May 31—A man who is suing the city of Santa Fe over an alleged assault by city police officers during the demonstration that preceded activists’ takedown of the Plaza obelisk in 2020 took the stand on Friday.

Dylan Wrobel said he had gone to the Plaza with friends intending to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, but things took a dark turn when he was separated from them and was singled out by Officer Javier Vigil, who he said pulled him out of the crowd and attacked him.

Wrobel, 30, was charged with battery on a peace officer, resisting arrest and criminal trespass in connection with his confrontation with police that day. He claims in his lawsuit police attacked him, not the other way around.

Vigil, who took the stand Thursday, testified Wrobel had tried to push past him prior to the encounter.

The Soldiers’ Monument, which was put up in the late 1860s, honored Union Civil War and Indian Wars veterans. The monument had long been controversial — it originally referred to “savage Indians,” although the word “savage” was chiseled off in 1974 — and was pulled down on Oct. 12, 2020.

Wrobel — who said he was the youngest of six children and grew up moving back and forth between Santa Fe and Massachusetts due to his father’s work — said it seemed like any other day on the Plaza when they first arrived, except for the construction crew erecting a wooden barrier around the obelisk as Indigenous People’s Day speeches were being delivered from the bandstand.

There were people holding signs and chanting, he said, but the demonstration appeared peaceful until some people entered the area around the obelisk, which had been enclosed by metal pedestrian barriers. They began to lie down on the building materials, prompting the workers to leave.

That’s when the mood seemed to shift, and it started to seem “this wasn’t a normal situation anymore,” Wrobel said.

At one point, he said, he saw a police officer with a shotgun and was told by another officer it was loaded with less-lethal projectiles and the officer was carrying it “in case things get out of hand.”

That’s when he decided to leave, Wrobel said, and looked around for his friends. He spotted two of them waiting under a nearby tree on the edge of the crowd, Wrobel testified.

However, his then-girlfriend was in the middle of the crowd. They made eye contact and she looked “like a deer in headlights.”

“She was just standing there frozen,” he said, so he skirted around the crowd in an attempt to reach her without having to push through the crowd.

He had almost reached her, he said, when Vigil engaged him.

“He immediately puts his hand on my chest, and then says, ‘Come here, buddy, what do you need?'” Wrobel testified. “And that was … the first point of contact.”

Wrobel said he was shocked and answered he needed to be there to be with his friends as Vigil continued moving his hands over Wrobel’s chest, shoulders and neck. Meanwhile, he said, his girlfriend, who was almost directly behind Vigil, reached her hand out and grabbed his.

Wrobel said he told Vigil the plaza was a public place, and that’s when the officer appeared to snap and attacked him.

Vigil grabbed him around the neck and slammed him to the ground, Wrobel said, then another officer sprayed him point-blank in the face with pepper spray, two times.

The second time, Wrobel said, the canister of pepper spray was so close it hit him in the teeth.

He was subsequently handcuffed and taken to a police vehicle, according to evidence presented during the trial which began Thursday.

Wrobel said he was never asked to leave or told he was in a restricted area before he was arrested. He was later charged with trespassing, battery on a peace officer and resisting arrest.

The criminal charges against Wrobel and a half-dozen others charged in connection with the events of that day were resolved through a pre-prosecution diversion program via a restorative justice process which was in large part confidential so they never went to trial.

As a result, Wrobel’s trial is the first time officers have testified about the events of that day.

His lawsuit accuses the police of assault and seeks an unspecified amount of damages, including for pain and suffering and damage to his reputation. The jury trial is scheduled to last through Tuesday.