Strip search leads to officer’s dismissal

An Arizona detention officer has been arrested and is being fired in an improper strip search of a Topock woman who was being booked into a jail facility in Mohave Valley earlier this month.

Shannon Correll, 25, of Bullhead City was jailed Monday on charges of unlawful sexual conduct in a corrections facility and false imprisonment, Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan said.

Correll was involved in the Aug. 4 booking of the woman for a domestic dispute when he removed her from the jail and led her to a shed , Sheahan said. Correll ordered her to take off her clothes and made sexually suggestive remarks as she undressed, the sheriff said.

The woman, the mother of a 3-month-old child, reluctantly complied when Correll insisted she had to remove her undergarments, according to Lee Phillips, a Flagstaff lawyer who is deciding whether to file a claim over the incident.

Both Sheahan and Correll said the woman was not touched. The sheriff said Correll, with the department about a year, admitted improper conduct and has been served a notice of intent to terminate his employment.