A 70-year-old woman filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday against the City of Moriarty and Torrance County after being arrested and detained for three days while peacefully protesting outside a gun show in February.
Jill Gatwood, an Albuquerque resident represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, alleges in the lawsuit that she was unlawfully arrested Feb. 22 while holding a handmade sign advocating for restrictions on assault-style weapons on a public sidewalk outside the Moriarty Civic Center.
According to court documents filed in the Seventh Judicial District Court, Moriarty police officers demanded that Gatwood leave after the gun show organizer complained about her presence. The officers claimed she could not remain on the public sidewalk because the gun show had rented the civic center, the lawsuit states.
When Gatwood refused, citing her constitutional right to protest, she was arrested on criminal trespass charges under a city ordinance that court personnel were initially unable to locate and that is not published online, according to the complaint.
Gatwood was held at the Torrance County Detention Facility from Saturday, Feb. 22, through Tuesday, Feb. 25. The lawsuit alleges that during her detention, she was subjected to a strip search that required her to “bend forward, spread her buttocks and cough,” denied prescribed medication including drugs “unsafe to stop taking abruptly,” and kept in solitary confinement.
The complaint states that Gatwood experienced withdrawal symptoms and had a crying spell due to the abrupt discontinuation of her medication. A detention officer then threatened to spray mace in her face if she continued crying, the lawsuit alleges.
Guards also provided food “that smelled and looked like vomit and was inedible,” according to the complaint, and told Gatwood they didn’t release anyone on weekends and didn’t know when she might be freed.
“I chose to protest at the gun show because I wanted to bring my message about gun violence to people who don’t usually hear it,” Gatwood said in a statement released by the ACLU. “I never imagined that exercising my constitutional right to free speech would land me in jail from Saturday through Tuesday.”
A Moriarty municipal court judge dismissed the criminal trespass charge against Gatwood with prejudice on March 5, confirming there was no legal justification for her arrest, the lawsuit states.
“The right to peaceful protest is foundational to our democracy, and what happened to Jill Gatwood should never happen to anyone,” said Lalita Moskowitz, ACLU of New Mexico litigation manager. “She was exercising her most basic constitutional rights on public property.”
The complaint alleges violations of multiple sections of the New Mexico Constitution, including protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, freedom of speech and unlawful detention. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for dignitary harm and emotional distress, attorney fees and other relief to be determined by the court.
Body camera footage from the arrest shows Gatwood holding a yellow sign reading “You NEED an AR-15 if: 1. You are a REALLY BAD SHOT or 2. You want to kill a CLASSROOM FULL OF CHILDREN” and “BRING BACK THE BAN ON ASSAULT-STYLE WEAPONS.”
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Who decided to arrest this woman? What a terrible idea. This will cost the town of Moriarity plenty. The taxpayers, once again, are left holding the bag for stupid police behavior.
“Moriarty police officers demanded that Gatwood leave after the gun show organizer complained about her presence. The officers claimed she could not remain on the public sidewalk because the gun show had rented the civic center, the lawsuit states.”
LOL, they have guns, and yet they’re afraid of a lady holding a sign? She clearly has a right to be on a sidewalk. They had no reason to arrest her. The judge made the right decision.
I was there, she protested on private property and stood in front of the door, in effect blocking my right to enter the property. The officer, numerous times, asked her to move her protest to the public sidewalk, she refused to move. This was an obvious set-up, she was prepped on how she should protest and purposely pushed the officer to arrest her, the lone protestor who drove from her home in Albuquerque all the way to Moriarty to make her point. The Governor shut down gun shows at the State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque, they obviously are looking for a way to shut down a lawful gun show in the East Mountains.
Jill Gatwood’s treatment at the hands of Moriarty’s police is shameful, to say the least. I hope she wins a huge settlement and that the city fires the arresting officers and the jail staffers who treated her so badly.
And Praying in front of an Abortion clinic will get you two yeaars.
No it won’t. Blocking access to people seeking health care, however, that can get you arrested.
Thank you!
Laws in the United States
At the federal level in the United States, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), makes it an offense to use intimidation or physical force – such as forming a blockade – in order to prevent a person from entering a facility which provides reproductive healthcare or a place of worship. The law also creates specific penalties for destroying, or causing damage to, either of these types of building.
In the United States, three states (CO, MA, MT) have passed “buffer zone” legislation, which can create either a “fixed” area around a medical facility or a “floating” area around patients and staff.
False. Stop lying.
Stop lying, praying won’t get you arrested. Holding signs won’t get you arrested. Blocking access will, and should, get you arrested. Getting in someone’s face and screaming at them will, and should get you arrested. That is assault. Again, stop lying. You mention praying, so I am going to assume you are religious and therefore should be familiar with the Ninth Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). STOP LYING.
Another lying trumper. Blocking access is preying not praying.
Wow! 3 days jail for exercising one’s Constitutional rights. Thank God for judges who read the law. Torrence County and Moriarty following the trumper circus just rolling over our rights. Cops are probably rejects from other departments. Can’t believe a correction officer would threaten mace to a 70 year old for expressing emotion. That’s like telling a child to stop crying and threatening to spank him if he doesn’t.
Hope the jury awards a million in punitive damages.
It’s a public side walk. They violated the law and I hope she sues them.
SHE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW AN AR-15 FROM A K! GREAT UNINFORMED PROTESTER.
yea…that’s the problem.
Good for her! She was demonstrating for a good cause and had the Constitutional right to do so.
If Gatwood thought that that crowd has not heard her anti-gun agenda before, she is apparently mentally ill.