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.”
