A 22-year-old Alcalde woman is facing multiple charges after allegedly punching, kicking and being combative with deputies following a traffic stop.
Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Deputy Hansel Felix wrote in his incident report for Destiny Decosta’s arrest, that he was helping Deputy Cedric Patterson with a domestic violence call on Highway 285, when he saw a white Toyota Camry traveling at a high rate of speed and unsafely passing vehicles. He ran toward his patrol vehicle, got in and tried to catch up with the car but lost sight of it. He went back to the domestic violence scene to continue helping Patterson and Deputies Cody Couch and Joey Graves.
“While on scene in the South Bound lane of US HWY 285 at the 338, I could see the Toyota Camry that I lost visual of as it came out of a private drive and it traveled south towards our direction,” Felix wrote.
He flagged down the car and upon making contact with the driver, later identified as Decosta, he wrote that he could smell liquor and saw a bottle of Jack Daniel’s on the passenger floor board of the car. He told her to get out of the vehicle after which she said she had consumed alcohol about two hours prior. Felix asked Decosta if she’d submit to a Standardized Sobriety Test but she refused.
“Deputy Couch requested the next Tow Truck on rotation, which was Total Secure Towing,” Felix wrote.
Decosta was obstructing Couch from doing a tow inventory of her car, Felix wrote. She rushed toward her vehicle and reached into the passenger-side window. Felix put his right forearm across her chest and pushed her away, causing her to fall to the ground.
“Decosta then picked herself up from the ground and punched me with her right hand with a closed fist on the left side of my abdomen,” Felix wrote.
He then grabbed her from behind and tried to get control of her arms. He braced her against the car and handcuffed her, but she continued to flail and became combative with Couch, Graves and Felix, he wrote.
When they finally handcuffed her, they tried to get her into the back of Graves’s patrol vehicle, but she continued to resist deputies.
They grabbed her feet and lifted her torso to get her in the vehicle. Felix then helped Graves take her to the Española Hospital for a medical clearance so she could be booked into jail.
“While en route to the hospital, she began to bang her head on the cage of the Deouty (sic) Graves unit,” Felix wrote. “We proceeded to expedite with our visual and audible emergency equipment.”
Decosta became loud and disruptive at the hospital check-in counter and kicked a chair in the lobby, Felix wrote. Once she was checked in, Graves and Felix escorted her to see the doctor, at which time she threw herself on the floor.
They grabbed her legs and torso again and she kicked Graves in the chest. They were able to get her into the hospital holding cell and handcuffed her to the bench, but she refused to be medically evaluated, Felix wrote.
She was transported to the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Office for processing and while she was in the holding cell there, she began to bang her head against the wall.
Graves, Couch and Felix went into the cell and handcuffed both of her hands to the bench and put a helmet on her head to prevent her from further harming herself, Felix wrote.
“She then kicked Deputy Couch in the chest,” he wrote. “Decosta was charged with Three Counts of Battery On A Peace Officer, two counts of resisting, and one count of Disorderly Conduct.”