By Vic Vela
Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE, N.M. — Two Santa Fe women are suing State Police for being subjected to a strip search that they claim was akin to sexual assault and battery after their arrests two years ago.
Erica Harris and Sharon Miller say they were ordered into a restroom at Department of Public Safety headquarters and were told by a female officer to “take all their clothes off.”
Officer Marsha Shepard, according to the lawsuit, “proceeded to sexually assault and batter Ms. Harris and Ms. Miller under the guise of ‘strip-searching’ them in search of illegal narcotics.” Brendan K. Egan of the Rothstein, Donatelli, et al law firm filed the complaint in state District Court in Santa Fe on Dec. 9.
Santa Fe County jail records show that this was the first time that Harris had been booked into their jail. However, Miller has been arrested six times since 2004, including two arrests on drug charges in 2006.
State Police Chief Robert Shilling said he would not comment on pending litigation.
The women were arrested after a traffic stop on the night of Dec. 12, 2009. State Police officer Luis Hernandez found that the driver of the car, in which the women were passengers, possessed drugs. The driver, Michael Graham, “explicitly informed” police that the drugs belonged to him and the two women “did not know” that he had them that night, the lawsuit states.
Graham and all five people inside the car, including Harris and Miller, were arrested. After being interrogated by Hernandez and Shepard at headquarters - during which Harris and Miller were handcuffed to a metal railing - Shepard conducted pat-down searches of the women, which did not uncover any drugs.
It was then that Miller and Harris were “ordered” to go into a women’s restroom, where Shepard strip-searched them. The women took all their clothes off during the search, including their “bras and underwear.”
The complaint alleges that Shepard “purposefully mocked and humiliated” the two, “by making inappropriate comments, gestures and facial expressions,” the complaint reads.
Because Shepard did not separate Harris and Miller, they were “forced ... to witness the sexual assault and battery of the other.” According to the lawsuit, Shepard no longer works for the State Police.
The lawsuit also states that none of the three men who were arrested that night - Graham, Joshua Gonzales, and Nicholas Urrutia - was subjected to a strip search, nor were they told to remove any clothing.
The complaint says that “all criminal charges” against Harris and Miller “were immediately dismissed by a Santa Fe County Magistrate Judge at their arraignment” a few days after their arrest. Also, the District Attorney’s Office never re-filed the charges.
The women claim they “experienced extreme fear, dread, embarrassment, humiliation, and feelings of helplessness as a result of defendant Shepard’s sexual assault and battery.” The complaint asks for an unspecified dollar amount for damages. In addition to DPS, the lawsuit names Shepard, Hernandez and another officer, Jerry Belyeu, as defendants.
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