Man files lawsuit against Ronan Police Department

A man once charged with felony assault on a police officer has sued the Ronan Police officer who arrested him after the Lake County Attorney’s Office dropped the assault case. 

Brandon Shawn Alcayde, 38, is seeking monetary damages in the federal lawsuit filed June 27. He claims Ronan Police officer James Garcia arrested him, but did not have probable cause to detain him and that the officer used excessive force in deploying a Taser multiple times until he lost consciousness.

Garcia no longer works for Ronan Police. 

Alcayde spent a weekend in jail after he was charged with felony assault on a peace officer and misdemeanor unlawful restraint. 

“That was probably the most helpless I’ve ever felt,” Alcayde said in reference to the arrest. 

Court documents filed in Lake County District Court say Alcayde had been arrested after a woman told a Ronan Police officer that she was being held against her will early on Jan. 16. 

The state claimed in the charging documents that Alcayde was uncooperative and told Garcia that his could not be arrested on his own property because he had done nothing wrong. Garcia deployed the Taser because he felt threatened, the affidavit stated. 

Alcayde pleaded not guilty, but a day after Garcia was interviewed on March 30 by Alcayde’s attorney, Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher dropped the charges. 

“It seemed like the investigation shifted from me to him,” Alcayde said. 

Alcayde’s initial reaction to the charges being dropped was relief. He lives out of the area, but spent some of his time as a child on the Flathead Reservation and still has family in the area. He was subject to Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher dropped the charges. 

“It seemed like the investigation shifted from me to him,” Alcayde said. 

Alcayde’s initial reaction to the charges being dropped was relief. He lives out of the area, but spent some of his time as a child on the Flathead Reservation and still has family in the area. He was subject to comments comments when articles appeared in local newspapers about his alleged misconduct. News travels fast on the Internet and people at his children’s school had heard of the incident. 

“Nothing was true in the whole thing,” Alcayde said about one of the news stories. 

He said he filed the lawsuit to hold Garcia responsible. 

“You are supposed to believe in the cops,” Alcayde said. 

“From the time they charged me, I knew he was in the wrong,” Alcayde said. 

His attorney Tim Bechtold called the arrest a “weird aberration” of typical police practice. 

“It’s just quite strange,” Bechtold said. “An individual was put in jail and kept there for three days for no reason.” 

According to the lawsuit, Alcayde visited the Second Chance Saloon late on Jan. 15 to meet a woman. Garcia allegedly entered the bar and told Alcayde that he was on duty and there to meet someone, who turned out to be the woman. The woman and Garcia allegedly snapped some photos on a phone together before he left. The woman allegedly told Garcia that she would see him later. 

Alcayde left the bar and the woman allegedly followed Alcayde to his car and asked him to take her out on the back roads. Alcayde said that made him uncomfortable, but offered to take the woman to his home. 

At Alcayde’s home he noticed that the woman kept exchanging messages with Garcia. According to the lawsuit, he offered to take her home, but the messaging continued when the pair got in the car and Alcayde said he worried that a drunk driving charge might result, so he went back home. 

Alcayde watched as the woman left his home and met an officer on the road. 

He said he had no warning that the officer was coming to his home. 

“There was no call to 911,” Alcayde said. 

The woman was taken by a second officer to her home. The lawsuit claims that Garcia notified dispatchers that he was responding to the woman’s texts at 2:09 a.m. on Feb. 16 after she indicated that she was being held against her will. 

Alcayde claims he was sitting on the porch of his home as Garcia approached and told him that Alcayde needed to answer a few questions. Alcayde allegedly responded to Garcia’s questions and said he had not detained the woman. Garcia then asked if Alcayde had any firearms or drugs and allegedly arrested him when he said that he did not. 

Alcayde claims he told the officer that there was no reason to arrest him and that the officer had no reason to be on the property. Garcia then allegedly pulled out his Taser and ordered Alcayde to the ground. Alcayde claims he complied, but when he asked Garcia to loosen the handcuffs on him, Garcia responded by painfully bending his fingers back. 

Alcayde squirmed in pain and Garcia allegedly put his knee on Alcayde’s back to get him to stop squirming and told him to stop resisting. 

Alcayde was then Tased. He lost consciousness after the second time he was Tased and said it happened three times. 

Bechtold said that he has not received the Taser report from the weapon that was used against Alcayde, but that initial reports to him indicate that Alcayde might have been Tased for at least 30 seconds. 

Garcia allegedly tried to drag the unconscious Alcayde to his patrol car but kept slipping in the snow. Another officer helped Alcayde to the car, where he was searched and then taken to jail. He was released three days later. 

Alcayde’s lawsuit claims that Garcia did not have probable cause to arrest Alcayde and that Garcia’s conduct amounted to assault and battery. The lawsuit also names the city of Ronan as a defendant for allegedly not properly supervising and training Garcia. 

Bechtold noted that using a Taser on someone for 30 seconds would be highly unusual. 

Police Executive Research Forum guidelines for Taser use state: “Personnel should be trained to use an electronic control weapon for one standard cycle (five seconds) and then evaluate the situation to determine if subsequent cycles are necessary. Training protocols should emphasize that multiple applications or continuous cycling of an electronic control weapon resulting in an exposure longer than 15 seconds (whether continuous or cumulative) may increase the risk of serious injury or death and should be avoided.”

Garcia could not be reached for comment. He was hired in late March 2014, just after he graduated from the Montana Law Enforcement Academy. He previously served as a military police officer. He resigned from the Ronan Police Department the first week of June. 

Officials with the city of Ronan had not been served with the lawsuit as of late last week and declined to comment on it. The lawsuit is the fifth police-involved lawsuit filed against Ronan since 2014. Two of the lawsuits were settled out of court and two more are pending in Lake County District Court. 

The department was the subject of much scrutiny after the Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council stripped longtime Police Chief Dan Wadsworth of his law enforcement certification in July 2013 for allegedly falsifying his son Trevor’s application to the Montana Law Enforcement Academy. 

Two more chiefs followed Wadsworth in the next 14 months before current Chief Ken Weaver was brought in from California in September 2014 to overhaul the department. 

Mayor Kim Aipperspach said he believes there has been a big change since Weaver arrived. 

“It’s way better,” Aipperspach said. “We are pretty lucky to have gotten him.” 

Aipperspach said community members have commented about the improvement and that he hopes the city can get  funding to hire at least one more officer. 

Weaver said that he has done a lot of work to improve the department including updating hiring policies and procedures. 

“Everything is to national standards,” Weaver said. 

Officers have to take physical exams, undergo psychological evaluations and complete extensive background checks before they are hired, Weaver said. Garcia was the last of the officers on staff who was hired prior to Weaver assuming command of the department.

Weaver also has worked to outfit the department in the latest body cameras, issue proper equipment and move the evidence room to a more secure location. The department received a new sign, new paint jobs on the patrol cars and new patches in an effort to re-brand the organization. 

“We’re out there, trying to improve our image and hopefully we are,” Weaver said. 

Last Thursday, he interviewed a candidate to replace Garcia. 

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.