Eight police officers and the city of Chicago were all named Wednesday in a civil suit alleging an unlawful search, evidence planting and brutality. The three people filing the suit say police had no probable cause but conducted open-air strip searches– even forcing a woman to remove a tampon.
Amateur video shot of a police stop on the south side is what lead to the lawsuit.
Lawyers for two men and a woman in the car say they were physically violated.
The suit claims the police stop happened around 1:30 in the afternoon on May 23rd. 26-year-old Caprice Holley, 20-year-old Tevin Ford and 19-year-old Robert Douglas were driving southbound on the 9000 block of Laflin when they say officers went the wrong way down the one way street, pulled them out of the car and searched them for drugs.
The men claim they were searched repeatedly and officers checked their genital areas.
According to attorneys, the video shows officers handcuffing Douglas to the bars in the alley of a nearby home where he was force to strip naked while officers performed a cavity search.
Holley, the only woman in the car, claims the only female officer on the scene also made her strip naked on the street.
“While Ms. Halley was surrounded by five male officers/defendants, defendant Wherfel ordered Ms. Halley to remove her pants… Ms. Halley asked defendant Wherfel if she was “really going to make [her] strip in front of these men,” and defendant Wherfel, while putting on blue latex gloves, coldly replied with a “yes.””
The lawsuit claims in addition to the physical violation, Holley was subjected to further humiliation.
“The five male defendant officers looked on and made jokes and comments about Ms. Halley’s body.”
