The City of Española settled a lawsuit on the eve of a trial with a man who was repeatedly run over by former city councilor Phillip Chacon, after police failed to arrest Chacon hours earlier for another attack.
The city settled with Eric Mendonca for $120,000, less than the $150,000 he and his attorneys, Frances Crockett Carpenter and Taylor Smith, offered to settle for before Thanksgiving.
The Case
The case started on Oct. 10, 2022, when police got a call for a fight on Fairview Lane, involving Chacon, who had been released from jail a month prior, following a global plea deal for a series of violent incidents beginning in 2019.
When Española Police Officers Darren Cruz, Donnie Gutierrez and Michael Torrez arrived at the scene, Mendonca had already walked away. Chacon’s “employees” told the officers that no fight took place and when one of the officers tried to detain him, he “began to count to three in preparation to fight the officer who was holding him by his arm,” Mendonca’s attorney Taylor Smith wrote in the lawsuit.
The people Chacon was with all provided different accounts of what had happened, which was called in to a police as a fight, before Chacon allegedly told officers he had allegedly attacked Mendonca, beating and choking him, which the people he was with filmed.
The officers watched the video of Chacon allegedly choking Mendonca to “the point of almost passing out,” Smith wrote.
“At that point, the Defendant Officer decided not to take any further action, including locating Plaintiff Eric Mendonca, to ask him what happened,” Smith wrote. “Instead, Defendant Officers told Mr. Chacon, ‘Let me help you out.’”
Chacon broadcast the beating on Facebook and his probation officers saw it and tried to get the Española police officers to arrest him. Instead, they let Chacon go.
On body camera footage, officers talk about how Chacon “(expletive) that guy up” and how he was “blessed.”
Right after the officers let Chacon go, he drove down the road and ran over Mendonca. Then he backed up and ran him over again.
Chacon pleaded no contest in a global plea deal on April 24, 2025, to one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, for repeatedly running over Eric Mendonca, and to violating the conditions of probation in three other cases.
Chacon, a former city councilor, was also responsible for landing former sheriff James Lujan in prison. Lujan was convicted for helping Chacon evade arrest by serving him a restraining order and taking him from his house an hour after Chacon led Española police on a pursuit at speeds of more than 110 miles per hour. Deputy Cody Lattin, who worked for the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office, testified against Lujan and said he felt intimidated to keep quiet about the details of the incident.
Costs
According to invoices submitted to the city by the out-of-state law firm defending it in the lawsuit, its attorneys billed the city for $175,272, between Nov. 20, 2025 and Jan. 27, 2026, well above the amount it settled for.
The total cost of litigation, according to invoices is more than $800,000. The invoices provided only go up to January and the case settled on Feb. 9.
“When we did an IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) for billing records, our jaws hit the floor,” Carpenter said.
The city was repeatedly sanctioned in the case by the judge after two officers failed to show up for their depositions, according to court records.
Since New Mexico changed the rules allowing out-of-state law firms to easily operate in the state, law firms representing municipalities have generally been picking up contracts defending cities and towns in litigation and instead of settling cases quickly, they have been dragging them out.
Generally, Carpenter said she has seen a rise in excessive billing.
“The responsibility is on the municipality,” she said.
In Española, the city’s risk manager is Human Resources Director Sally Baxter, who testified in a deposition that settling cases makes the city a “target.” She doesn’t believe in spending money on settlements, but instead, spending money on litigation, although she never watched the body camera footage or had much knowledge of the Mendonca case.
“They are not auditing, they are not keeping track, and they’re not managing the cases that are filed against them,” Carpenter said. “They’re calling the insurance company and saying, ‘here you go.’ That that is, I think, breaching their fiduciary duty, the greatest level of care and oversight.”
In the deposition, Baxter said that the decision of what to do with the cases rests with the city council and mayor and they are responsible for what happens, including not settling cases until the last possible moment, therefore running up attorney’s fees.
According to another media report, Baxter estimated the city’s liability was its $250,000 deductible.
Been Here Before
While insurance may pay for many of the litigation costs, in addition to the settlement, that pales in comparison to how much the city spent on attorney’s fees. High usage of the city’s insurance policy could either result in it getting dropped by its insurer, the insurer demanding reforms in the city’s police department or premiums skyrocketing.
The City of Española has been dropped by its insurer before.
The city’s insurer in 2017,Traveler’s Insurance, wrote in an email to Baxter that it was concerned about former officer Greg Esparza, following several lawsuits and excessive force claims, including one where they reviewed the footage and indeed found it was excessive force.
After a series of police brutality lawsuits between 2005 and 2007, the city was also dropped by its insurance carrier, Daniels Insurance.