidence on arrestees, as well as using evidence to barter for sexual favors.  According to the documents, Officer Porter denied the charges until after failing a polygraph test, when he admitted mishandling evidence.

The internal investigation concluded that Officer Porter's "credibility, integrity, and honesty have been impeached."  Memo. from Deputy Chief John Urby to Chief Richard Czech dated Aug. 22, 1995, at 1, App. at 204.  Deputy Chief Urby wrote, "Officer Porter failed to recognize that . . . he also had the responsibility of insuring that the rights of citizens were not violated."  By the end of the investigation, even a good friend and staunch supporter of Officer Porter had concluded that "[t]hese acts leave us with no alternative except termination.  Any other decision would make us guilty of negligent retention." Memo. from Lt. Jerry Compton to Deputy Chief John Urby dated Aug. 22, 1995, at 2, App. at 203.  

In a memo from then-Chief Richard Czech to Officer Porter, Porter was told: "I cannot express in any terms the seriousness of this violation. Your trust as a police officer [is] to treat people fairly and equally under the law and under the constitution and as far as this police department is concerned you have violated these rights.  You violated the very laws that you have been intrusted and sworn to uphold.  You have breached the integrity of this Department and your credibility and honesty is to be questioned.  As a result of your misconduct I am terminating your employment effective immediately. Memo. from Chief Richard Czech to Officer Rodney Porter dated Aug. 23, 1995, at 2, App. at 201.
             
A review of Officer Porter's arrest reports on cases where he had not logged in drug evidence shows that an overwhelming number of the suspects were black.  Most of the rest were Hispanic surnamed.  Virtually all were stopped for minor traffic violations such as seat belts, failing to signal a turn, failing to stop at a stop sign, or making a wide turn so as to touch the stripe of the other lane.  Also, in many [cases] Porter either claimed to have secured consent or went ahead and conducted searches anyway. [more]

In the case brought against him by Hobbs resident Jimme Miller (2003, discussed above) to explain his misconduct on the Midland Police force Porter said he took evidence, such as crack cocaine, home with him, instead of placing it into police files, and then lied about it when confronted by superiors because he was afraid of losing his job.

Porter said attention deficit disorder was the primary factor in his sloppy police work in Midland. ''Attention deficit disorder has been a problem with me my whole life,'' Porter testified under questioning by Marshall's attorney Robert Gorence. ''It's not an excuse for what happened in Midland, but it's an explanation.'' [more]

Porter Previously Harrassed Mackey's Uncle
Curiously, in 2000 Porter and several other officers were accused of the wrongful arrest and harassment of Chris Mackey. Chris Mackey is Ross Lee Mackey's uncle. Mackey was sued over an arrest in December 1998 and over other cases in which he was stopped or detained by police. Chris Mackey testified that he had been stopped or detained 50 to 70 times by Hobbs police - most of the time while riding home from work late at night on his bicycle.

In December 1998, Mackey stopped on his bicycle to witness a detainment of some friends, and police arrested him after he refused orders to get off the street, according to testimony.

Testimony at trial established that police tackled Mackey after he pointed at Rhoads' badge and challenged the officer's authority to arrest him for observing what was going on. Mackey was accused of kicking an officer as police put him in a squad car. The jury awarded Mackey $16,942 his legal bill in the criminal case, in which he was acquitted. [more]

Porter's previous history with Chris Mackey leads to reasonable speculation as to whether Porter had targeted Ross Lee Mackey for arrest.

In 2000 along with several other officers, Porter was also accused of "malicious prosecution" for continually attempting to get a prosecutor to pursue charges against Michael Hodge, a black man.

The Hobbs Police Force has a History of Racial Discrimination

Moreover, as a result of a class action lawsuit against the Dobbs Police Department for racial discrimination and police brutality against Black and Latino residents, the Department has been under court order.[more]

On June 19, 2004 in an opinion highly critical of the Hobbs Police Department, a federal judge ordered the department to self-monitor its officers' contacts with racial minorities for another year. Self-monitoring was part of a settlement reached in 2001 in a class-action lawsuit alleging Hobbs officers discriminated against the city's black residents. The self-monitoring was scheduled to end June 14, 2004.  U.S. District Chief Judge Martha Vazquez ordered its continuation, criticizing the Hobbs Police Department's "substantial non-compliance for a significant portion" of the agreement's term. She cited cases that showed "potential improper police conduct" that should have triggered an internal affairs review, but didn't. One case involved an officer who struck and broke the leg of a woman who, handcuffed and sitting on a curb, attempted to stand.

However, Vazquez did not grant the plaintiffs' main request to sanction the police department or tighten the agreement's terms. Vazquez ruled that she construed the stipulated agreement as a contract, which she did not have the authority to modify. According to the 2001 settlement, Hobbs police agreed to compile race-based data on arrests, investigative detentions and uses of force by officers for three years to allow a monitor, the plaintiffs and the department to identify potentially discriminatory conduct. The 23-page opinion by Vazquez pointed to more than 20 apparent violations of the stipulated agreement. Vazquez's ruling noted that Hobbs police data show blacks are "being arrested, subjected to force and subjected to investigative detentions in numbers significantly greater than" the percentage of black residents in the city. [more] ACLU attorneys Richard Rosenstock and Daniel Yohalem argue that police data show the disparate treatment of black Hobbs residents has "grown, not lessened" since the settlement was signed.

While blacks make up about 7 percent of Hobbs residents, they represent on average 15 percent of those subjected to field interviews by Hobbs police, more than 16 percent of those arrested, and more than 21 percent of those arrested for resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.

In addition, Hispanics and blacks make up over 77 percent of those arrested for resisting, evading or obstructing an officer a charge the ACLU says is highly discretionary and often grows out of an overreaction to a citizen's lawful verbal challenge to an officer's authority. [more]

The stipulated agreement stemmed from a 1999 class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of Hobbs' black residents, alleged that Blacks were subjected to excessive force, warrantless searches and false charges.

The settlement, signed in June 2001, required the Hobbs Police Department to improve internal reporting procedures, the investigation of officer misconduct, training and disciplinary procedures. In addition, Hobbs police agreed to collect racial data on arrests, searches, field stops for questioning, and incidents in which police used force on civilians.

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Ross Lee Mackey Needs an attorney. Contact him here ---  Dawson11m@aol.com

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