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Second NM Lawsuit Filed Over Body Cavity Searches

AGENT J

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Second NM Lawsuit Filed Over Body Cavity Searches - ABC News

A second lawsuit was filed Friday against southern New Mexico authorities accused of illegally subjecting drug suspects to invasive body cavity searches. And the attorney who filed the cases says she has been getting calls from others saying they were detained after the uncertified drug-sniffing dog at the heart of both cases raised suspicions.
Albuquerque civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy filed the new lawsuit against the Hidalgo County sheriff's office on behalf of Timothy Young, who says he was strip-searched in a gas station parking lot, then taken to the hospital for a cavity search. The lawsuit claims the searches were unreasonable, and that the body cavity search was in violation of the search warrant issued. Kennedy says the warrant was issued to search his body but not body cavities.
The sheriff of the border county could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kennedy has also filed suit against the sheriff's office and police in Deming on behalf of a southern New Mexico man who was taken to two hospitals and forced to have anal probes, three enemas, two body X-rays and a colonoscopy following a traffic stop.
WTF?!?!

wow thats crazy and this seems to be a thing that is happening in many places


Police turn routine traffic stops into cavity searches

Timothy Young had just turned into a gas station in Lordsburg, N.M., at 10 p.m. and was about to fill up his pickup truck when several police cars pulled up behind him. The officers from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office accused him of failing to use his turn signal, and asked him whether he was using or carrying drugs.


According to a complaint filed Friday in a federal court in New Mexico, what happened next in the October 2012 incident was nothing short of a six-hour nightmare. Young, 31, was forced to strip from the waist down in a public parking lot and then submit his body to an X-ray and anal penetration at a nearby hospital, all under the supervision of peace officers searching for contraband.


In Young’s case, the officers searched his truck with a drug dog, which alerted them that it had detected drugs in the driver’s seat. The police couldn’t find any drugs in the truck, so they ordered Young to drop his pants and underwear in the public parking lot to search him. Then, at 2 a.m., they got a warrant for a body search at the local hospital, where Young was digitally penetrated and X-rayed, according to the complaint.
He was discharged at 4:30 a.m., after cops failed to find contraband in his truck or hidden in his body. He was never arrested or charged with anything throughout the entire ordeal. Later, Gila Medical Center sent him a bill for $600.


Just a few months after Young’s encounter, some of the same officers stopped another man, David Eckert, in a Wal-Mart parking lot for failing to yield at a stop sign. The officers searched his car with a drug dog that alerted them to the smell of drugs. But they couldn’t find any contraband on Eckert or in his vehicle, so they obtained a warrant for a search of his body.
Over the course of 12 hours last January, Eckert was forced to receive an X-ray, CT scan, digital rectal exam, three enemas and a colonoscopy under anesthesia, according to his complaint filed in federal court this week. Eckert says the officers laughed at him at times while he was undergoing the procedures at Gila Regional Medical Center, the same hospital where Young was taken.
Like Young, Eckert was also billed for the procedures — this time for $6,000.


600 and 6000 dollar bills for being innocent?


back up links
Second lawsuit filed against authorities in US state over body cavity searches for drugs
Police turn routine traffic stops into cavity searches
Routine Traffic Stop Turns into14-hour Anal Cavity Search for Drugs
 
They will burn in hell, and I will smile like a giddy schoolgirl as I spit on their graves.
 

I hope there is a $100,000,000 judgment against the hospital and those professionals involved.
 
I hope there is a $100,000,000 judgment against the hospital and those professionals involved.

not sure the hospital did anything wrong unless i missed something

i mean the smart thing is to do a move called the shot gun approach where you sue everyone but IF there were warrants or court orders the hospital is only following those.
 
not sure the hospital did anything wrong unless i missed something

i mean the smart thing is to do a move called the shot gun approach where you sue everyone but IF there were warrants or court orders the hospital is only following those.

The hospital performed medical procedures that were not medically needed against the will of the person the procedure was being performed on.

So yes the hospital did something wrong, I wont go into the fact the hospital billed the person for the unwanted and not needed procedures
 
1.)The hospital performed medical procedures that were not medically needed against the will of the person the procedure was being performed on.

So yes the hospital did something wrong

2.) I wont go into the fact the hospital billed the person for the unwanted and not needed procedures

1.)the will of the person doesnt matter one bit "IF" there was a court order/warrant to do so

2.) yes this is my opinion this is wrong but again, if there was a court order/warrant of course the hospital charges the patient :shrug: unless they are court ordered not too
 
not sure the hospital did anything wrong unless i missed something

i mean the smart thing is to do a move called the shot gun approach where you sue everyone but IF there were warrants or court orders the hospital is only following those.

They could have simply refused to do the procedure, and they wouldn't be sued now. In the first case i heard of, the doctors at the first hospital refused so the cops had to go elsewhere.

Alternatively, we could just grow up and legalize drugs so this **** never happens again.
 
I read about this story a few days ago. I frankly don't see how this is any different than anal rape.

Probable cause was established based on how the suspect was standing. That's it. Nothing more. That's all they needed to call in a phone warrant. The judge should also be sued.
 
1.)the will of the person doesnt matter one bit "IF" there was a court order/warrant to do so

2.) yes this is my opinion this is wrong but again, if there was a court order/warrant of course the hospital charges the patient :shrug: unless they are court ordered not too

I can accept a single body cavity search as being acceptable with a search warrant. But multiple ones that were increasingly invasive, and potentially harmful, passes the line of being justifiable. It was at that point they did wrong. It move to cruel and unusual punishment for a person who at the time was not found to be guilty of anything and punishment the hospital staff took part in
 

Roh Roh, somebody was playing fast and loose with the law. I foresee people owning the Police departments involved.
 
I can accept a single body cavity search as being acceptable with a search warrant. But multiple ones that were increasingly invasive, and potentially harmful, passes the line of being justifiable. It was at that point they did wrong. It move to cruel and unusual punishment for a person who at the time was not found to be guilty of anything and punishment the hospital staff took part in



This is just one small example of the abuse of power that local and state agencies perpetuate against normal, everyday citizens of this country.
 
not sure the hospital did anything wrong unless i missed something

i mean the smart thing is to do a move called the shot gun approach where you sue everyone but IF there were warrants or court orders the hospital is only following those.

Not if they are expired or in the wrong county. Then they are screwed. Even if the warrants were legitimate and correct they could still refuse based on the Hippocratic oaths they took, as they are NOT obligated to follow any police directives unless so ordered by a court.
 
1.)They could have simply refused to do the procedure, and they wouldn't be sued now. In the first case i heard of, the doctors at the first hospital refused so the cops had to go elsewhere.

2.) Alternatively, we could just grow up and legalize drugs so this **** never happens again.

1.) if there was a warrant/court order that could also land them in trouble

2.) while i do support legalizing come drugs, illegal searches still need addressed.
 
1.)I can accept a single body cavity search as being acceptable with a search warrant. But multiple ones that were increasingly invasive, and potentially harmful, passes the line of being justifiable.
2.) It was at that point they did wrong. It move to cruel and unusual punishment for a person who at the time was not found to be guilty of anything and punishment the hospital staff took part in

1.) again i agree with you but thats just our OPINION, if theres a court order it becomes grey really fast
2.) the cops in out opinion yes, the hospital, not if the warrant calls for it
 
Not if they are expired or in the wrong county. Then they are screwed. Even if the warrants were legitimate and correct they could still refuse based on the Hippocratic oaths they took, as they are NOT obligated to follow any police directives unless so ordered by a court.

which is what i sad :shrug:
 
which is what i sad :shrug:

I was talking about being specifically ordered by a court to perform the search, not just because the police have a warrant in hand. Sorry about the confusion.
 
1.) if there was a warrant/court order that could also land them in trouble

There was no court order for a colonoscopy, that's for sure. Even the judge can't be so blind as to think he's got that kind of unmitigated power. That procedure can kill someone and for what, he might be hiding some weed in there? No truly free country would abide this, and no "healer" would go along with it.
 
There was no court order for a colonoscopy, that's for sure. Even the judge can't be so blind as to think he's got that kind of unmitigated power. That procedure can kill someone and for what, he might be hiding some weed in there? No truly free country would abide this, and no "healer" would go along with it.

then the move for the hospital would to be to also sue the police :shrug:
 
... as they are NOT obligated to follow any police directives unless so ordered by a court.

A Court can not order such as is the subject here.
 
1.) if there was a warrant/court order that could also land them in trouble

2.) while i do support legalizing come drugs, illegal searches still need addressed.

I'm betting that the cops put all of their marbles on the errant dogs for probable cause, and neglected that actual warrant signed by a judge.

I'm also teetering on the possibility that the hospital jumped on the chance to make easy money, and performed the work based solely on the verbal instructions from the cops.

Time will tell.
 
1.)I'm betting that the cops put all of their marbles on the errant dogs for probable cause, and neglected that actual warrant signed by a judge.

2.)I'm also teetering on the possibility that the hospital jumped on the chance to make easy money, and performed the work based solely on the verbal instructions from the cops.

Time will tell.

1.) very possible
2.) or even the hospital could have been muscled in a way not knowing what they have to do and what they can refuse to do
 
No, IF anything, it was Reasonable Suspicion, and even that is pushing it.



You can't sue a Judge for that.

Judges can be sued.

8.2.A.1. Judicial Immunity

The Supreme Court held in Stump v. Sparkman that judges have absolute immunity from Section 1983 damage actions for their “judicial” acts./5/ The Court permitted liability only for acts taken “in the clear absence of all jurisdiction.”/6/ Drawing from the common-law immunity of judges, the Court held that judicial immunity protects judges even when their judicial acts:

exceed their jurisdiction,/7/
are done maliciously or corruptly,/8/ or
are flawed by grave procedural error./9/

For example, in Stump, a circuit court judge was held to be absolutely immune from suit for authorizing sterilization of a “somewhat retarded” 15-year-old girl. The girl’s mother brought the petition for sterilization because she had stayed out overnight with young men, and the mother wanted “to prevent unfortunate circumstances.”/10/ Judge Stump approved the petition the day it was filed, without notice to the child or appointment of a special guardian. The girl underwent the procedure six days later under a misinformed belief that she was having her appendix removed. She did not find out about the sterilization, or the court order, until after she married and was unable to become pregnant. The Court reasoned that, though unconstitutional, Judge Stump’s order was a judicial act. Though issued in excess of his jurisdiction, it was not issued in the clear absence of jurisdiction./11/
8.2 Suits Against Public Officials in Their Individual Capacity | Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys
 
I said "You can't sue a Judge for that", meaning issuing a SW in this case, I know about Judicial jurisdictional non Immunity.
 
I hope there is a $100,000,000 judgment against the hospital and those professionals involved.

I read that the first settlement is in to the tune of 1.5 million dollars and quite rightly. I think it is the county that settled but lawsuits against others involved in the breaking of his civil rights are still in the works.
 
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