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Civil suit filed against Roosevelt County sheriff

PORTALES — A Portales attorney on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker and the Roosevelt County Commission, citing civil rights violations in a 2016 pursuit that left one woman dead.

The complaint — filed by attorney Eric Dixon on behalf of Elisa Hernandez, mother of the late Irisema Hernandez, 33 — accuses Parker of negligence, aggravated assault and battery, vicarious liability, and three other counts in an August 2016 pursuit.

Irisema Hernandez was killed after her friend Eduardo Lopez swerved and hit a tree while fleeing sheriff’s deputies.

The lawsuit claims Parker knowingly disregarded his department’s policies on safety and hazardous driving in favor of pursuing Irisema Hernandez and Lopez.

“The complaint for civil rights violations alleges excessive force and other claims as a result of the vehicle Ms. Hernandez was a passenger in being forced off rain slick poorly maintained rural highways on August 31st, 2016,” Dixon wrote in an email on Monday.

“Ms. Hernandez was not a danger to the public and was attempting to get the driver of the vehicle to pull over when the vehicle was forced off the road,” he wrote.

In an email Monday afternoon, County Attorney Randy Knudson called Dixon’s claims “frivolous,” and stated the county will defend itself “vigorously.”

“Filings such as this waste the taxpayers precious money,” Knudson wrote.

The lawsuit is not the only instance of Dixon pursuing action against the sheriff in 2017; a petition seeking a recall of Parker was stopped by a district court judge in July.

Dixon submitted the petition on behalf of Elisa Hernandez and two criminal defendants, and was denied by Judge Fred Van Soelen for coming close to “being, as far as I can tell, either a harassment measure or a personal vendetta.”

 
 
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