×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

ACLU claims MPD illegally detained immigrant

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Dec 18, 2019

CONCORD – Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire allege Merrimack police officers in August illegally detained two Guatemalan men, supposedly holding them at the scene of a motor vehicle stop for more than an hour until federal agents arrived.

The suit was filed on behalf of Willy Fernando Godoy-Ramirez, who ACLU attorneys state in their complaint was subjected to “prolonged seizure and detention” in violation of the Fourth Amendment when police “held him for approximately 60 to 75 minutes until federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took him into custody.”

The suit, which names as defendants the town of Merrimack and police Officer Haley Ash, master patrolman John Dudash and Sgt. Richard McKenzie, includes a demand for a jury trial, according to the suit.

Merrimack Police Chief Denise Roy couldn’t be reached Tuesday evening for comment.

The driver of the car, Julio Cesar Ramirez Lopez, who is Godoy-Ramirez’s uncle, and his nephew were returning to their motel room from a construction site where they worked installing siding, when their car began experiencing mechanical problems, the suit states.

Lopez slowed down, turned on the four-way flashers and pulled into the breakdown lane. Ash pulled up behind the car, the suit states, and asked the driver for identification.

But she also allegedly asked Godoy-Ramirez for identification, even though, according to the ACLU, he “was only a passenger,” and “there was no reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that (he) committed a crime or a motor vehicle violation. There was also no reasonable concern for officer safety,” according to the suit.

By asking Godoy-Ramirez for identification, the officers “began to prolong the detention” of Godoy-Ramirez “based solely on the suspicion that he was not documented.”

While they were being detained, the men “were nervous and confused,” the suit states, and alleges that Dudash “assured them not to worry … “ but also “told them to stay in the vehicle and not move,” according to the suit.

In the meantime, the suit states, Ash contacted ICE personnel, and an agent who eventually showed up asked Godoy-Ramirez if he had the proper documents. Godoy-Ramirez said no, according to the suit, so the agent “concluded that he was in the U.S. illegally.”

The agent handcuffed both men, the suit states.

Once in ICE custody, the suit alleges, Godoy-Ramirez was detained for 65 days. A federal judge eventually freed him on a $12,000 bond “during the pendency of his immigration case,” the suit states.

The ACLU said Godoy-Ramirez is in the process of seeking asylum from his native country, where a criminal trafficking and kidnapping organization “threatened and abused him … and murdered his father.”

The suit is the third of its kind the ACLU-NH has brought against police agencies in New Hampshire since June, when it settled a suit against the town of Exeter for just under $40,000 for allegedly “detaining and holding an immigrant for ICE … .”

In August, the ACLU settled a suit against the town of Northwood for $12,500, after police arrested a man on suspicion he was in the U.S. unlawfully – although, according to the ACLU, he was in the country legally.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *