Feds charge Jal police officers with deprivation of civil rights

Two Jal police officers and a former officer are awaiting trial after a federal indictment charged them with deprivation of civil rights in 2021.

Officers Corey Patrick Saffell, 34, and Ceasar Enrique Mendoza, 28, are charged with violating the civil rights of an unidentified man between July 30 and July 31, 2021, along with former Jal officer Robert Edward Embly, aka “Eddie.”

All three face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.

Their indictment doesn’t offer details, but the Hobbs-News Sun reported that on that same night in 2021 a San Antonio, Texas, man was arrested by Jal police and died in custody after being tased about 12 times.

Neither the Jal police chief nor the Jal city manager returned Journal requests for information about the incident and a reported $5 million payout in late 2022 by the city on an excessive force claim brought by the estate of Hector Nava, 45, of San Antonio, Texas.

According to the Hobbs News-Sun, Nava appeared suspicious while driving around a local gas station without his truck’s headlights on when Jal police tried to detain him near midnight on July 30, 2021. After a police pursuit, Nava reportedly resisted arrest and was subdued after officers repeatedly tased him. He later died in a holding cell at the Jal Police Department.

The three defendants were released pending trial after a hearing in U.S. Magistrate Court in Las Cruces on Jan. 26.

The city of Jal, about 40 miles from the Texas-New Mexico line, settled a tort claim for wrongful death for $5 million in late 2022, the News-Sun reported. The claim was brought by Nava’s estate.

The then-city manager, Matt White, was quoted as saying that the police department’s officers were re-trained in use of the taser and de-escalation of incidents after Nava’s death.