Rock Hill Police investigate claim that two officers conducted improper strip search
A lawsuit filed this month claims a female Rock Hill police officer conducted an invasive strip search of a woman on the side of Celanese Road.
The alleged “cavity search” happened about two years ago after another officer stopped the woman’s car because he suspected she was using marijuana, according to the lawsuit.
The Rock Hill Police Department is “conducting a full investigation” into the claims made in the lawsuit, officials told The Herald last week. “There are clear procedures for conducting searches of suspects and we are confident that our officers acted appropriately in this case,” department spokesman Brent Allmon said.
The driver, Angela Ruth Doctor of Rock Hill, claims that she was pulled over on Dec. 20, 2012, about 5 p.m.
While the officer searched Doctor’s car, she was detained in the back of his patrol vehicle, Doctor says. Later, a female officer arrived on the scene and “ordered” Doctor to take her clothes off for a search of her body, the lawsuit claims.
The female officer then allegedly conducted a “cavity search” on Doctor outside of the car, resulting in her being exposed on the side of the road, according to the lawsuit and Doctor’s attorney.
Attorney Jake Moore of West Columbia writes in the lawsuit that his client’s right to due process under the U.S. Constitution was violated by the cavity search. The suit alleges that the officers’ “conduct throughout the improper strip search amounts to an assault and battery.”
Doctor is seeking actual and punitive damages, with Moore arguing that his client was “wrongfully forced to strip naked in public” and “deprived of her right to be free from unjust search.” Doctor has suffered emotional distress and has been humiliated and inconvenienced by the incident, Moore claims.
Last week, Moore said that he’s appalled that his client was forced to expose “a body cavity on the side of the road.” The lawsuit does not specifically claim that the officer touched Doctor.
A “pat-down” for potential contraband or weapons may have been appropriate, Moore said, but if officers need to search someone’s private parts, they should get a search warrant. He contends there was no reason for officers to believe that Doctor would have been hiding something on her person and that the alleged incident is “outrageous.”
Had officers believed Doctor was hiding illegal substances, Moore said, they could have arrested her and any search should have been done in an appropriate facility.
Doctor may have been targeted by police because of prior arrests, Moore said. But, “she’s paid her debt to society,” he says, and police cannot do a body cavity search just based on someone’s past criminal record.
York County court records show that Doctor has not been arrested in more than 10 years.
In 1999, she pleaded guilty to a drug and weapon charge. In 2002, she pleaded guilty to grand larceny. In 2003, she was charged with having contraband but the charges were dismissed, records show. Since then, she’s turned her life around and has a great job, Moore said.
Two years ago when she was pulled over and improperly searched, Doctor was doing nothing wrong, Moore argues. The police officers may have had bad training on how to conduct searches or may have known better and did it anyway, he says.
Moore works for the town of Irmo near Columbia as a prosecutor and helps the state Police Benevolent Association as an attorney, he said. He says he rarely sues police officers and tries to support law enforcement in every way.
Still, he said, “Just like lawyers – there are bad lawyers – there’s some bad police officers.”
Rock Hill police records from the alleged incident were not immediately available last week. Allmon said the department could not comment further on the case because of the pending litigation.
This story was originally published December 27, 2014 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Rock Hill Police investigate claim that two officers conducted improper strip search."