Cavity search in Texas

Texas state troopers caught on camera probing women's privates aren't isolated incidents: lawyers

Multiple highway patrol officers in Texas have been captured by dash cams doing 'unconstitutional' cavity searches on women's genitals during traffic stops. Lawyers and civil rights advocates say the 'mind-boggling' searches are all too common.

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Finally, and after Dobbs passed a field sobriety test, she was given a written warning for littering and told she could go.

“We were assaulted on the side of the road,” Dobbs said.

She complained to the troopers’ supervisor in August. In October, investigators from the Texas Rangers interviewed her about what happened.  She was frustrated it had taken more than two months to get a response.

Then she got a lawyer. Her lawsuit was filed in December. “We had a press conference the next day,” Dobbs said. In January, the case was presented to a Dallas County grand jury. Helleson was later charged with two counts of sexual assault and was fired.

Farrell was indicted on one charge of theft, over a missing bottle of Vicodin from the aunt’s purse, and was suspended pending an internal investigation.

“Until the news got involved, nothing happened,” Dobbs said.

“My heart goes out those ladies,” in the Houston incident she continued. “I know how it feels.”

In late June, Dobbs and her attorneys settled their case for $184,000. Criminal trials against Helleson and Farrell are pending.

RELATED:
TROOPER CAUGHT ON VIDEO DOING HUMILIATING CAVITY SEARCH IS SUSPENDED

“Someone is telling (troopers) that this is a reasonable policy,” said attorney Palmer. “They’re just refusing to acknowledge this is a policy.


The seal of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees state troopers. Its motto is "Courtesy. Service. Protection."

Across the state, no criminal charges have been filed in the Houston area traffic stop. But it began in much the same way.

Brandy Hamilton and Alexandria Randle were pulled over for speeding in Brazoria County by Texas state trooper Nathaniel Turner on Memorial Day in 2012. They were on their way home to Houston after spending the day at Surfside Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Turner said he smelled marijuana, then ordered Hamilton, the driver, out of the car. “Can I please put on my dress, because I have on a swimsuit,” she asks the trooper, according to the dash cam video.

“Don’t worry about that,” he says, “come on out here.”

By the side of Highway 288, Hamilton, wearing a bikini, and Randle, in shorts, are asked a series of questions about whether they have drugs on them or in the car. They say no, just some cigars.

“Is there anything in your bra or underwear?” Turner asks Hamilton. She says no.

Turner calls for a female officer to come and search the women.

Trooper Jennie Bui arrives, and asks for gloves because she doesn’t have any.

“She is about to get up close and personal with some womanly parts,” Turner tells Hamilton. “She is going to search you, I ain’t, because I ain’t about to get up close and personal with your woman areas.”

Hamilton, who is handcuffed, is bent over the patrol car’s passenger seat and probed by Bui.

 A woman is strip searched in Texas.

“Do you know how violated I feel?” Hamilton pleads.

According to the women’s federal lawsuit, filed in June, Randle is then penetrated by Bui, who is wearing the same set of gloves from her search of Hamilton.

The video captures the sound of her screaming.

“They basically raped them on the side of the road,” said Houston attorney Allie Booker, who represents the women. They were part of a two-car caravan of family and friends that had spent the national holiday at the beach.

When the occupants of the other vehicle realized Hamilton and Randle were no longer behind them, the driver pulled a U-turn and backtracked. Seeing the women standing by the road with Texas troopers, the other car pulled in behind, the lawsuit said.

The video shows an officer asking for their IDs and telling them to stay in the car.

“The other family members were there,” Booker said. “They could hear the screams. They saw the gloves go on.”

The Department of Public Safety fired Bui on June 29. Turner was suspended pending an administrative review.

Texas Rangers investigators have reviewed the case, Booker said, and recommended three weeks ago that it be taken before a grand jury. Brazoria County prosecutors are reviewing those findings, she said.

“Texas is a very big state,” Booker said. “It alarms me that something that happened in north Texas also happened down here in the south.” Since the federal lawsuit became public, the attorney says her office has received about five phone calls from women saying they, too, had been subjected to cavity searches by state troopers.

Booker has also consulted with another lawyer who represents a woman who filed a similar body cavity search complaint with the DPS involving Trooper Bui.

“A lot of people are scared to come forward,” Booker said. “But people are contacting us. They say ‘hey, this happened to me, too.’’’


Link:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/troopers-texas-probe-genitals-women-traffic-stops-article-1.1414668#ixzz2aqpWDd2U


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