Thousands of women illegally strip searched at the Women's Detention Center and other Miami-Dade County correctional facilities may qualify for a piece of the $6.25 million a federal court judge approved in a class-action settlement Monday.
It's being called one of the largest civil rights settlements in the history of Miami-Dade County.
Randall C. Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, which filed the suit against the county in March 2004, said it brought to light how women arrested on misdemeanor charges were routinely stripped and exposed to humiliating searches even if they were pregnant or menstruating.
''It's against the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and against state law in Florida,'' said Berg. ``This is you, your mother, your sister picked up for a misdemeanor.''
TIMEFRAME
Women who were charged with misdemeanors and searched between March 5, 2000 and Feb. 28, 2005 are eligible for the payouts, which will range anywhere between $1,000 and $3,000. Women will be entitled to additional payments if they were younger than 21 or older than 60 at the time of the search, menstruating, pregnant or have a physical or mental disability.
Among those who may be entitled in Miami-Dade County, Berg said, are women brought in for loitering, charges related to prostitution, or driving without a license.
The lawsuit against Miami-Dade County stemmed from a complaint filed by three female protesters who were arrested during the 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas Conference.
Among them: Judy Haney of Oakland, Calif. The 50-year-old was arrested in Miami on Nov. 31, 2003 and charged with failing to disperse. After being frisked and told to empty her pockets, Haney said, she was stunned to learn she was going to be strip searched.
After she removed her clothes, Haney said in a statement, the guard told her ''to turn around, bend all the way over and spread my cheeks.'' Haney was then told to squat and ''hop like a bunny'' -- a method of dislodging contraband -- which was difficult because she has bad knees. The guard then told her to remove her naval piercing and when she couldn't, the guard came back with large clippers and cut it off.
''Most police departments around the country no longer do routine strip searches,'' said Howard Simon, executive director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. ``Sometimes it takes lawsuits to force slow-moving public officials to change bad policies.''
OTHER STATES
Similar class-action lawsuits have been filed in Michigan, parts of California and, most recently, in New Mexico.
Berg believes Miami-Dade is the only county in the state where the illegal strip searches took place -- and thinks the settlement is one of the largest civil rights lawsuits ever settled against the county -- although he is investigating claims in North Florida.
According to Florida law, only men and women charged with felonies should be strip searched. Those charged with a misdemeanor, such as driving without a license, should not be searched unless there is probable cause that the person is hiding contraband, drugs or weapons.
Miami-Dade changed its policy in August 2004.
Before then, any Miami-Dade inmate could be strip searched, including cavity searches -- regardless of the charges -- provided a corrections officer found probable cause, explained Janelle Hall, spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department. Hall said this policy was applied to men and women equally but the lawsuit claimed it only found reports of women being strip searched.
NEW STANDARDS
Now, in addition to probable cause, the officer can only perform the search if police have charged the suspect with violence, possessing illegal drugs or carrying an unauthorized weapon, Hall said.
A memo dated Feb. 8 by Marydell Guevara, acting director of the Miami-Dade Corrections Department, says: There will no longer be a blanket practice of strip searching for people charged with prostitution, traffic, regulatory or misdemeanor violations.
The revised strip search policy is part of Monday's settlement agreement, said First Assistant County Attorney Murray Greenberg.
While the Miami-Dade County Commission approved the tentative settlement, authorized by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan, the county admits no liability, meaning claimants can not file further charges.
''It caps our dollar payouts and in view of the large number of potential plaintiffs both the county attorney and the county manager felt that it was in the county's best interest to resolve the lawsuit,'' said Greenberg.
WIDE RANGE
While neither the county nor Berg are sure of the number of women affected, the estimates range from 12,000 to 50,000.
Of the $6.25 million, $4.55 million will be set aside for claims from both classes and $1.1 million will go to legal fees and expenses, said the county's lead attorney Jeffrey P. Ehrlich.
Another $300,000 will be paid to a claims administrator who will notify class members and publish notices in newspapers and broadcast them on the radio.
Women have until Sept. 1 to submit a claim. Any money remaining after the claims have been processed will be returned to the county.
Said Haney: ``To perform an unreasonable strip search. which in effect is visual rape, is outrageous enough, but to do it to women only and not to men arrested on the same minor nonviolent charge revealed the practice to be doubly unjust.''
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