$182,000 settlement in strip search challenge

RENO -- A federal magistrate has ruled that the Washoe County sheriff's department's former strip search policy was unconstitutional and ordered the county to pay $182,000 to four women and two men.

County commissioners agreed on Tuesday to pay the settlement after U.S. Magistrate Robert McQuaid ruled against the county in a lawsuit filed by the six. The magistrate said former Sheriff Dennis Balaam's policy requiring strip searches of everyone who surrendered on outstanding warrants violated the Fourth Amendment.

Two men and two women had court orders or made prior arrangements with court services to be released on their own recognizance. Their Reno lawyer, Don Evans, said they never left the booking area or spent any time in jail.

Evans said another plaintiff, an American Indian woman, was strip-searched twice and forced to take a shower under observation after being falsely arrested by tribal police. She was jailed for three days.

He said a 65-year-old grandmother was strip-searched after being arrested and later released without being jailed.

"Why they were strip-searched is beyond me," Evans said. "All the women were traumatized by this. They were hysterical and they were crying."

McQuaid wrote the jailers needed a suspicion that people were trying to smuggle drugs, weapons or other contraband into the jail and they had none.