City of Santa Fe agrees to $1.25 million settlement in use-of-force case

The city of Santa Fe and its liability insurer have agreed to a $1.25 million settlement to resolve a man’s claim of excessive force by a police officer who struck him in the back with a stun gun after he shot a dog that had critically wounded his pet goat in 2024. Officers also falsely arrested the man.

The settlement deal in the case — which raised concerning questions about the truthfulness of officers involved — came late last month, two weeks before it was set to go trial.

A judge ruled police had no probable cause to arrest Jeffrey Hurtado, a city employee, on a charge of negligent use of a firearm. Hurtado had fatally shot the dog, which belonged to the relative of a neighbor, after it mauled his goat Daisy outside his home. He then used his gun to euthanize the dying Daisy.

The officer who had struck Hurtado with an electronic weapon — while wielding both the stun gun and a rifle — falsely claimed after the incident Hurtado had threatened to shoot police who arrived at the scene. In fact, Hurtado was no longer armed by the time police officers responded.

About $500,000 of the $1.25 million settlement — including $180,000 paid to private attorneys to fight Hurtado’s claim before settling — will come from city coffers, while the remainder will be paid by the city’s insurer, Travelers Insurance, city spokesperson Peter Olson confirmed in an email last week.

Hurtado’s attorney, Jamison Barkley, said the case was about police policy — not the sizable sum of money.

Barkley confirmed in an interview Friday she had been willing to settle the case for less and noted the city had attempted to get Hurtado to agree to a confidentiality clause as part of the settlement, but he refused.

“It’s not really about money on this side,” Barkley said. “We’re looking for a change in behavior, and we’re hoping that comes and that there is recognition that it’s very expensive to let officers be making false statements in the course of their official duties.”

A chaotic incident unfolds

The events that led to the lawsuit and settlement unfolded March 27, 2024 — Hurtado’s 60th birthday.

The city employee, who drives a medical transport van, was working when his wife called to tell him a gray pit-bull mix had come from a neighbor’s home and was attacking Daisy, a problem that had occurred previously, according to court records and reports from the time.

Hurtado rushed home to find his wife crying and covered in blood, reports said. He tried to comfort the dying goat as two people struggled to hold the collarless dog at bay.

He retrieved his .38 caliber revolver from a safe inside his house and shot the dog.

A city animal control officer had arrived at the scene, video shows, and Hurtado asked if she had anything he could use to “put down” the dying goat. She said no, and Hurtado shot the ravaged pet before returning his firearm to his home.

He was unarmed when Santa Fe police Detectives Cesar Ornelas and Francisco Alvarado arrived.

Ornelas rounded the corner of the building with his AR-15 rifle at the ready, pointing it at Hurtado as he shouted commands, video shows.

“Drop the firearm!” the officer ordered.

An exasperated Hurtado told the officer he wasn’t armed, that he’d shot a dog, and motioned for the officer to follow him over to his yard to see what the dog had done to Daisy.

‘You shot me in the ... back’

Ornelas continued shouting at Hurtado: “Come here,” the officer ordered, pointing the rifle at Hurtado with his right hand while aiming a stun gun at him with his left hand, video shows.

“Turn away from me,” Ornelas said, adding, “Step away.”

“Don’t [expletive] shoot me ’cause I’ll sue the [expletive] out of you guys,” Hurtado warned Ornelas before turning and taking a step away from the officer.

“I’m not gonna shoot you,” Ornelas responded.

About 10 seconds later, Ornelas shot Hurtado in the back with the stun gun.

The electric probes from the weapon stuck in the fabric of Hurtado’s vest but didn’t penetrate. Hurtado stumbled away from the officer saying, “What the [expletive] are you doing?”

“You’re not listening to me,” Ornelas yelled back, his rifle still pointed at Hurtado.

“You shot me in the [expletive] back you [expletive],” Hurtado retorted, unleashing a torrent of curse words and threats of legal action.

“You wait until my lawyer gets ahold of you,” Hurtado shouted.

“You are going to get sued ... the whole department is getting sued,” he added.

Hurtado — who grew up in Peña Blanca and is an experienced outfitter and hunting guide — said in an interview Friday he knows how to handle firearms and also knew — from undergoing training to become a law enforcement officer — that police are not supposed to shoot anyone in the back without a threat of eminent harm.

“So, I was aware when I turned around after he gave me an order to turn around, and then he shot me in the back with a Taser — at that point, I knew he had really screwed up,” Hurtado said.

Moments after Ornelas had fired the electronic weapon, another officer handcuffed Hurtado; Ornelas kept his rifle trained on the city worker.

After Hurtado was led away, Ornelas and Alvarado were debriefed in the parking lot by a supervisor. The exchange was recorded on their lapel cameras.

“He said he was going to shoot us all,” Ornelas told a supervisor, the video shows.

“He said, ‘I’m going to shoot you guys.’ That’s why we were with our rifles,” Ornelas added.

The officers later discussed what charges could be brought against Hurtado.

“We’re going to have to [make it] seem like he had the gun on him while he was working, like he was on the clock,” Alvarado said.

No probable cause for counts

Santa Fe police booked Hurtado on charges of negligent use of a deadly weapon and resisting, evading or obstructing police. He spent two days in jail before he was released. A city prosecutor dismissed the charges about a month later, court records show.

Hurtado, as he promised during the chaotic incident, filed a lawsuit against city police in the state’s First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe in March 2025.

The lawsuit argued that even before Hurtado was booked, an officer recognized he had a lawful justification for “humanely destroying a sick or injured animal” and “protecting a person or animal from death or injury due to an attack by another animal.”

He gained a victory in the civil case last month when state District Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood granted a partial summary judgment, finding Santa Fe police had no probable cause to support a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

The criminal complaint against Hurtado had omitted a couple of key facts, the judge noted in her order: He had lawful justification to kill the dog that attacked his livestock on his property, and he shot his own goat to end its suffering.

The judge also noted the city had later attempted to “change the code section” under which Hurtado was charged, saying he had violated a section prohibiting a person from discharging a firearm within 150 yards of a dwelling or building without the permission of the owner or lessee.

“Probable cause is determined by what is known to the officers at the time they make an arrest, not later discovered to justify the arrest,” the judge wrote in her order.

Asked under oath during a pretrial deposition why he’d told his supervisor Hurtado had threatened to shoot the officers, Ornelas said, “That’s probably what I perceived that he had said,” according to a transcript.

Santa Fe police interim Chief Ben Valdez said in statement last week an internal affairs investigation examined whether Ornelas had violated any polices regarding patrol procedures, or use-of-force or arrest procedures, and exonerated him of any wrongdoing.

The investigation did not specifically review Ornelas’ statement to a supervisor that Hurtado had threatened to shoot them, Valdez confirmed.

“The scope of the [internal affairs] investigation was to determine adherence to Santa Fe Police Department and City of Santa Fe Policies, Procedures and Directives. Had the [internal affairs] Investigator determined there were other violations of policy, procedures or directives that needed to be examined, they would have been reported to the Chief of Police and included in the list of premises to be investigated,” Valdez said in the statement.

‘Duel wielding’ under review

Asked whether the Santa Fe Police Department had reviewed or revised any policies in connection with the incident, Valdez said in a statement the agency is “in the process of reviewing and updating our Use of Force policy to address ‘duel wielding’ by simultaneously having a firearm in one hand and a less lethal device in the other.”

“The training of our officers to not duel wield has already occurred and the policy update is in process,” Valdez said.

“During this incident Ornelas was dual wielding, but the policy did not prohibit it,” he added.

The review was not initiated specifically in response to Hurtado’s case, the interim chief said.

“Duel wielding was an issue identified during our Use of Force Committee reviews of a few incidents where it was observed. The recommendation was this needed to be addressed through both training and a policy update,” Valdez said in the statement.

Expensive lesson on training

Hurtado’s lawsuit accused police of battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious abuse of process, negligent training and supervision, and multiple violations of the New Mexico Civil Rights Act.

Barkley said she hopes the complaint’s settlement will motivate the Santa Fe Police Department to improve officer training.

“They like to talk about how expensive these settlements and claims are, but really it’s because they’re not prioritizing training, and that’s what’s expensive, is that they’re not training their officers to act in line with the law,” the attorney said.

Hurtado said Friday he’s concerned about the kind of leadership former Santa Fe police Chief Paul Joye, who was leading the agency at the time of the incident in 2024, will bring to Santa Fe County if he wins his campaign for sheriff in November.

Democrat Joye, who won a three-way primary in June, is unopposed for the county sheriff’s seat in the Nov. 3 general election.

“I still don’t have faith in our police department because to this point, I don’t think they’ve implemented any kind of new policies,” Hurtado said.

“These officers still haven’t been written up or disciplined for their actions that they did,” he added.

“I think that at this point, we’re hoping that the city takes this as a wake-up call to get their house in order and to recommit themselves to integrity,” he said.

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