RT NewsTwo Houston women have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety claiming they were subjected to a humiliating roadside body cavity search that left them violated and traumatized.
“I was embarrassed, in a bikini, on the side of the freeway. And it hurts so bad to even go through something like that,” 27-year-old Brandy Hamilton told KTRK News.
Hamilton and 26-year-old Alexandria Randle were driving home to Houston after spending last year’s Memorial Day at a nearby beach with family and friends when Texas Trooper Nathaniel Turner pulled them over for speeding on the side of Highway 288 and ordered them to exit their vehicle. The women were still wearing their bathing suits and were not permitted to put clothes on or cover up before exiting the car.
The trooper claimed to smell marijuana in the car and called a female trooper to search the women’s body parts for drugs, despite numerous pleas from the ladies.
“The male officer, his words verbatim were, ‘We’re gonna get familiar with your womanly parts,” Hamilton told KXAN.
“You’re going to go up my private parts?” a surprised Hamilton asked trooper Jennie Bui, who responded with “Yes, ma’am.”
The trooper’s dash camera recorded the roadside cavity search and depicts Hamilton’s alarmed expression as the female trooper touched her ‘private parts’ and inserted a finger into her genitalia. The trooper used the same pair of gloves to search the genital regions of both women. Randle can be heard crying uncontrollably as she is probed.
“She just came right over and there was no switch out of anything, which is disgusting,” Randle told KTRK, noting that she considers this a case of molestation.
“Do you know how violated I feel?” Hamilton told the female officer during the 40-minute traffic stop. No drugs were found, but the women were given a ticket for possession of drug paraphernalia. Turner claims he found a piece of a smoked blunt in the car.
“Don’t smoke weed in your car and you won’t have to go through this,” Turner told the women at one point during the search.
The women claim to be traumatized by the incident, especially since it took place in broad daylight, on the side of a highway, in full view of three sheriff’s deputies.
The Texas Department of Public Safety suspended Turner on June 10 and terminated Bui on June 29.
But the incident is not an isolated case: two other Texas state troopers were recently indicted on charges of sexual assault and oppression for a roadside cavity search conducted last year. Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece Ashley Dobbs, 24, were subjected to a similar genital search in which the trooper used the same pair of gloves on both women. The case was settled for $185,000 in late June.
And Texas Attorney Allie R. Booker told the Daily Mail that there is a third such case that has not yet become public, but closely resembles the other two.
“How are these people behaving in the same manner, hundreds of miles away from each other?” she said. “There’s got to be some factor at the DPS that makes these officers think they can do this.”
Isn`t sexual asault/rape a felony? Why aren`t these molestor/rapists fiired and locked up? Hell, you cannot even pat a lady on the but and it is called sexual assault for anyone else. The courts and the police dept. will not do anything to these pigs and they want us – the people – to take out action on these pig cops. Otherwise they would do something about it in the courts as they know the courts are bogus and will never do anything about anything to the police. These cops should be put in jail/prison for a long time and have felonies on their record to prevent them from haveing any public service employment of any kind and they should loose all of their gun rights………… I bet that if these women were obese that the cops wouldn`t molest them and I bet that if they had there husband/boyfreinds with them the cops would have backed off.
There needs to be a POWERFUL Citizens council formed to hammer away at all these brain dead agencies that are making our lives miserable. We must fight this tyranny & win or the dark Abyss will swallow us. Continue to fight for Liberty, Freedom & Truth
““Don’t smoke weed in your car and you won’t have to go through this,” Turner told the women at one point during the search.”
Reminds me of Officer Cox in the Round Rock, Texas police department saying to me after he arrested me or no reason, “All of this could have been avoided, if you would have just let me search your vehicle”.