Clovis man wins appeal to sue former police officer

CLOVIS — A Clovis man injured during a 2014 traffic stop has won an appeal allowing him to sue a former Clovis police officer for what he contends was an unlawful arrest.

The decision, released Tuesday from the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, will allow Jorge Corona to seek damages for a broken cheekbone suffered in his arrest by then-officer Brent Aguilar.

According to court documents:

• Corona was a back-seat passenger in a vehicle pulled over by Aguilar for running a red light.

• Corona repeatedly asked Aguilar why he stopped the vehicle as the driver searched for her license. Aguilar twice asked Corona for his identification, to which Corona said no and again asked why Aguilar stopped them. Aguilar asked a third time for identification, and asked Corona to step out of the car.

• After Corona exited the vehicle, Aguilar handcuffed him and told him not to worry about why the vehicle was pulled over.

• Officer Travis Loomis arrived on the scene, and was told Corona was being arrested for concealing identity. Corona repeatedly denied the allegation as he was led to the patrol car, and was eventually slammed to the ground and told, “Now you are under arrest for resisting and evading too.”

• Aguilar filed a criminal complaint charging Corona with concealing identity and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. The district attorney’s office dismissed the first charge, and a jury acquitted Corona on the second.

• Corona filed suit against Aguilar and Loomis in their official capacity as officers, along with the city and the police department, after the CPD declined to pay for his associated medical bills.

• Aguilar appealed, arguing he was entitled to qualified immunity because in his view a reasonable officer could have believed probable cause existed to arrest Corona. A federal court denied Aguilar’s claim, and the circuit court upheld that decision.

It noted Aguilar could ask passengers for identification during a traffic stop, but he can’t arrest anybody who refuses unless “reasonable suspicion of some predicate, underlying crime” is present.

“The facts known to Defendant Aguilar when he demanded identification,” the ruling reads, “were insufficient to give rise to a particularized and objective basis for suspecting Plaintiff had committed any offense or was engaging in criminal activity.”

The court conceded Corona’s repetitive questioning about why the traffic stop was being conducted could “fairly be characterized as rude and insolent,” but countered the activity did not constitute resistance or abuse of an officer.

“We can now have our day in court,” Corona attorney Dan Lindsey said, “and submit this horrible event to a jury and hopefully get Jorge’s medical bills paid.”

City officials declined comment on the litigation.