On January 2, David W. Eckert was stopped by police in Deming, NM for running a stop sign.

What happened next is extremely difficult to comprehend.

Deming Police Officer Robert Chavez had Eckert exit his vehicle, and patted him down. A lawsuit filed by Eckert says this was “without reasonable suspicion.” According to court documents, the officers who stopped Eckert thought he was “clenching his buttocks.”

They brought in a dog to sniff for drugs, and the dog “alerted” to the driver’s seat.

Two deputies from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department told Chavez that Eckert was known to insert drugs into his body, a claim Eckert denies.

The Albuquerque Journal reports, “Though he was not under arrest during the January incident, Eckert was placed in handcuffs and taken to the Deming Police Department… officers obtained a warrant to search Eckert’s car and his body, including his anal cavity.”

Eckert was taken to the Mimbres Memorial Hospital, but the emergency room doctor at Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming refused to conduct the cavity search on ethical grounds, so he was transported an hour away to the Gila Regional Medical Center.

He was then submitted to eight invasive procedures, and protested each one insisting he was not hiding drugs.

Eckert’s abdominal area was X-rayed; no narcotics were found. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found. Doctors then X-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy – where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

After 15 hours and eight non-consensual procedures (six of which border on rape), Eckert was released without charge. To add insult to injury, Gila Regional Medical Center billed Eckert approximately $6,000 for the procedures that he did not want, and to which he did not consent.

Eckert has since filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Deming, three Deming police officers, Hidalgo County, three Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies, the Assistant District Attorney, Gila Regional Medical Center and two doctors at the facility.

The suit asks for non-specified actual and compensatory damages, punitive damages, “injunctive relief” to protect Eckert and his family from “ongoing harassment and intimidation of defendants,” and attorney fees and litigation expenses.

It is now up to a federal judge to determine whether or not Eckert will receive any restitution, or even an apology, for the insult and injury he received at the hands of those who swore to serve and protect.