Sheriff Says Police Defamed Him

ALBUQUERQUE (CN) - Sandoval County Sheriff John Paul Trujillo says a Bernalillo police officer filed a false report claiming he saw the sheriff having sex in his car though the officer saw him alone there, and Trujillo told him that he was conducting a drug surveillance. Trujillo says the cop and his partner and the Bernalillo police chief did it to try to ruin his re-election bid in 2006.

Trujillo says defendant Officers Mark Aragon and Eric Rubidoux approached him as he did drug surveillance from an official van on Sept. 11, 2006. He says he was alone in the vehicle, and the officers saw that, as they conducted a "welfare check" and he told them what he was doing.

Trujillo says that Aragon then "prepared a police report where he falsely reported that he saw the vehicle shaking back and forth like there was movement inside that the he (sic) observed that plaintiff maneuvering to put his pants on by way of buttoning and zipping. He further stated that he observed the 'figure of a female crouching down obviously not wanting to be seen.'

"The defendant Aragon intentionally falsified the report to damage the reputation of the plaintiff, Sheriff John Paul Trujillo, who at the time was engaged in the in his (sic) re-election campaign for the sheriff of Sandoval County."

Trujillo also sued Police Chief Fred Rodosevich and the Town of Bernalillo.

Trujillo demands punitive damages. He is represented in Sandoval County Court by Armando Torres.

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