Outrageous! You WILL be offended!

Wow. If that was my wife I would probably be in jail right now.

 

I doubt that we have the whole story yet.

 

It sounds like the woman on the video was attacked, then gave the wrong ID (the driver's liscense of her dead sister) to the officer. She tried to get the wrong ID back and give him hers but he refused. Then, magically, the dashboard cam goes "off," so there's no proof as to why the officer arrested the woman in the video.

They then took her to the jail and asked her if she had weapons or sharp objects or if she wanted to harm herself. She asked "Now or ever?" Her simple and benign clarification question was clearly misinterpreted by the officers because they forcefully put her on the ground and started removing her clothes. This county (and most counties for that matter) stipulate that strip searches are only performed by deputies of the same sex as the one being searched, which was clearly violated here.

Not only that, but they wouldn't tell her what they were doing or why. They then left her in the cell for 6 hours with not clothes on, so she covered herself with toilet paper to keep warm and avoid further embarassment.

You know, it is clear who is at fault here. Even if she did committ a crime, they obviously treated her completely inappropriately.

 

Perhaps.

I don't believe we know all the facts.

 

As I watch the joy in her lawyer's leering face I can't help but think how stupid it is to scream and kick at the police. A more calm approach might have solved the entire issue. I don't believe the cops suddenly jumped her when she answered "Now or ever?" when they asked if she had thought of hurting herself.

That is certainly a biased story. I hope the truth comes out, whatever it may be.

In the mean time, congratulations to the new millionaires!

 

Unwarranted abuse and her civil rights were violated. Hopefully she gets a huge settlement. Everyone involved should be fired.

 

If they thought she was suicidal I can see not giving her back her clothes. However, when I worked in a jail we had paper gowns for those people. They could have at least given her that. Of course that is assuming they had them. I agree though we dont know all the facts.

Secondly, in both jails I worked at ONLY women were allowed in the room with other women in strip searches. There is no reason for a male cop, guard whatever to strip down a woman. We may not have all the facts, but I dont believe there is ANY excuse for this for any reason.

 

This is ridiculous, I don't care how many facts we have or don't have. Women being stripped searched by men, and left naked for 6 hours, needing medical attention is ridiculous, and I hope she wins hugh amounts of money.
I've never heard of them taking away all of a persons clothing for a holding cell, they only take your belt, and shoe strings.

 

I finally got the video to play, and that is sick, even claiming, well we don't know all the facts, is horrendous. Can you imagine, your the victim of an assualt and they arrest you and strip search you and leave you naked. I don't care why! It si against the law for men to strip search women, and we can see that with our own eyes.

 

The video generated the intended precipitous reaction.

 

I agree. Clothes are always taken on suicidal people in both jails I've been in. But there are always paper cloths or clothes to cover up with too.

 

The Sheriff says it was not a strip search.

He says she was told to disrobe and put on jail togs. She refused.

Of course, she says she was never told to disrobe.

Could this all have been a result of her cutesy remark about being suicidal?

 

I always give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt until proven other wise. But I am having trouble with this.

 

Of course they did. Because police never lie.

It doesn't matter. Women are to be strip searched by women. They violated her civil rights, humiliated her, abused their power, and sounds like they beat her, by her injuries. No matter what she did, they are to protect and serve us.
They were way out of line and deserved to be fired.

 

Neither do prisoners.

 

She has video proof they were abusing their power and men were present during the strip search. They were wrong and she has the proof.

 

She doesn't have video proof for what led to the forcible disrobing.

This incident took place in 2006.

(Sheriff)"Swanson's statement said his office investigated an incident involving Steffey. She was charged and later convicted in Alliance Municipal Court of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, he said.

"We have answered all inquiries by the attorneys and we are prepared to proceed in a court of law, NOT IN THE MEDIA," Swanson said in a statement.

He declined to comment further, citing the pending allegations.

 

Wholeheartedly agree. However, this video was slanted toward the victims side of the story. Just the fact that she was humiliated by being stripsearched by male police officers would be enough for be to sue the pants off that county. There are obviously many aspects of this story that we dont know.