El Paso woman sues Socorro ISD, police officer after she was placed in chokehold

A normal night of riding her motorcycle with friends ended with a mother of three placed in a headlock after a Socorro school district police officer crashed into her motorcycle, a lawsuit alleges.

Samantha Magallanes, 27, filed a lawsuit Dec. 1, against Socorro Independent School District and former district police officer Armando Ulloa Jr. claiming negligent, carelessness, recklessness and use of excess force.

Magallanes and her attorneys, Sergio Saldivar and Gabriel Perez, said Ulloa crashed into Magallanes' motorcycle, confronted her, placed her in a headlock, violently threw her to the ground and left when more officers arrived at the scene.

Magallanes was never charged with a crime in connection with the incident.

"I was just shocked," Magallanes said. "I willingly put my hands behind my back and he still felt the need to choke me. I'm 5'3" and he was like a lot bigger than me, so I don't understand why he thought he needed to take those measures. It's pretty traumatic to talk about. He gave me no reason why he was doing this."

Ulloa said he could not go into details about the lawsuit since it is pending.

"It's a frivolous lawsuit," Ulloa said. "It is completely false. We will take it to court and the real facts will be presented, and the facts will show what is being claimed in the lawsuit is not true."

Socorro Independent School District officials declined to comment on the lawsuit since they "are not able to discuss personnel matters nor pending litigation."

Magallanes claims she suffered injuries to her neck. She had difficulties breathing and bruising to her neck. Months after the incident, she still can't fully turn her neck and continues to have issues with her trachea, she said.

The lawsuit alleges Ulloa "had a duty to exercise the degree of care that a reasonably careful person would use to avoid harm to others."

More: Socorro Police Department officer severely injured, mother killed in hit-and-run crash

The lawsuit claims Ulloa was negligent, careless and recklessly, failed to keep a proper lookout, and failed to turn his motor vehicle to the left or right in an effort to avoid the collision.

Socorro Independent School District is liable because Ulloa was working as a district police officer and using a district vehicle at the time of the incident, and the district negligently entrusted a district police vehicle to a "reckless driver," according to the lawsuit.

Prior to filing the lawsuit, Magallanes filed a complaint June 27 — four days after the incident — with the district against Ulloa.

"I feared for my life. I could not breath. My arms started flailing," she wrote about the incident in the complaint obtained by the El Paso Times.

Ulloa resigned July 29 from the SISD Police Department before district officials made a decision on Magallanes' complaint.

District officials wrote in a letter, obtained by the El Paso Times, sent Sept. 9 to Magallanes that "no further investigation" would be conducted since Ulloa resigned from his position.

Socorro Independent School District officials confirmed Ulloa was no longer an employee with the district.

Crash allegedly turns violent

Magallanes was riding her motorcycle with a group of friends and stopped at a red light on the night of June 23 at the intersection of Joe Battle Boulevard and Montana Avenue when Ulloa crashed into the back of her motorcycle, the lawsuit states.

Ulloa was driving an SISD Police Department vehicle at the time of the collision.

This is when things took a turn for the worse, Magallanes and her attorneys said.

"It was just a terrible series of events," Perez said. "He basically hit her motorcycle. She was on a motorcycle, which already is a precarious situation. He hits her with his patrol car from Socorro Independent School District. She and some other friends were on motorcycles and proceeded to pull over a little bit on the side of the road. He (Ulloa) starts to grab at her handle bars through his rolled down window trying to get her to, and I don't know, I guess to get her to fall."

She told Ulloa that she had turned off her motorcycle and was not going to leave the scene, Magallanes said. At no point did she get confrontational with the officer nor attempted to flee from him, she said.

"I was shocked," Magallanes said about Ulloa allegedly grabbing her handlebars while he was still in his vehicle.

Ulloa, who was in his district police uniform, got out of his patrol car and confronted her, she said.

He then allegedly placed her in a chokehold and threw her to the ground, Magallanes said.

"I don't know exactly how long it was," Magallanes said. "It probably felt longer than it was. But there was a man who was with his wife and their kids in a car and he got out of the car. He started yelling at (Ulloa) saying that that was police brutality and I was a little girl and he needed to let me go.

"In the video you can hear the kids crying, so he still felt he needed to get out of his vehicle, even with his kids there to try and stand up for me. The officer was just yelling and cussing at him saying, 'you're gonna be next, get back in your car.'"

The video is not being publicly released as it will be key evidence presented in the case, Magallanes' attorneys said.

The El Paso Times was allowed to view the video.

The video, which starts in the middle of the incident, was recorded by a passerby. Magallanes is seen in her helmet in a chokehold being dragged behind a police vehicle.

The woman recording the video is heard saying, "What the (expletives)? That's police brutality."

A man then yells, "What the (expletives) are you doing to her? Just pull her to the side, bro. Why you got to do all that (expletives) for?"

More than 24 seconds into the video, the officer is still seen holding her in a chokehold and then putting his arms around her and walking her away from the patrol vehicle.

The man then tells the officer, "You are lucky you have a badge on."

The woman yells, "she is a girl, you jackass."

Magallanes is then heard crying and asking for someone to call "the real cops."

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Magallanes said she requested for El Paso Police Department officers to be called to the scene as more Socorro ISD police officers arrived, she said.

"I requested that he call the El Paso Police Department because he didn't have a body cam and I was freaking out," Magallanes said. "I asked if he would call the El Paso Police Department. He said I already called back up. So I thought, 'okay, awesome. They'll show up.' But more SISD people just kept showing up and kept showing up."

Paramedics arrived and began treating Magallanes.

"While the paramedics were checking me, they couldn't get my heart rate to go down and (Ulloa) would keep coming toward me," Magallanes said. "Then my heart rate would go back up. The other officers didn't have control of the situation because he was still able to come up to me while I was being evaluated by paramedics."

She then requested photos be taken of the vehicle, but was denied the opportunity by officers, Magallanes said. The officers allowed Ulloa to leave in his patrol vehicle, she claimed.

Magallanes was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Lawsuit seeks accountability, shines light on excess force

Magallanes is seeking compensation for the physical injuries she suffered, medical bills and other damages. The lawsuit states the monetary relief being sought is more than $250,000.

While Magallanes is seeking money to pay for her injuries, the main goal of the lawsuit is to bring attention to excessive force being used by a school district police officer, Saldivar said.

"This was a school district police officer who deals with kids everyday," Saldivar said. "When they deal with kids at schools, what is going to happen? Are they going to put the students in a chokehold because they're skipping class? This incident is alarming and just unacceptable.

"We just want these officers to treat citizens the way they deserve to be treated. We're not anti-law enforcement. We're pro-law enforcement, but we expect them to give fair treatment to all citizens."

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso woman sues SISD, police officer alleging excessive force