Strip Searches

A federal judge has ruled that the city's former policy allowing new prisoners to be strip-searched, regardless of the charges against them, was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled last week that the policy, which was changed in January 2004, violated constitutional rules allowing such searches only when inmates are newly arrested on suspicion of crimes involving drugs or violence, or when guards have evidence that an inmate is concealing weapons or contraband.

Three men who say Oakland police conducted strip searches of them in public for no reason have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the city. Darnell Foster, Rafael Duarte and Yancie Young said officers exposed and inspected their buttocks on busy Oakland streets in separate incidents from 2003 to 2005. The department has since drafted a policy requiring officers to conduct searches away from public view.

Israeli tanks and troops made a predawn push into the normally tranquil oasis town of Jericho on Sunday, killing a Palestinian man described by an Israeli military source as a "ticking bomb." Near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, four armed Palestinians were killed early today by Israeli troops, the army said. The firefight near Rafah broke out as soldiers were trying to arrest an Islamic Jihad operative, according to a military spokesman.

A southeast Missouri school district has agreed to pay $7,500 each to the families of eight junior high girls who were strip-searched over missing money, the district superintendent said. The seventh- and eighth-graders, ages 12 to 15, were searched Jan. 6 after $55 disappeared from a teacher's desk. Attorneys said Poplar Bluff Junior High Assistant Principal Mike Ivie and security officer Johnny Williams conducted searches of gym clothing, purses, coats, shoes and pockets.

A Yucca Valley priest who resigned last year amid revelations that he strip-searched a group of seventh- and eighth-grade boys in Indianapolis a decade ago has been reassigned to a retreat in the hills of Riverside, the Diocese of San Bernardino announced Friday. Father Ponciano Ramos will perform administrative duties at the Divine Word Retreat Center, which hosts teen retreats and also serves as a home for retired priests. Bishop Gerald R. Barnes approved the assignment.

The arrest of 71 bicyclists who staged a protest ride during the 2000 Democratic National Convention -- and the jailhouse strip-searches of the women -- was an embarrassing episode for a Los Angeles region striving to put on its best face as host of the political jamboree. Three years later, Los Angeles County is preparing to pay for its role in the much-publicized incident. Today, the Board of Supervisors will consider a proposed $2.

Leaving a high-desert Roman Catholic parish bitterly divided, a Yucca Valley priest has resigned amid revelations that he strip-searched a group of seventh- and eighth-grade boys a decade ago in Indianapolis when the boys were accused of setting off stink bombs in a classroom. Father Ponciano Ramos, the administrator and pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Yucca Valley, resigned over the weekend, officials from the Diocese of San Bernardino said Monday.

School district officials said Wednesday an investigation has confirmed that a group of third-grade students were improperly strip-searched for missing lunch money. According to parents, at least two teachers at Pitcher Elementary searched 23 students for $5 in missing lunch money March 18. The money was eventually found, though not through the searches. The school's principal and two teachers were suspended last week.

A school principal and a teacher were ordered to stay home from school Thursday after a class of third-graders were strip-searched when $5 in lunch money went missing. The money did not turn up in Monday's search of the 26 students, who are between 8 and 9 years old. "There was a strip-search. The kids were asked to take off their clothes. The female teacher searched the girls and the male teacher the boys," Kansas City School District spokesman Edwin Birch said.

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that a strip search of elementary school pupils was unconstitutional but that a teacher and a police officer involved could not be sued for conducting the search. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes was correct in ruling that Clayton County school officials, the school district and county police were shielded from liability in the 1996 search.