A federal class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, claiming it has been conducting illegal strip searches at its jail for at least the past two years.
The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court on behalf of three Pima County residents, claims officials at the Pima County Jail conducted visual body cavity searches on all arrestees prior to them being arraigned, violating the arrestees’ Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure.
“This is a blanket strip search policy,” said Mark E. Merin, a California-based civil rights attorney who filed a similar suit against Santa Cruz County in February 2008. That suit was settled earlier this year for nearly $3.2 million, with about 450 people filing claims.
Merin anticipates the Pima County complaint could apply to as many as 10,000 people who were strip searched at the jail between June 16, 2007 and Monday, resulting in a settlement of between $6 million and $8 million.
