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| Strip searches in jail to cost county $3.3M |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/28/2004 |
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York County (Maine) has agreed to pay $3.3 million and maintain a policy that gives its jail inmates more privacy when changing into uniforms to settle a class-action lawsuit that challenged strip searches at the jail, lawyers said yesterday. The agreement still needs to be approved by a federal judge. A preliminary settlement hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 24, but settlement checks probably will not be distributed until late next year. If the agreement is approved, it will be one of the largest civil rights settlements ever in Maine, said David Webbert, an Augusta lawyer who represents the plaintiffs. "This settlement is a complete victory. We have stopped a degrading and unnecessary practice that was going on for many years before we filed suit," Webbert said. The relatively large settlement also "sends an important message that the government must respect the civil rights of all citizens, even those who are in jail," said Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer who also represents the plaintiffs. The lawsuit was filed in 2002 by Michele Nilson of North Andover, Mass., who was arrested in Ogunquit for driving with a suspended driver's license in 1999 and forced to take off her clothes in front of a corrections officer when taken to the jail in Alfred. The lawsuit contended that the York County Sheriff's Department violated the law by requiring all persons brought to the jail to strip and shower in front of an officer, no matter what charge was brought against them. Lawyers have estimated that as many as 7,500 people were illegally stripped at the jail and could be eligible to receive part of the settlement. The actual amount lawsuit members receive depends on how many people submit claim forms. The agreement stipulates that female members of the suit will get double the payout as men because previous jury verdicts have generally given higher awards to women because of the perception that strip searches are more intrusive and humiliating for them than for men. |
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