By
Hillary Davis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Hispanic freshman says officers assumed he had broken into his own car, cops deny race as a factor in stop
A UA student said he was harassed by campus police earlier this month because of his race.
Psychology freshman Alexander "A.J." Montoy said about five UAPD officers - including Hispanic and Caucasian officers - approached him as he was leaving Tyndall Garage, 880 E. Fourth St., late on the night of March 6, acting "rude," "confrontational" and "like I was a criminal" after seeing Montoy rummaging through his theft-damaged car.
Montoy said his blue Kia Sportage had been broken into while it was parked in the garage and he was going through the car taking account of what items had been stolen or damaged.
That is when, he said, a University of Arizona Police Department community service officer patrolling the garage rode by on his bicycle.
According to police reports, Montoy, who is Hispanic, moved to a part of the car where the officer could not see him clearly, and watched him "suspiciously" as he rode by.
Montoy said he was approached by five officers outside of the garage, and one of them - he could not remember the officer's name - strongly twisted his right arm behind his back and started patting him down while questioning him, becoming "a little bit excited" when they spotted the detachable stereo face he was carrying.
The force and the search, Montoy said, were unnecessary.
"I honestly believe that if I wasn't an 18-year-old Mexican with a beanie on, I wouldn't have gotten searched," he said. "I don't believe they had any reason to search me in the first place."
"I should be able to get stuff out of my car without being harassed like that."
Even though Montoy speculated to officers at the scene that the incident was racially-motivated, they denied it.
"Mr. Montoy claimed we stopped him due to his race," said reporting officer Eugene Mejia in his report. "I explained that we were experiencing a high number of vehicle break-ins and that is why he was stopped, to verify he had legitimate business in the garage and that the vehicle belonged to him."
Repeated phone attempts for further comment to University Police were not returned.
While his arm was behind his back, officers asked Montoy for identification, which he told them was in his wallet in his shorts pocket. The officer who opened his wallet found a fake ID identifying him as Pablo Aguirre, Jr.
After searching his car, officers also spotted five full bottles of Bud Light beer in the back seat area, prompting them to cite him for minor in possession of alcohol in addition to possession of a fictitious license. He was not cited for damage to the car, which the police found registered in his name.
Montoy said it would have been unlikely that he could be concealing the stolen items - stereo equipment, a CD case and a jacket - because he was only wearing a sweater and basketball shorts at the time.
He added that the two Hispanic officers in the group treated him "like a criminal the most."
Montoy said he was asked "five or six times" if he was a University of Arizona student and if the car was his.
"I was like, I'm going home. I live here. I go to school here," he said.
Montoy did not say he would pursue a lawsuit, but he will discuss the situation with a lawyer before his March 30 court date to see if the officers violated any rights by searching him.
Montoy said the police were cooperative when taking his later report on the thefts, but he is still upset and bitter about the incident.
"I cried, that's how pissed I was," he said. "It still sticks in my head."
In 1999, Nigerian graduate student Nurdeen Lawal filed a $1 million lawsuit after four UAPD officers allegedly used excessive force when questioning him at a campus-area Taco Bell restaurant.
Lawal's legal claim stated that UAPD officers wrongfully identified him as a suspect in a campus robbery and detained him at the restaurant for more than two hours while questioning him and searching his car.
