TrueBlueAmerican

Title
Innocent Woman Brutally Strip Searched

Link
Exclusive: Strip search of woman by Sheriff's Deputies called outrageous
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Excerpt

CANTON -- Hope Steffey's night began with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, completely naked and sobbing on a jail cell floor.
Steffey says Stark County sheriff's deputies used excessive force and assaulted her during a strip search 15 months ago, according to a federal lawsuit.

Stark County Sheriff Timothy Swanson denies the allegation.

Steffey's attorney says her clothes, including her underwear and bra, were stripped from her body by at least seven male and female sheriff's deputies and jail workers. She lay face down in handcuffs at the time.

"Hope begged and pleaded with her ... assailants to stop," the lawsuit says. "There was no forcible penetration but Hope felt as if she was being raped."

The sheriff denies this was a strip search.

The sheriff's policy requires officers conducting any strip search to be of the same sex.

Her attorney, David Malik, said Steffey, 41, was never asked to voluntarily remove her clothes.
In an e-mail, Swanson said Steffey was asked to remove her clothes but refused. He said deputies took them off for her own safety.

Swanson declined to comment further, saying the details would come out in court.

Channel 3 News obtained exclusive video of Steffey's night in the Stark County jail cell. You can click the link at the bottom of the page to view it. A warning: it is difficult to watch.

Steffey declined to be interviewed for this story. But her husband, a high school educator, talked to Channel 3's Tom Meyer.

Greg Steffey said his wife is still traumatized. But the couple wants the story told to prevent it from happening to someone else.

"This could be your wife or anyone's wife," Greg Steffey said.

He said he still can't believe this happened to Hope, a 125-pound woman who, earlier that night, turned to police for help.

"You don't treat people like this," Greg Steffey said. "I don't think murderers are treated like this much less people charged with disorderly conduct."

Steffey's ordeal with the Stark County Sheriff's deputies began after her cousin called police for help.

In a 9-1-1 call, her cousin said Steffey had been assaulted by another cousin.

When a Stark County deputy arrived, he asked for Steffey's driver's license. She accidentally turned over her dead sister's license, which she said she keeps in her wallet as a memento, the lawsuit says.

The deputy refused to give the license back and told Steffey to "shut up about your dead sister," according to her attorney.

The sheriff denied that in a written response to the lawsuit.

Eventually, Steffey was arrested and taken to the Stark County Jail. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

After her clothes were removed, she was locked in a cell. To stay warm, she wrapped herself in toilet paper. She remained in the cell for six hours.

During that time, she was not allowed to use a phone or seek medical attention for injuries she suffered that night, including a cracked tooth, bulging disc and bruises, the lawsuit says.

The sheriff denies that.

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Comment:

Disgusting. Ill post links to the videos in a minute.

Warning: Its hard to watch.

TrueBlueAmerican

Part 1:


Part 2:

TrueBlueAmerican

And if you really want to be disgusted, take a look at what police officers are saying on various police forums about this incident.

On more than one occasion they ridicule her for covering her naked body with toilet paper and they bend over backwards to excuse the behavior of these dirty thugs.

But I bet if it was their wife being brutalized like that they would be singing a different tune.

Kana

I've seen this video before and it's pretty vile. It's should make a lot of people, especially women, think twice about calling the police when they need help.

Unfortunately, you don't even need to call the police for them to single you out for violence.
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids

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Groovyville

Ptech

Yeah, the American Police State in action.

gonzo

What? You can't find something anti-cop that's more current than this 15 month old bit TBA? Come on, this has been hashed and rehashed on every forum I visit. I know you can do better than this.

TrueBlueAmerican

Its news to me.

The 'incident' happened in 2006.

The article is from earlier this year.

Created: 1/31/2008 4:54:38 PM
Updated:2/4/2008 12:34:48 PM

This is by far one of the most shocking things ive ever seen in my life, and I think its far worse than the usual police beatings you see. I went to bed last night and I could still hear her screams in my head when the room got quiet. And this is coming from someone who doesnt get squeemish watching beheadings and hanging.

Coincidently I was researching the topic of what happens to people when they get sent to jail for a research topic, and while sidetracked on the strip search procedures I ran into this article and the clips.

Kanadesaga

the police are like any other group. there are people that abuse their authority all the time. Principals in schools I have known are dictatorial in their operations. It's just that the police have a bit more authority than most. And given the laizzaire faire approach the DoJ has taken to civil liberty infractions I doubt much will change.

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Free all Political prisoners. Now.

TrueBlueAmerican

I think things will change when good constitution fearing liberals stop shying away from America's coercive aparatuses and start persuing careers in law enforcement. Theres no denying that the law enfocement community today is riddled with people who have an utter disdain for the the constitution and the citizen in general. Our nation needs good people to balance out the bad ones if not to overtake their prevailing point of view.

If that police department had some decent people around, they would have stopped those thugs from doing what they did when they heard the screams for help. Those are the non existent people that her screams for help were directed at.

Mark M.

I have to say the video was disturbing and there was a civil rights violation there and yes that woman was raped by the officers without penatration.

I have several officers in my direct family and I would never speak to them again if they were to do anything close to this.

She called the police for help and got stripped and thrown in jail.

We have a problem with police brutality in both Sacramento and Elk Grove. Recently an Officer in Elk Grove shot and killed an unarmed criminal and was not prosocuted for it. He was cleared of all charges but the simple question still remains.....who are the real criminals in that situation and in the video on this thread.

The real problem is that police agencies get away with this nearly everytime. This is why a majority of Americans do not see the police as being on their side.

Smaller situations very similar to this happen everyday. I, myself went to the EG Police department some years ago to ask a question and from the very beginning the officer was defensive and tried to "Handle" me as if I was a criminal trying to pull something and all I wanted to do was speak to a community service officer about a neighborhood problem. When I complained to the Mayors office I got a call two days later from a Captain in the Police department who lied to me about being on a speaker phone and several times I was told I was being a trouble maker for lodging a complaint to thru the Mayors office.....which was 5 steps away from the Police department.

I was accused of a false complaint and told i would need to retract it. I told them the were raising their voice to me and I was beginning to feel as though there only purpose of calling me was to drop the complaint. I said I had every right to make the complaint because the officer did exactly as I stated. He treated me as if I was the problem when all I asked was about the law regarding a car backing out of a drive way backwards and into the wrong lane facing me and blocking me right of way. I told them I would not drop the complaint and that they just made me fear for my own safety from them because they were attempting to intimidate me.

I also told them they made it clear to me what they thought about citizens, and I would have second thoughts the next time I saw any illegal activity in my area. I told them I would think of myself and their treatment of me from now on.

Sac police are even worse not to mention the District Attorney.