Here we go again.

A Spring woman claims sheriff’s deputies violated constitutional protections by conducting a body cavity search on the concrete of a Texaco gas station parking lot during a routine traffic stop in late June.

Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old African American, was driving in northern Harris County around 10:30 p.m. on June 21 when a male deputy pulled her over for allegedly running a stop sign. He said he smelled marijuana, handcuffed Corley, put her in his vehicle and searched her car for almost an hour. He didn’t find any pot, according to her attorney, Sam Cammack.

Returning to his car where Corley was held, the deputy again said he smelled marijuana and called in a female deputy to conduct a cavity search. When the female deputy arrived, she told Corley to pull her pants down, but Corley protested because she was cuffed and had no underwear on. The deputy ordered Corley to bend over, pulled down her pants and began to search her.

Then, according to Cammack, Corley stood up and protested, so the deputy threw her to the ground and restrained her while another female was called in to assist. When backup arrived, each deputy held one of Corley’s legs apart to conduct the probe.

Incredibly, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department told a local TV station that “the deputies did everything as they should.” And so there you have it. Holding a woman down and forcibly penetrating her vagina to search for pot is official policy in Harris County.

Keep in mind that under Texas law, it takes more than four ounces of marijuana to bring a felony charge. This is what four ounces of marijuana looks like. It seems doubtful that a woman could be casually driving around with that much marijuana stuffed into her vagina. So Corley was forced to the ground, stripped, and penetrated to search for evidence that at worst would have amounted to a misdemeanor. Which means that the Harris County Sheriff’s Department believes its perfectly acceptable to allow a stranger to forcibly probe a woman’s vagina in order to prevent her from possessing a personal-use quantity of marijuana. And even that happened without a warrant, based only on one deputy’s claim to have smelled the drug.

This story comes two years after two women filed a lawsuit claiming they were cavity searched after being pulled over for throwing cigarette butts out of the window. That lawsuit claimed to have found evidence that such searches were “standard procedure” in the Texas Highway Patrol. In May, Reason’s Jacob Sullum found three more incidents, all involving women suspected of possessing marijuana. Publicity from those incidents prompted the Texas legislature to pass a law that’s supposed to prohibit such searches without a warrant. But that law doesn’t take effect until next month. That the state would need such a law in the first place speaks volumes.

But it isn’t just Texas. In January of last year, I noted the other places where these searches have happened:

Oakland recently paid $4.6 million to 39 men who were illegally strip searched in public. A similar lawsuit was filed in Chicago just this week. There have been other recent allegations of cavity searches in Citrus County,Florida; Coral Springs, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Mission, Kansas. In Milwaukee, a group of four cops spent two years subjecting women to illegal cavity searches after traffic stops. They at least have been arrested and charged.

But requiring a warrant won’t stop these incidents from happening. In some jurisdictions, a cop can get a warrant with little more than a phone call. A couple of years ago, two horrifying cases in New Mexico made national headlines. One man subjected to repeated digital anal penetration, x-rays, enemas and a colonoscopy, all without his consent. Days later, another New Mexico man came forward with a similar story. In both cases, the police obtained warrants that were approved by a judge and local prosecutor. And in both instances, the police failed to find any drugs (not that it should matter).

Last October, I also posted here about two additional incidents in which men were anally penetrated during drug searches in Tennessee. One of those searches was authorized when a drug-sniffing dog “alerted” to a $20 the man was carrying. (Gives last week’s post about the inaccuracy of drug dogs a hell of lot more urgency, doesn’t it?)

There are times when it seems like we’re moving in the direction of sanity in the drug war, at least when it comes to marijuana. These cases are a good reminder that in most of the country, things are as bad as they’ve ever been. A majority of the Americans now believe that pot should be legal. In a few states, it already is, at least under state law. A majority also believe that even harder drugs should be treated as a medical condition, not a crime. Yet the government is still waging terrifying raids on people because of pot. It’s still performing sexual assault because pot. It’s still taking children away from their parents because of pot. And it’s still killing people because of pot.

 jasper76 wrote:
(Actually never mind...the article says they found no drugs in the car, but its not clear whether they found anything in her privates.)

On June 21, 2015, Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old black woman from Houston, Texas, was pulled over by a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy after allegedly running a stop sign. The deputy claimed he smelled marijuana on Corley, and subsequently cuffed her and put her in the back of his patrol car while he searched her vehicle. Finding nothing, the deputy called a female officer to the scene to perform a vaginal search. Yes, a vaginal search. All because he suspected she had weed.

According to Corley, the female officer, upon her arrival, “tells me to pull my pants down, I said, ‘Ma’am, I don’t have any underwear on.’ She says, ‘Well, that doesn’t matter. Pull your pants down.’”

KTRK reports:

[Corley] admits hesitating. Deputies say she resisted.

“I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, ‘Ma’am, No. You cannot do this,’” Corley told us candidly.

She insists at no time did she give consent for any such search. She’s retained an attorney, Sam Cammack, who argues that a search like this in a public parking lot is a violation of her civil rights.

Cammack tells the Houston Chronicle that “Corley stood up and protested, so the deputy threw her to the ground and restrained her while another female was called in to assist. When backup arrived, each deputy held one of Corley’s legs apart to conduct the probe.” Corley was then arrested for resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. (Where the marijuana was found is not specified.)

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department claims that Corley consented to the roadside cavity search, referencing the officer’s notes where it says she told the deputy that he could “strip search her if I needed to.”

Corley and her attorney deny that she ever gave permission and say that the search was “undeniably” unconstitutional. (“A body cavity search without a warrant would be constitutionally suspect,” agrees the ACLU of Texas’ Rebecca Robertson. “But a body cavity search by the side of the road... I can’t imagine a circumstance where that would be constitutional.”)

“I feel like they sexually assaulted me! I really do. I feel disgusted, downgraded, humiliated,” Corley, who is now going public with her story, tells KTRK.

She and Cammack have filed a complaint with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office’s Internal Affairs Division.

Reviewing today’s events: White 20-year-old male drives stoned, takes silly selfie with his arresting officer. Black 21-year-old female suspected to be in possession of weed is restrained, has police officer’s hand forcibly inserted into her vagina.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:


Seriously, you would think in these days where every little mistake a cop makes gets turned into national news, at least one of the cops involved would have at least rethought the decision to do a body cavity search in a nonsterile environment. To have even done the search at all was unnecessary. If you've got the probable cause for it, you arrest the person, take them in, and hold them until you get the warrant or whatever. It's not like the marijuana in her hoohah was just going to disappear our something.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
"Is that a harmless plant I smell on you? I am going to have to call in backup so they can probe your vegina."

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I suspect they have (in general) been worse but people dismissed complaints because

'the police would not do that (do decent folk)'

but the wide spread used of cameras in various forms now proves that they do, at least sometimes

there has also been a general bluring of the 'good' and 'bad' citizen in terms of stuff like drugs.

So far more people who think of themselves as law abiding and thus believe they should be immune to police interference are coming up against the police as just not acting like they should (which then winds up the police)

 Orlanth wrote:
It could be worse.

The police might have claimed to have been looking for crack.

 Steve steveson wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I suspect they have (in general) been worse but people dismissed complaints because

'the police would not do that (do decent folk)'

but the wide spread used of cameras in various forms now proves that they do, at least sometimes

there has also been a general bluring of the 'good' and 'bad' citizen in terms of stuff like drugs.

So far more people who think of themselves as law abiding and thus believe they should be immune to police interference are coming up against the police as just not acting like they should (which then winds up the police)

Yep, I think this is part of it. Previously, without the ability to record the indecent and widely distribute the victims point of view, accusations have fizzled out quickly with people saying "well, they must have done something wrong, otherwise the police would not have stopped them", unless it was them or someone they knew. No smoke without fire and all that.

However, I do also think now people are more willing to believe the police are all evil and corrupt. We have had police assaulting and killing people illegally, but we have we have also had the police being attacked for defending themselves against violent assaults and genuine threats, or people committing crimes making entirely false accusations and the media being ready to jump on the police without question, like this one. That the time the media were very quick to back her, until the recording was released:

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Professor-Falsely-Claimed-Trooper-Racially-Profiled-Her-Union-320285031.html

 Kilkrazy wrote:


Also, we don't know the skin colour of the police involved, but they probably were white and the woman was black, so fairly likely that racism was a factor.

 d-usa wrote:
Wasn't there a recent ruling somewhere that "smelling" weed is not enough for probable cause?

 kronk wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
Wasn't there a recent ruling somewhere that "smelling" weed is not enough for probable cause?

Sounds like pinko leftism from #PotHeadLivesMatter!

 Orlanth wrote:
It could be worse.

The police might have claimed to have been looking for crack.

 Ustrello wrote:
They are assuming the silent blue wall will protect them. It has worked well in the past.