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| San Fran. lawsuit challenges strip searches of minors |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/29/2004 |
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Lawyers representing a 13-year-old middle school student sued in federal court Nov. 19, 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. Marie Doe was held overnight at juvenile hall, but never charged. |
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