{"id":27728,"date":"2024-05-11T16:03:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T22:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/veteran-files-civil-complaint-against-city-first-responders\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:09:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:09:42","slug":"veteran-files-civil-complaint-against-city-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/veteran-files-civil-complaint-against-city-first-responders\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran files civil complaint against city, first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Marc
Marc McIlrath, 62, of Farmington claims he was unlawfully arrested in November 2023, after first responders forced him into an ambulance and took him to the hospital.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington man filed a civil complaint against the city of Farmington, the police department, fire department, San Juan Regional Medical Center and the San Juan County Detention Center claiming he was assaulted, battered, kidnapped and unlawfully arrested.<\/p>\n

Marc McIlrath, 62, is a decorated military veteran. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in May 2021, leaving him on \u201cmedication to control the effects of the injury,\u201d which includes convulsions, seizures, memory loss and other symptoms, according to attorney Arlon Stoker, who represents McIlrath in the complaint filed May 6 in the 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

McIlrath was arrested Nov. 18, 2023, and booked into the San Juan County Detention Center. He was charged with battery on a health care worker, a charge that was dismissed Jan. 23, because of \u201cinsufficient evidence,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n

The charges were in connection to an Oct. 28, 2023, incident at his home in the 4100 block of Rowe Avenue. Police were called to the scene, because according to the affidavit for arrest warrant McIlrath \u201chad a history of being rough with medical professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a review of court records showed this was the first time McIlrath was charged with a criminal offense.<\/p>\n

Dispatch had called medics to McIlrath\u2019s home because he \u201chad fallen on the ground after coming back up his driveway from fetching his mail,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Medics claimed \u201cthey made numerous attempts to wake him up until they were able to get him sightly alert and he fell unconscious again,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

McIlrath\u2019s claim states that he \u201cregained consciousness and went into his house, indicating that he would be all right and did not want or need further medical treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The affidavit states \u201ca doctor at the San Juan Regional Medical Center made a directive for EMS to transport him to the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlrath \u201cprotested,\u201d stating \u201che did not want to be transported to the hospital and that he would be OK at home,\u201d the civil claim states.<\/p>\n

McIlrath reportedly told the them that \u201cthe last time he was taken to the ER he was stranded there without a way to get home and he did not want to go through that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

EMS and the police reportedly ignored McIlrath\u2019s pleas to stay home, instead calling a supervisor \u201cto coax him on the stretcher that medics had moved into the residence,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Police officers claim that when \u201cmedics tried to help him to the stretcher, Marc grabbed a medic, identified as Mechelle Begaye, by the wrist and twisted it upward,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Begaye, then, reportedly asked to have charges filed against McIlrath.<\/p>\n

McIlrath, however, states through his attorney Arlon Stoker that \u201cBegaye grabbed him by the arm, attempting to place him on the stretcher,\u201d and that McIlrath \u201cforcibly removed Defendant Begaye\u2019s hand from his arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlrath continued to \u201cstruggle\u201d and \u201cresist\u201d going to the ER, as \u201cEMTs attempted to forcibly place him on a stretcher,\u201d the civil complaint states.<\/p>\n

Then, \u201che was overpowered\u201d by firefighters, EMTs and Police Officers Dustin Hall and J. Prince and \u201cwas taken to the SJRMC emergency where he was required to stay until released,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n

McIlrath\u2019s complaint further states that he was held in the emergency room \u201cfor almost three hours without receiving medical attention,\u201d before released and made to walk home.<\/p>\n

The complaint further claims that San Juan Regional was negligent and \u201cfailed to train and supervise EMTs and employees, \u201ccausing injury to\u201d McIlrath.<\/p>\n

After being released from the hospital, police arrested McIlrath and took him to the San Juan County Detention Center, where \u201ccorrections officers knowingly and with deliberate indifference failed to provide him with medical treatment and deprived him of medication necessary to treat\u201d his symptoms of TBI, Stoker wrote in the civil complaint.<\/p>\n

Without his medication, McIlrath reportedly experienced \u201challucination and seizures while wrongfully incarcerated,\u201d the complain claims.<\/p>\n

Stoker in the complaint states that all of this constitutes a \u201cdeprivation\u201d of McIlrath\u2019s civil rights,\u201d and therefore he requests his client be awarded damages, including attorney fees and costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McIlrath claims he was battered, kidnapped and unlawfully arrested<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27728","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=27728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80179,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27728\/revisions\/80179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27728"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}