SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
Another woman has filed a federal lawsuit claiming a strip search done at the Woodbury County jail was "unreasonable", and violated her civil rights.
Court documents say Shannon Peters was booked into the Woodbury County jail on May 27th for violating a "no contact order" that restricted contact with her boyfriend.
A copy of the complaint, filed in federal court by Peters' lawyer, says after Peters was booked, a female jailer ordered to take her clothes off. Peters says she hesitated because several male jailers were standing outside the room with the door open... and, Peters says, at least one was watching her. When Peters asked if she could undress in front of female jailers only, Peters says the female jailer in the room grabbed her arm and twisted her around. Peters says the male jailers then came into the room, and joined in the assault. Peters says she left the room nearly naked with only a sheet of paper "the size of a small bath towel" to cover herself.
In the past, the Woodbury County jail used strip-searches on all inmates charged with serious misdemeanors or greater offenses. But, that practice stopped in 2007. Today, strip searches are only conducted if officers suspect inmates are carrying a weapon, or contraband.
In 2011, a federal jury awarded a woman, who filed a similar lawsuit over strip searches at the Woodbury County jail, $250,000. But, a judge later overturned the award. Then, in May of 2012, a federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit over strip searches at Woodbury County's jail because the statute of limitations had expired.
