Jan. 20—A Rio Arriba County couple is suing the city of Española and the Española Police Department, alleging officers’ failure to arrest former city councilor Phillip Chacon following a roadside altercation in 2022 left him free to run one of them down with a truck after officers left the scene.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 11 in state District Court, also names Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia and three individual officers as defendants and seeks an unspecified amount of damages and legal fees.

Garcia did not respond to calls and an email seeking comment.

Eric Mendonca and Yvette Mendonca say in the lawsuit the officers who responded to reports of a fistfight in the middle of the road were familiar with Chacon, who has a well-publicized criminal record that includes numerous convictions for violent crimes and was on probation at the time. The officers released him after he offered them bribes, the suit alleges, despite having viewed video footage recorded by one of Chacon’s employees showing Chacon beating up Eric Mendonca.

According to the couple’s lawsuit and police and media reports, the altercation began when Chacon accused Eric Mendonca of breaking into a vehicle Chacon owned that was broken down on the road near Fairview Lane and North Railroad Avenue. Chacon told one of his employees to record him fighting Eric Mendonca.

Passing motorists called police to report two men fighting in the road.

By the time police arrived, Eric Mendonca was no longer there, according to a police report. And, the lawsuit alleges, Chacon and two of his employees began lying to the officers, telling them there had been no physical altercation.

Chacon and his employees “all provided differing accounts of what took place, none of which were the truth, including denying any physical altercation took place, or stating that they only chased someone, until [they] finally admitted to Mr. Chacon physically choking [Mendonca],” the lawsuit says.

Chacon eventually told police he’d fought Mendonca and showed them a video taken by one of his employees. The video shows him chasing and punching Mendonca and holding him in a headlock in the middle of the road.

The officers took no further action after that, the lawsuit says, and didn’t bother looking for Mendonca to ask him what happened.

During his interaction with police, Chacon offered the officers free lodging in his trailer park and told them to set up a Facebook account where he could send them money, according to the lawsuit. The offers are captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras. The officers can be seen in the videos joking and laughing with Chacon as they leave the scene.

As soon as the officers left, the suit says, Chacon got in his Toyota 4Runner and drove down the road, where he encountered the Mendoncas walking home.

Chacon drove toward the couple, the lawsuit says. Eric Mendonca pushed his wife out of harm’s way but was hit by the vehicle. Chacon then put his SUV in reverse and ran over Eric Mendonca a second time, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit accuses the officers of breaching their duty to fully investigate the earlier altercation between the two men, putting Mendonca at risk of great bodily harm by Chacon. It also accuses the police chief and department of negligent training and hiring.

Chacon has been involved in several incidents in recent years, many of them violent.

He pleaded guilty to a variety of charges — including aggravated battery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon — two months before his altercation with Mendonca. He was accused in two cases of knocking out three teeth of a tenant and beating and stabbing another tenant. He was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison in connection with those cases, but the sentence was suspended in favor of five years of supervised probation.

Chacon was on probation at the time of his altercation with Mendonca.

Former Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan was convicted of aiding a felon and intimidating a witness for helping Chacon evade Española police after Chacon led officers on a high-speed chase in 2017 and was sentenced to three years in prison. Lujan also pleaded no contest to interfering with Española police officers who were serving a warrant on Chacon in March 2020.

Footage from the officers’ body-worn camera show Chacon telling the officers “the sheriff’s in prison because of me,” and “I’m a multi-millionaire,” as officers were questioning him about the incident with Mendonca.

After he was accused of running Mendonca down with his truck, Chacon was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors asked the court to hold him without bond until trial, and he was jailed in Tierra Amarilla. He was later moved to the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas, where he remains, after he was accused of causing a disturbance at the jail.

The criminal case against Chacon has been delayed while the court determines whether he is competent to stand trial. Two of his other cases have been reopened due to alleged probation violations and also are on hold pending the result of a competency determination.

Chacon’s attorney, Michael Jones, who raised the issue of competency in June, declined to comment Tuesday.