Apparently, it doesn't always pay to be a Good Samaritan.
Just ask Margaret Lopez, 24, and Jake Hochhalter, 22, UNM seniors who have spent the past five months engaged in a legal struggle they say they don't belong in.
And, according to the lawsuit the couple has filed against two Albuquerque Police officers, it was their willingness to help their fellow man that landed them in the precarious situation.
Lopez said on the night of Oct. 11, she and Hochhalter were leaving a Downtown bar after it closed and had stopped to buy a hot dog from a street vendor when they noticed three pedestrians being attacked by a group of eight or nine men who had jumped out of two passing cars.
"They were a group of gangsters who had been driving around all night looking for trouble," she said.
Hochhalter, who had received some medical training during his time as an employee at UNM Hospital, ran across the street to scare off the attackers and check the condition of the victims, Lopez said.
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She insists Hochhalter did not physically engage any of the assailants, but that "punches were thrown at him."
Lopez said after the altercation, she and Hochhalter began walking with the three victims down a side street toward their cars when a man, who would later be identified as an APD bicycle officer, grabbed one of the victims and slammed him into a nearby light post.
According to the lawsuit, Lopez and Hochhalter began yelling at the officers that they were attacking the wrong person, that the guilty people had already left.
However, Lopez said the group was then sprayed with mace and restrained on the ground.
"I couldn't believe what was happening, how they were treating us," she said. "We were literally soaked in mace as we tried to explain the situation to them."
Hochhalter was allegedly kicked in the head several times, and Lopez states in the lawsuit she was thrown against a nearby building by police, causing her to lose her glasses.
In the lawsuit, Hochhalter and Lopez say they were never read their Miranda warnings, standard procedure by an officer when arresting someone.
Nonetheless, both people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and public affray and have spent more than $1,500 in the months since fighting the charges.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 17, says Lopez and Hochhalter were "inexplicably attacked by police, arrested and prosecuted when in reality they were Good Samaritans who witnessed a violent crime and rendered aid."
City Attorney Bob White was not available for comment Friday, but his secretary said the two officers who are named in the suit are aware of it.
The charges against Lopez and Hochhalter were eventually dropped when the officers who had arrested them did not show up for their scheduled court appearance.
Lopez said she and Hochhalter decided to pursue their civil lawsuit against APD anyway in hopes the offending officers will be removed from active duty and other people will be spared the ordeal they have had to endure.
"We couldn't stand for the way we were treated," she said. "If our lawsuit can somehow prevent this from happening to somebody else, well then it was worth it."
