Gaylord settles police racial profiling lawsuit

After years of disputing allegations that police officers heavily targeted Latinos for traffic and other stops, town officials in Gaylord have agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars to a Mexican immigrant who sued the city over her treatment by police.

To settle a federal lawsuit, the town of Gaylord and Sibley County agreed in January to pay $20,000 each to Jesus Manuela Mendoza Sierra, who claimed in a federal lawsuit that officers from the town and county unlawfully detained and arrested her and searched her home without a warrant.

"I was pretty confident that there was some selective policing before this lawsuit, and this reinforces that," said Ian Bratlie, an American Civil Liberties lawyer who helped file the lawsuit on Mendoza's behalf.

For years, Gaylord officials disputed allegations from Latinos that local police heavily targeted minorities for traffic and other stops — in a town where Latinos account for, at most, a quarter of the population of about 2,300. In a 2008 investigation, MPR News found that Gaylord police disproportionately issued tickets to Latino drivers.

Bratlie said the ACLU was looking for a case to take to court because of complaints that had come in. The civil rights group had also used a data practices request to get a look at ticket information and dash cam video of more than 500 traffic stops in Gaylord, about 50 miles southwest of the Twin Cities.

"Something like 60 percent of the stops were of Hispanic drivers," Bratlie said.

Gaylord officials continue to deny that town police officers use race or ethnicity in determining whether to stop or question someone. But Mendoza said her experience three years ago left her with no doubt that they do.

"It was March 9, 2012, when I went to the bank," she said. "And there the policeman stopped us."

Mendoza was a passenger in a car driven by her daughter, Luz Maria Cisneros Mendoza. Police were looking for her daughter because of allegations that she had used another person's name to open an account. Bank employees alerted police that she was in the drive-through.

Gaylord officers and Sibley County deputies responded to the bank, where they questioned and eventually arrested Cisneros. She later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of giving a peace officer a false name of another person and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. She was released to the Department of Homeland Security.

But at the bank, law enforcement officials also investigated Mendoza. They looked up her Minnesota identification card and found that it was valid. They also determined there were no outstanding warrants for her arrest.

Recordings of police radio communications Mendoza's attorneys provided to MPR News indicate Mendoza at that point wanted to go.

"She wants to leave, she doesn't want to talk to me," the officer said.

Despite her protests, a squad car took Mendoza to an interrogation room at the Gaylord police station, where officers interrogated her. There, she said, officer Jeff Milette became angry when she told him again that she had legally immigrated from Mexico in 2009.

"And so he told me, he told me, 'did you enter the country legally?' I tell him, yes, I entered in 2009 and with residency," Mendoza recalled. "And he said, 'shut up'. He says, 'you're lying.' And he again slammed the table."

Still, without evidence of wrongdoing, law enforcement officials took Mendoza to her house. Without a warrant or her permission, they followed her inside. After she produced her green card and other supporting documents, they finally left her alone, according to the lawsuit.

In the settlement, Gaylord and Sibley County officials also agreed to recruit racial and ethnic minorities and people with Spanish skills.

Although Gaylord officials have refused to answer questions about the case, in a statement, they said the city settled because the cost of going to trial "would have been very high." They also said resolving the case provides an "opportunity to move forward."

ACLU lawyers say the city has already taken some significant steps forward, including the hiring of a Hispanic police chief, Tony Padilla.

But there's still a lot of bad feelings left to heal. One sore point is a recording of comments made at the jail where Mendoza's daughter was held.

In audio supplied by the ACLU, a police officer refers to the inmates as monkeys, and says he'd like to pull up a chair, eat popcorn and watch them.

"And go, look at the monkey, look at the monkey," the officer said.

The ACLU contends that the officer was referring to Hispanic jail inmates. City officials do not dispute the comments were made, but say the ACLU took them out of context and that they were not racially motivated.

Despite her disheartening experience with local law enforcement, Mendoza said she's in the country to stay. Last year, she became a U.S. citizen.