Full story at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark_Coun ... y_incident" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Teenage Strip Search incident
A lawsuit was filed alleging that in May 2007, three teenage girls aged 14, 15 and 16 who were ordered by court to take a 15 minute cautionary tour of county jail were forced to participate in a strip search by guards including squatting and lifting their breasts while naked and experienced physical assault as well as verbal sexual harassment from the two male and one female guards.
Hope Steffey incident
A local woman, Hope Steffey, is suing the Sheriff's Office, claiming that male and female deputies used excessive force and assaulted her when they stripped her naked after she was arrested. Television station WKYC obtained video of the incident. Around November 2008, Hope Steffey initiated civil action against the Sheriff's Office, this action was settled in July 2009 with the settlement details confidential but reported to be favourable to the plaintiff. Additional actions against related civilian contractors remain ongoing.
Former Attorney General Marc Dann initiated criminal action in February 2008 before later resigning for unrelated reasons, the Grand Jury subsequently found "no probable cause of criminal wrongdoing" by the county deputies.
Valentina Dyshko incident
Valentina Dyshko, a Ukrainian woman with limited English capability filed suit allegeding that she was the victim of forcible and unjustified strip search by male officers at the Stark County Jail. This case was reportedly settled by the Stark County Sheriff in 2008.
Further victims and allegations
During the Steffey case, it was discovered that 128 women had experienced strip search, naked isolation or related treatment between 1999 and 2007. Privacy concerns prevented the identification of these women which led Steffey's lawyers to use the billboard to encourage other women to come forward. Following the bill board and media reporting on the incident, five women including Valentina Dyshko came forward to report similar experiences with Stark County Sheriff's personnel including "Elizabeth" (a pseudonym) who herself was employed in a medium security jail reported being accused of suicidal behaviour and strip searched after being arrested for defending herself against inappropriate touching by a sheriff deputy during a traffic stop following a lane change without indicating, the sheriff accused her of failing a breath test when her asthma prevented her from blowing sufficiently strongly during the breath test.
What others are saying about the Hope Steffey case:
Full story at: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2009/07/16 ... ounty.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;The amount of the settlement, however, is undisclosed, a rather strange thing given that it would appear that the cost of the police abuse of Hope Steffey (which had earlier been spelled "Steffi" based on news reports, but is different in this report) will be born by the taxpayers. Don't they have a right to know just how much their police have cost them? Since when does government impropriety get to be swept under the rug so that the citizens, for whom the cops exists, are left to wonder?
Some of Stark County's finest were upset that the media reported their names and were stressed over the public attention for their perverted act:
Full story at: http://www.cantonrep.com/news/crime/x16 ... YC-dropped" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;A group of Stark County sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers agreed Monday to drop their lawsuit against a Cleveland television station over its reports on the Hope Steffey case.
The parties had discussed a possible settlement of between $10,000 and $30,000, according to a letter filed with the court earlier this month, but attorneys for both sides avoided the word “settlement” Monday.
