The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) - Lawyers representing a 13-year-old middle school student sued in federal court Friday, alleging the girl’s civil rights were violated when she was strip searched at San Francisco’s juvenile hall.
The girl, identified only as Marie Doe in court papers to protect her privacy, was 12 when she was arrested in October 2003 on an assault with a deadly weapon charge stemming from a fight at her middle school in which a boy was kicked in the stomach.
The lawsuit claims that a female police officer searched the girl’s bra at the school and that after she was booked, the youngster was ordered to provide blood and urine samples and to shower while a juvenile hall worker watched. That constituted a visual strip search, according to the lawsuit.
Later that day, after the girl visited with her mother, she was ordered to pull down her pants, squat and cough, a procedure that is used to uncover contraband inmates might have hidden internally.
Both types of searches infringed on the girl’s constitutional right to be protected from unnecessary searches and seizures, said Julia Sherwin, one of the attorneys involved in the case. It also was an invasion of her privacy, she added.
“These highly intrusive searches and medical procedures are being done on a child with no prior law enforcement contact, and this is in a pre-arraignment situation,” Sherwin said.
Marie Doe was held overnight at juvenile hall, but never charged.
William Johnston, chief probation officer with the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department, said he could not comment specifically on the girl’s claims because the city had not yet received her lawsuit.
But he said the department has been working with the city attorney’s office to make sure strip searches on minors are conducted in a way that complies with state and federal laws.
Under California law, jail officials are only allowed to perform strip searches on people held before arraignment on felonies or for misdemeanor crimes involving drugs, weapons or violence. Even then, they must have “reasonable suspicions based on specific and articulable facts” that the inmate is hiding a weapon or other contraband that only a strip search could uncover.
Sherwin said that even if assault with a deadly weapon falls into the category of charges allowing strip searches, that standard was improperly applied to Jane Doe because the California Supreme Court has held that feet can not be considered a deadly weapon.
Attorneys are seeking to have the case certified as a class-action lawsuit, which would allow them to seek compensation for other minors who may have been improperly searched.
The lawsuit is one of a series of cases that have been brought in courts in California and elsewhere challenging the circumstances under which corrections officials can perform strip searches.
A Sacramento County Superior Court judge recently approved a $15 million settlement involving illegal strip searches on adults who were taken into custody at the county jail for minor offenses. Similar lawsuits are pending in San Francisco, Marin and Contra Costa counties.
A 15-year-old girl who spent more than two weeks at Sacramento County’s juvenile hall also has sued.