A trial date could be set later this month in a civil rights lawsuit against former Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell and a current deputy.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month in a 14-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty denied a defense motion for partial judgment in a case involving allegations that Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s deputy Adam Alcon used excessive force during a routine traffic stop.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs, Jami Larson and husband Jonathon Boyd, also claim that Spruell failed to properly train Alcon.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff\u2019s attorney, Douglas J. Reynolds of Durango, said the court\u2019s May 12 decision allows the civil rights complaint, including excessive use of force and unlawful arrest claims, to proceed. A scheduling conference has been set for May 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, we expect a schedule to be put together, including a possible trial date,\u201d said Reynolds.<\/p>\n
Reynolds anticipates future discovery proceedings aimed at gathering evidence.<\/p>\n
Reynolds added that the plaintiffs agreed to withdraw a claim of malicious prosecution against Alcon, saying it was duplicative of an unlawful arrest claim. Reynolds said the personal claim against Spruell for failing to train Alcon may also move forward.<\/p>\n
In a separate six-page ruling, the court did grant a defense request this month to separate tLarson\u2019s and Boyd\u2019s allegations against Alcon, the sheriff\u2019s office and Spruell.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing this, the court is saying they aren\u2019t going to allow us to conduct discovery or pursue the claims against the sheriff\u2019s office as an entity until the claims against Alcon and Spruell personally have been decided,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
Filed last summer, the 10-page civil rights lawsuit alleges that Larson\u2019s and Boyd\u2019s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights were violated after a traffic stop on June 10, 2013. The complaint states that \u201cincompetent\u201d and \u201cheavily armed\u201d deputies used \u201cexcessive force\u201d under Spruell\u2019s direct supervision.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Alcon wrestled Larson to the ground three times after the traffic stop and held Boyd at gunpoint before both were handcuffed. After being taken to the jail, the complaint alleges Larson and Boyd waited more than 15 and 12 hours, respectively, before being processed and booked.<\/p>\n
All charges against Larson \u2013 resisting arrest, obstructing governmental operations, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and failure to display valid registration were dismissed by prosecutors two days after the traffic stop.<\/p>\n
All charges against Boyd \u2013 obstructing governmental operations and possession of a weapon by a previous offender \u2013 were also dismissed two days after the traffic stop.<\/p>\n
As sheriff, Spruell denied any wrongdoing. He served one term in office before losing a re-election bid last fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spruell, deputy named as defendants in excessive force claims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1175,13,237,525],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-112269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-civil-rights","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county-government","tag-trials"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112269"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}