Women Stripped After Miami Free Trade Arrests Win Class-Action Suit
MIAMI -- Three women strip-searched after being arrested during the 2003 free-trade protests have forced Miami-Dade County to end indiscriminate searches and to pay $4.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. Women Stripped After Miami Free Trade Arrests Win Class-Action Suithttp://www.local10.com/news/4392320/detail.html
April 19, 2005
MIAMI -- Three women strip-searched after being arrested during the 2003 free-trade protests have forced Miami-Dade County to end indiscriminate searches and to pay $4.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
The tentative settlement of a suit filed by Judith Haney, Liat Mayer and Jamie Loughner was signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan in Miami.
"Body cavity searches are extremely violating for anyone but particularly for women," Terry Coble, president of the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Terms of the settlement apply to those arrested between March 5, 2000, and Feb. 28, 2005. It could involve up to 100,000 people, although many would get only $10, said the newspaper, which is published in Fort Lauderdale.
The women were arrested in 2003 during a Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in downtown Miami. They said they were invasively searched at the county jail.
The jail had been doing the practice for years, but it didn't come to the notice of the plaintiffs' lawyers until after police arrested 234 people during the meeting.
"That's how we found out about it, the FTAA," said Randall Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute and a lawyer for the women.
Miami-Dade County denied any wrongdoing and agreed to the settlement because it's a favorable resolution, said Assistant County Attorney Jeffrey Ehrlich.
The county has changed its procedures and agreed to comply with state law, which bars jail officials from strip-searching people who have been arrested for minor offenses unless the person is arrested on a drug charge, is suspected of having contraband or is booked on a violent offense. The law requires supervisors to give written authorization for such a search.
Haney said Monday from Tampa that she felt attacked when jail officials ordered her to take off her clothes, bend over and hop as she was being booked. The procedure is supposed to dislodge any hidden weapon or contraband.
"It was a small room with a door facing a hallway where anyone on legitimate business could walk by and see me naked," said Haney, 50, a project manager at a California biotech firm.
The three women were later joined by four other plaintiffs. According to the payout formula, the seven will divide $300,000.
Anyone arrested on a charge dealing with violence, drugs or weapons who was strip-searched without the approval of a supervising officer is entitled to $10, according to the settlement.
To look back at Local10.com's special section that covered the FTAA meetings, click here.
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