Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Otero County Sheriffs Deparment

By Evan Woodward

Las Cruces, NM – Last week the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico along with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a federal lawsuit against the Otero County Sheriffs Department on behalf of five Latino families. The groups claim the department conducted warrantless raids on homes in the Chaparral, New Mexico area last month. As KRWG's Evan Woodward reports, the complaint accuses the department of interrogating and wrongfully detaining a number of Latinos without probable cause, or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.