Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 11, 2006 16:00:18 GMT -5
12/16/2005 - FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A judge certified the order for a class action lawsuit on behalf of two women who claim they were illegally strip searched by Broward Sheriff's Office deputies.
Attorneys for the two women who filed suit say as many as 100,000 people might have been illegally strip searched by the BSO.
The women claim they were brought into a holding cell and subjected to a body search by female deputies while male deputies looked on from an open door.
"She made me take my clothes off with the door ajar and bend down, squat -- the whole nine yards -- go through my hair," one of the women told Local 10's Elena Echarri. "It was very humiliating."
But a BSO spokesman said the deputies were well within their right to conduct a strip search.
"There are plenty of categories where law enforcement agencies are within their constitutional rights to strip search inmates," Elliot Cohen said. "It's a function of protecting the safety of the inmates of the jail. It's a function of protecting the safety of the deputies that work in the jail."
BSO policy is to strip search anyone with a criminal background that includes a violent arrest or drug-related crime.
According public records that were obtained by Local 10, one woman had a battery charge, the other a drug charge.
The BSO is appealing the decision.
Attorneys for the two women who filed suit say as many as 100,000 people might have been illegally strip searched by the BSO.
The women claim they were brought into a holding cell and subjected to a body search by female deputies while male deputies looked on from an open door.
"She made me take my clothes off with the door ajar and bend down, squat -- the whole nine yards -- go through my hair," one of the women told Local 10's Elena Echarri. "It was very humiliating."
But a BSO spokesman said the deputies were well within their right to conduct a strip search.
"There are plenty of categories where law enforcement agencies are within their constitutional rights to strip search inmates," Elliot Cohen said. "It's a function of protecting the safety of the inmates of the jail. It's a function of protecting the safety of the deputies that work in the jail."
BSO policy is to strip search anyone with a criminal background that includes a violent arrest or drug-related crime.
According public records that were obtained by Local 10, one woman had a battery charge, the other a drug charge.
The BSO is appealing the decision.