The mother and brother of Robbie Romero, the 7-year-old boy missing from his south-side home for 7 1/2 years and presumed dead, say in a lawsuit the Santa Fe police are harassing them.

The department "made a deliberate choice to follow a specific course of action, a course of action tailored to their express goal of harassing the Romeros," says a complaint filed last week on behalf of Evelyn and Ricky Romero.

The complaint charges that three years ago, Officer Robert Vasquez went into Evelyn Romero's house without a warrant and took two of her minor children, Rickie and Marcos Romero, away from her for four days.

The complaint, filed this week in state District Court by Richard Glassman of the Catron, Catron & Pottow law firm, says the action was taken as police prepared a grand jury investigation into Robbie Romero's disappearance.

The suit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages from the city, the police department, Vasquez, police Capt. Gary Johnson, former Chief Beverly Lennen and five "John Does" for "intentional misconduct, recklessness, gross negligence, willfulness, and/or callous indifference to (the Romeros') rights." The complaint alleges the defendants "were motivated by malice, evil motive or intent." A police spokesman declined comment Thursday.

Robbie Romero was last seen June 7, 2000, playing near his family's home on Bellamah Drive. Police say they believe the boy is dead but have not found any sign of him or made any arrests. However, they have publicly identified another of his brothers, Ronnie Romero, as a person of interest in the case and said they believe he knows more about Robbie's disappearance than he has said.

Ronnie Romero, 29, was jailed last year for violating the conditions of a house arrest that stemmed from charges of assault and battery against a household member filed Aug. 11, 2000 — two months after the disappearance. He pleaded guilty and accepted the sentence of house arrest, then reportedly attended a party a week later where he drank alcohol. A jury acquitted him, however, of kicking a deputy who went to arrest him.

The most recent complaint is not the first time Evelyn Romero has sued over Robbie's disappearance. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled last year that the city must open its police files in the case. Romero had begun seeking them in 2002, claiming police had mishandled the initial investigation and the files might help a private investigator find her missing son.

According to the most recent complaint, on Dec. 16, 2005, as the city police prepared for a grand jury investigation into Robbie Romero's disappearance, Vasquez took Ricky Romero, then 17, and his adopted brother, Marcos Romero, 5, both of them minors, from Evelyn's custody and did not return them to her until Dec. 20, 2005.

Later, on Dec. 16, 2005, the complaint says, Vasquez and employees of the state Children, Youth and Families Department went to the Romero residence and asked if they could enter. Although Evelyn Romero denied the request, the complaint says, Vasquez and the others went into her living room without a search warrant and asked her if Ronnie Romero's two minor children — her grandchildren — "were being properly cared for," though there were no grounds to believe the children were in danger.

Because of those actions, both Evelyn and Ricky Romero "suffered substantial immediate and ongoing emotional distress and mental suffering as a result of the unpermitted and illegal entry and the injury to (their) rights of familial association resulting from the removal ... of Ricky and Marcos," the complaint says.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.