Judge Overturns Sheriff’s Policy on Searches of Body Cavities

A federal judge has declared unconstitutional the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department policy of conducting visual body cavity searches of all prisoners about to be released from jail.

In a written ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer found that the long-standing practice violates constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

The case was brought by a Los Angeles woman who said that before she was released from the Sybil Brand Institute, she was ushered into a room with 20 other women, all of whom were ordered to strip and submit to visual searches of their private parts.

“The whole incident was offensive,” Munique Williams testified during a deposition in the case.

She also contended that two female sheriff’s deputies who conducted the examinations made disparaging comments about inmates’ bodies.

In defense of the policy, the county’s lawyers said the searches are needed to prevent contraband and weapons from being smuggled into the jail.

They acknowledged that no distinction is made between inmates who are returned from court for continued incarceration and those who are brought back after being ordered freed.

But Pfaelzer homed in on the difference, finding unconstitutional “the Sheriff’s Department’s blanket policy of searching all court returnees, as it applies to detainees ordered released from custody.”

The ruling may not produce any immediate change in department policy, however.

Williams’ lawsuit did not specifically ask for an injunction to halt the practice, and the judge denied a motion by Williams’ lawyers to amend their lawsuit so an injunction could be requested.

Robert Mann, who represents Williams, said an injunction is being sought in another federal lawsuit filed three weeks ago on behalf of six men and women who also were subjected to visual body cavity searches before being released from county custody.

David D. Lawrence, whose law firm is defending the county in the case, said Friday that he had just received the judge’s ruling. He declined to comment until he could study it and confer with his clients. Sheriff’s Department officials also declined to discuss the ruling.

Still to be litigated in Williams’ suit are her charges that she was subjected to unsafe and unsanitary conditions during her three-day incarceration. She said a rat inhabited her jail cell at Sybil Brand. The facility has since been closed for renovations.

Williams’ lawsuit also seeks damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for false arrest.

A single mother of two, Williams was arrested at her home Sept. 5, 1996, on a complaint accusing her of disregarding a subpoena to testify in a murder trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. She contends that she never received the subpoena.

After her arrest, she was jailed overnight at Sybil Brand and taken the next day to see the trial judge, who ordered her freed after Williams promised to appear as a witness.

She was bused back to Sybil Brand, where she was to be released. Upon her return, however, she was subjected to the body cavity search. She actually was not freed until the next day.