James Campbell was in the street talking to some of his friends when a cop drove by. The Indianapolis police officer thought he observed something passing "hand to hand", and pursued Campbell. He ordered Campbell to stop, and Campbell kept walking. So, the officer drew his gun, and ordered him to the ground. Campbell was patted down, and nothing turned up.
Here's the good part: Indianapolis has a policy that any officer having control of a prisoner shall conduct a thorough body search. For Campbell, that meant that the cops pulled his pants partway down, and "separated Campbell's buttocks and did a 'visual inspection' to as to 'make sure he had nothing shoved into his anal area'".
Campbell sued, and although the jury found against him, the appellate court held that "no reasonable jury could find that a strip search conducted in public for no identifiable reason conformed with the 4th Amendment."
I'm not so amazed at the appellate court ruling as I am with the fact that cops consider a "thorough search" to mean a body cavity search in the middle of someone's yard. And, I'm a bit amazed that jurors would think it was OK, too.
Maybe you can just have this done at the border of Indiana, and get a three day pass for your trips there.
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1 comment:
These are pretty interesting facts. I read the 7th Circuit opinion to learn more. Can you tell me how you knew the Mr. Campbell was standing in the street talking with his friends? The opinion didn't talk about that, so I was just wondering whether you knew of another information source. Thanks.
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