Cop tells bizarre tale
Navajo Police officer says he was forced to drink alcohol, sparking Gamerco incident

Navajo Police Officer Filbert Filmer Begay receives medical attention as he exits a sheriff's vehicle Monday afternoon near Gamerco. [Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — A 26-year-old Window Rock police officer will face charges of drunken and reckless driving in connection with a traffic accident along New Mexico Highway 602 Monday afternoon.

Filbert Filmer Begay was treated at the Gallup Indian Medical Center for a laceration to the head allegedly sustained when his vehicle crashed into a guard rail at a high speed. He was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the crash.

McKinley County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the accident scene at about 4 p.m. and found the driver had fled.

“The vehicle had blood on the inside ... on the driver’s door and seat,” Deputy Deidra Gonzales wrote in a police report released Wednesday. “There were several witnesses to the accident who pointed to the direction that the driver had taken off.”

A K-9 unit was subsequently dispatched to the scene to search for the driver. As Gonzales was completing paperwork about the accident, metropolitan dispatch received a call from Begay who said he’d been beaten by a group of “intoxicated subjects.”

Deputies later found Begay walking in the area near Ellis Tanners identified him as the driver of the wrecked vehicle. He was subsequently taken to the hospital for treatment of a head wound.

Gonzales later traveled to the hospital to interview Begay about the accident.

“F. Begay stated that he was driving, when six drunk persons jumped him and beat him up and forced him to drink alcohol,” the report reads. “F. Begay continued and stated that they apparently knew him because he had arrested them before. So this was why they jumped him and forced him to drink alcohol.”

However, deputies issued a summons for Begay to appear in magistrate court on the criminal charges despite his explanation for the crash and his injuries.

His status as a tribal police officer was still uncertain on Wednesday.

Navajo police officials said his case is under investigation. He is currently still on probation.