Class action in strip suit claims others harmed
A woman and three men from Southern Indiana are accusing Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills and jail officers in a federal class-action suit of violating their constitutional rights by stripping and torturing them after their arrests.
The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, contends that there are potentially hundreds of other former inmates who have been incarcerated at the jail in New Albany who faced similar treatment. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages and a permanent injunction.
The suit by the four — Tabitha Gentry, Vincent Minton, Michael Herron and Adam Walker — says that the officers forcibly removed their clothes and left them without clothing for prolonged periods while they did not pose any security threat to warrant the treatment.
The suit also says officers regularly exposed detainees' naked bodies to officers of the opposite sex and withheld clothing while in view of jail employees or through video surveillance. The former inmates' suit asserts they were subjected to "offensive touching" and excessive uses of force during and after their clothing was removed.
The lawyer for the four, Laura Landenwich of Louisville, previously released video obtained from the jail of Gentry, a 32-year-old New Albany woman who was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting law enforcement, all misdemeanors, after a domestic disturbance March 30.
The video from surveillance cameras showed officers — a man and two women — struggling with Gentry as they removed her clothing and leaving her naked or partially covered in a padded cell for five hours. At one point, Gentry had to urinate down a floor drain, the suit says.
According to the 18-page complaint, the three men allege that they faced similar treatment after misdemeanor arrests. Minton, 23, of Nabb, in custody for public intoxication, intimidation and disorderly conduct in February 2013, had refused to respond to questions by officers.
The suit says he was placed in a padded cell where officers removed his clothes after Minton yelled and banged on the door to request a lawyer. Once he was naked, an officer activated a Taser on the man's buttocks, and he was left with a smock for several hours, the suit says.
Herron, 36, of Henryville, was arrested in January for public intoxication and disorderly conduct and also placed in the padded cell. Jail officers removed his clothing, and he was given a smock, which the suit said didn't adequately cover his body. He was later given street clothes, booked and released, the suit says.
The third man, Walker, 31, of Georgetown, was arrested in late May on suspicion of drunken driving and was taken to the jail for a Breathalizer test. When he got into an argument with an officer who he said had winked at him, the suit says, he was handcuffed and "tased" seven time and choked until he lost consciousness.
Walker alleges he was dragged in handcuffs to a padded cell where he said his clothes were removed and he was left naked for a time before being given a smock. After about 18 hours in the cell, he was given a jail jumpsuit to wear and a mat to sleep on, the suit says.
Walker also reported seeing another man undergo stripping by officers who pulled the man's feet from under him so that he landed headfirst on the floor and knocked out teeth, the suit says.
Claims made in a lawsuit represent one side of a case. The suit names Mills, and three corrections employees, Sgt. Ryan Rainey, Tiffany Frans and an officer identified only as Atherton, as well as Jane/John Doe officers.
Floyd County recently settled a separate suit filed by a former inmate, Ashley Storms of New Albany, a cousin of Gentry. After Gentry's March arrest, an officer's report described removing the clothing as "per jail policy," according to records provided by Landenwich.
Mills referred a reporter to Jeff Lowe, a lawyer for Floyd County government's legal insurer but a phone message left after hours for Lowe was not returned. Mills said in an interview last week that the jail does not have a policy to strip-search inmates, but clothing can be removed if the garments need to be checked for drugs and other items. Smocks are issued to allow them to cover up, the sheriff said.
Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at (812) 949-4040. Follow her on Twitter @gesinfk.