A Spring woman claims sheriff’s deputies violated constitutional protections by conducting a body cavity search on the concrete of a Texaco gas station parking lot during a routine traffic stop in late June.
Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old African American, was driving in northern Harris County around 10:30 p.m. on June 21 when a male deputy pulled her over for allegedly running a stop sign. He said he smelled marijuana, handcuffed Corley, put her in his vehicle and searched her car for almost an hour. He didn’t find any pot, according to her attorney, Sam Cammack.
Returning to his car where Corley was held, the deputy again said he smelled marijuana and called in a female deputy to conduct a cavity search. When the female deputy arrived, she told Corley to pull her pants down, but Corley protested because she was cuffed and had no underwear on. The deputy ordered Corley to bend over, pulled down her pants and began to search her.
Then, according to Cammack, Corley stood up and protested, so the deputy threw her to the ground and restrained her while another female was called in to assist. When backup arrived, each deputy held one of Corley’s legs apart to conduct the probe.
Incredibly, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department that “the deputies did everything as they should.â€ÌıAnd so there you have it. Holding a woman down and forcibly penetrating her vagina to search for potÌıis officialÌıpolicyÌıin Harris County.
Keep in mind that , it takes more than four ounces of marijuana to bring a felony charge. ÌıIt seems doubtful that a woman could be casually driving around with that much marijuana stuffed into her vagina. SoÌıCorley was forced to the ground, stripped, and penetrated to search for evidence that at worst would have amounted toÌıaÌımisdemeanor. Which means that theÌıHarris County Sheriff’s Department believes its perfectly acceptable to allow a stranger to forcibly probe a woman’s vagina in order to prevent her from possessing a personal-use quantity of marijuana. And evenÌıthat happened without a warrant, based only on one deputy’s claim to have smelled the drug.
This story comes two years after claiming they were cavity searched after being pulled over for throwing cigarette butts out of the window. That lawsuit claimed to have found evidence that such searches were “standard procedure†in the Texas Highway Patrol. In May, Reason’s Jacob Sullum found three more incidents, all involving women suspected of possessing marijuana. Publicity from those incidents prompted the Texas legislature that¶¶Òõap supposed to prohibitÌısuch searches without a warrant. But that law doesn’t take effect until next month. That the state would need such a law in the first place speaks volumes.
But it isn’t just Texas.Ìı, I noted the other places where these searches have happened:
$4.6 million to 39 men who were illegally strip searched in public. A similar lawsuit was filed . There have been other recent allegations of cavity searches inÌıCitrus County,; Coral Springs, ; Atlanta, ; and . In Milwaukee, a group of four cops spent two years subjecting women to illegal cavity searches after traffic stops. They at least .
But requiring a warrant won’t stop these incidents from happening. In some jurisdictions, a cop can get a warrant with little more than a phone call.Ìı, two horrifying cases in New Mexico made national headlines. One man subjected to repeated digital anal penetration, x-rays, enemas and a colonoscopy, all without his consent. Days later, another New Mexico man came forward with a similar story. In both cases, the police obtained warrants that were approved by a judge and local prosecutor. And in both instances, the police failed to find any drugs (not that it should matter).
Last October, I also posted here aboutÌıin which men were anally penetrated during drug searches in Tennessee. One of those searches was authorized when a drug-sniffing dog “alerted†to a $20 the man was carrying. (Gives last week’s post about a hell of lot more urgency, doesn’t it?)
There are times when it seems like we’re moving in the direction of sanity in the drug war, at least when it comes to marijuana. These cases are a good reminder that in most of the country, things are as bad as they’ve ever been. A majority of the Americans now believe that pot should be legal. In a few states, it already is, at least under state law. A majority also believe that even harder drugs should be treated as a medical condition, not a crime. Yet the government is still Ìıbecause of pot. It¶¶Òõap still becauseÌıpot. It¶¶Òõap still because of pot.ÌıAnd because ofÌıpot.
Aug. 5 report from Texas TV station KTRK:
