The Degradation Of A Strip Search

Another Update:

As of May 5th sheriff Swanson has still NOT turned over all the Steffy video!
There must be something on there they don't want out.

Looks like a 5th woman is coming forward with her story. She said she fears reprisals for speaking out.
I can see why, it seems that everyone in that county is part of the problem, at least all the ones I have talked to.
And she works in the juvenile detention facility!

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=88666

And now surprise, the State Attorney General, who is supposed to be investigating this incident, is himself being investigated.

How would he be able to investigate the Steffy case, when he himself seems to be part of the problem????

They called for his resignation, but he refused, so now they are going the impeachment route.

CUT&PASTE:
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has refused to step down as Ohio's Attorney General, despite pleas that he do so or face impeachment.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=88776

I can imagine what the state AG is up to. They are holding off on the investigation, until the Steffy settlement.

Which is supposed to be sometime this month.

Then more than likely, the settlement will include stuff to kill the rest of the investigation.

An official at the sheriff's dept claims this will not happen. That everything will come out after the state investigation is complete.

I been around the block a couple times and I didn't just get off the banana boat.

I'm calling BS on this, if I'm wrong, so be it. But I think they will quietly try to bury this in the settlement.

Anyone care to bet me $20?

Just the stuff we know FOR SURE is enough to get these sadists jail time.

You don’t leave a victim without medical care.

You don’t have males on females, let alone EIGHT people to strip a handcuffed woman. (4 men & 4women)

You don’t leave them naked, without at least a paper covering.

You don’t take them to be booked naked.

This has nothing to do with them thinking she was suicidal, it was almost CERTAINLY done to humiliate, embarrass, degrade and punish Hope Steffy.

And then there is all the DISPUTED stuff that we have.

That she was attacked by the deputy without just cause. (so he HAS to come up with a charge on her to cover his abuse)
That he pulled on her arm to get her ‘to react’ and then made it seem as if she was resisting.
Deputy and jailers claim that she was in mood swings, but NO VIDEO shows this.
That the deputy left her in the car, while he talked to someone at the jail. (This alone raises a red flag for me!!)
That she was told she could go home after questions.
That she was NEVER asked to remove her cloths.
That the officers attacked her without warning.
That her tooth & back were injured in the multiple attacks by police.

And then we have all the ‘missing’ video for icing on the cake……

This whole county needs to be cleaned out!

Link to Steffy’s lawsuit:
http://pamelahennessy.com/steffey.pdf

CBS news analyzes Police abuse tapes:
http://search.cbsnews.com/?source=cbs&q=Hope+Steffy&x=0&y=0

A link to ALL the videos from WKYC the station that is covering the Steffy case:
http://search.wkyc.com/sp?aff=100&keywords=Hope+steffey&submit=Go

Yes Michell it sure looks that way. BUT heres the scary part. After seeing the Hope Steffy case I started searching the net about 'strip searches'.

As outraged as I was about this incident, I was even more appalled when I started searching the internet and found case after case of the same type of abuses, and I found out that the Bill of Rights & 4th Amendment are no protection at all apparently from attacks like this by police.
Heres a link discussing aspects of the law concerning strip searches:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20031217.html

Scary stuff!!
Police need a warrant to search your house, but it seems the “law” doesn’t apply to the person themselves. And the interpretation and application the “strip search” varies wildly from city to city, county to county and state to state. And they can have laws in place that allow the police to abuse citizens. Not that its legal or will be defensible in court, but they are there anyway!!

Most of the time, it is said only to be allowed if the officer suspects you to have a weapon or drugs. But in practice this isn’t always the case. And in instances of abuse, it’s almost never the case.

Basically it comes down to this, the police can FORCE a strip search on you at any time or place. Even in a public place in view of bystanders or your neighbors. Let alone at the station with a trumped up disorderly conduct charge or something similar.

Your only recourse is to report the incident or take it to court in a lawsuit. The internal investigations are notorious for siding with their officers, even when wrong. Although it seems quoting that it is within ‘standards’ is supposed to excuse the police. I suppose to do otherwise would be to invite a lawsuit. And once a victim has gone through the process, what good is the police coming back and admitting they were wrong, or winning a lawsuit, the damage is already done. Innocent people are scarred for life.

The thing is these abuses are all over the whole country!!
And there have been many lawsuits for these actions, the surprising thing is nothing has been done to cure the problem and restore protections of the 4th amendment.

I believe if police need a warrant for a residence, then they absolutely should need a warrant to strip search a person.

Some police would have you believe that they need this to search for ‘weapons or drugs’. With a pat down and all the metal detectors & wands we have, I don’t see the weapons search excuse as valid. And if we are depending on winning the “War on Drugs”, by pulling down the underpants of women & children, then we are in big trouble.

Police have abused this power for too long, taxpayers have paid lawsuits for this outrageous behavior for too long and we need a federal law to stop the practice.

I have contacted all my Reps in Washington, the Attorney General of the United States and even officials in Ohio.
I had a telephone conversation with John D. Ferrero Stark County Prosecutor. And I wrote the State Attorney General, Marc Dann. I got a 'standard' written reply, yesterday, that they were looking into the case.

I'm going to do whatever can to get a FEDERAL law into place to stop, not just the abuses to the victims, but to the taxpayers also, after lawsuits totaling millions are brought against the police.

Dept of Justice United States:
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

I'm not naive enough to know there isn't another side either.

For a fact we can probably all guess what went down.

Hope gave the cop a hard time about the license.
Cop blows his cool and gets pissed.
Slams her into the squad and then puts her on the ground to cuff her.
Takes her to the station, goes inside to alert the others he has a trouble maker and wants to 'set her up'.
He goes back out to get her and tells her she can go home after some questions.
They do indeed get her to say something stupid.
And they get to video her while they forcibly strip her naked 'for her own safety'.
Then the males signal the females to leave and they get to do the body cavity search on her.(From the look of the video)
And then they leave her six hours naked in the cell and then book her, again naked, except for a vest! (Which is completely BS again.)
The crap hit the fan, and now they are trying to use the 'buddy system' to try to get away with this.

This is probably almost exactly what happened.

The crooked sheriff at first sided with his men, till it exploded into national news, then he pulls the "cover my butt" routine and says HE is calling in the Attorney General. Yeah, right.....nice try there Jim Swanson. He knew by then that there was no stopping an investigation by the time it went national.
He should be jailed too.
Lets just hope their "network of terror" doesn't include enough people to let them blow this off.

AND IT IS BS!! NO ONE should have to go through something like that for a misdemeanor. Let alone the victim that has been knocked unconscious. And I'm almost sure to a person that if it was anyone's wife here, they would be going through the ceiling.

I am contacting all my reps to see when the Bill of Rights & 4th Amendment was revoked.

These criminals need to be rounded up & imprisoned!

EDIT: Yeah theres more to this story alright......

Teens Strip Searched in warped 'Scared Straight' in Stark County

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?I...ubCategoryID=0

Four More women come forward:
http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=59226

CBS news comments:
http://search.cbsnews.com/?source=cb...Steffy&x=0&y=0