Cops force man in cage, tase him and drag his ‘limp’ body into NM jail cell, feds say
A federal jury found two former police officers guilty of violating the civil rights of a man who died in a New Mexico jail cell, after he was pulled over and tased 14 times, prosecutors said.
The man was stopped by another officer, Corey Patrick Saffell, because he was driving without headlights in Jal on July 31, 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico. Jal is about a 350-mile drive southeast from Albuquerque, near the Texas border.
While he was pulled over at a Pilot Gas Station, two additional officers, Ceasar Enrique Mendoza and Robert Edward Embly, arrived and joined Saffell, prosecutors said. Saffell, Mendoza and Embly were on-duty as Jal Police Department officers.
According to prosecutors,“the situation quickly escalated” when Saffell accused the man, identified as “John Doe,” of showing him a fake ID.
The officers are then accused of handcuffing the man and forcing him “into a small cage” with a barking dog inside Safell’s K9 unit.
When he struggled to fit inside the cage, Mendoza started tasing him, according to prosecutors, as Saffell shouted to continue using the taser.
Mendoza tased the man 13 times, prosecutors said.
Afterward, the officers moved the man to the backseat of Embly’s patrol car, according to prosecutors.
“He was tased a 14th time,” prosecutors said.
Then the man was taken to jail, where the officers dragged “his limp, unconscious body into a cell,” according to prosecutors.
The man, who was described as acting compliant while being detained, was later found without a pulse and pronounced dead, prosecutors said.
The jury’s verdict
Following a seven-day trial, Mendoza, 28, and Embly, 43, were each convicted of three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law: unreasonable force, failure to intervene and deliberate indifference to the man’s serious medical need, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 28 news release.
Russell Dean Clark, Mendoza’s criminal defense attorney, said in a statement to McClatchy News on March 3 that “this case was the federal government at its worst.”
“I fought this case with both hands tied behind my back,” Clark said. “I look forward to it coming back in appeal.”
“America should be ashamed of this one,” Clark added.
Nicholas T. Hart, one of the attorneys representing Embly, expressed a similar sentiment in a statement on his conviction, which came after the jury deliberated for about 13 hours, according to prosecutors.
“This conviction is based on a series of lies and misrepresentations by the government,” Hart told McClatchy News via email on March 3.
“Mr. Embly, and the other officers, had nothing to do with Mr. Nava’s death,” Hart said. “Yet Mr. Embly was prohibited from presenting that evidence to the jury.”
“Mr. Embly looks forward to correcting this injustice on appeal,” Hart added.
Federal public defenders representing Saffell didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment.
On Sept. 10, Saffell pleaded guilty to three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law: unlawful arrest, failure to intervene and deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The man’s jail death
Before the man was taken to jail, Saffell, Mendoza and Embly failed to monitor him after he was tased 14 times, “as they were trained to do,” according to prosecutors.
At the jail, the officers dragged him into a cell and laid him on his stomach, prosecutors said. He was still in handcuffs.
Saffell, Mendoza and Embly didn’t get the man medical help until it was too late, according to prosecutors.
“Despite John Doe’s deteriorating condition, including appearing unconscious and having urinated on himself, the men did not seek medical attention,” prosecutors said.
They later sought medical attention when the man was no longer breathing and didn’t have a pulse, according to prosecutors.
Then, “life-saving measures” were initiated by officers until he was declared dead at 1:15 a.m. July 31, 2021, prosecutors said.
In Hart’s statement, in which he denied the officers being responsible for the man’s death, Hart said the man “died of a drug overdose.”
A coroner determined the man, 45-year-old Hector Nava, died of a drug overdose, the Hobbs News-Sun reported. Nava was from San Antonio, Texas, according to the newspaper.
In 2022, the city of Jal reached a $5 million settlement with Nava’s family in connection with his death, the newspaper reported.
Mendoza, Embly and Saffell were released on certain conditions ahead of sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Dates for the former officers’ sentencing hearings weren’t listed in court records the afternoon of March 3.
Jal Police Department Police Chief Mauricio Valeriano didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment March 3.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Cops force man in cage, tase him and drag his ‘limp’ body into NM jail cell, feds say."
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