NORTHAMPTON - Nearly 100 people who were illegally strip-searched on arrival at the Hampshire County jail will be eligible for payments of at least $1,500 each under the settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
Those eligible for payments were strip-searched at the jail after being arrested between Jan. 18, 2002 and Nov. 7, 2002, for crimes that did not involve drugs, weapons or violent felonies, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported, quoting the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
Charles V. Ryan IV, a Worthington lawyer who brought the lawsuit, will receive at least $10,000 of the $205,000 settlement that received preliminary approval from U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor. The deal was disclosed on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
Final approval will likely be in June. Class action members must submint a claim form by June 22 to receive a share of the compensation, the newspaper reported.
Ryan, 52, was arrested during a Martin Luther King weekend in 2002 on a charge of violating a restraining order obtained by his now-ex-wife. He was brought to the jail, strip-searched and held for four nights until court opened on Tuesday. The case was eventually dismissed.
"It was probably the worst experience of my life. My father, the mayor of Springfield, came to see me in jail. I had to be strip-searched after I met him, which is apparently legal," Ryan told The Republican newspaper of Springfield.
In January 2005 he filed a lawsuit alleging unconstitutional strip searches at the Hampshire Jail and House of Corrections. The lawsuit was filed against the Hampshire Sheriff Robert Garvey and Patrick J. Callihane, the Deputy Superintendent responsible for operation of the facility.
The jail policy was changed when the Hampshire County lockup, which only holds people who were arrested and not yet arraigned, was opened in November 2002. Prior to its opening, those who were arrested were held with the rest of the jail population.
Authorities now "don’t strip-search people prior to appearance in court unless there is significant probability they have something that could hurt themselves or others," Garvey told the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday.
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Love how this a$$hat had to mention who his daddy is.
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