LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL SETTLES STRIP SEARCH CLASS ACTIONS CASE FOR $10 MILLION
A class action lawsuit was brought against Charles Foti, former Orleans Criminal Sheriff, alleging that during his time as New Orleans Criminal Sheriff, he subjected close to 6,500 plaintiffs to illegal strip searches.
Wow. Now, that sounds like a crime. Can we charge him with "peeping?" That's a lot of naked defendants.
The original suit was filed way back in April 2000 and just reached settlement now - seven years later - when Foti agreed to pay $10 million to resolve litigation. Foti, who was sheriff for decades before becoming Louisiana Attorney General, denied the allegations but agreed to the settlement. Sure, I always hand over $10 million when "I didn't do it." I wonder how many times Foti sneered at people who said "I didn't do it" before he strip searched them?
The money will eventually be disbursed to the 6,500 plaintiffs in the case, who claimed they were illegally stripped and cavity searched (ugh!) between April 1999 and May 2003 during Foti's administration. Under the agreement, each complainant would likely receive about $1,000 - not much for being forced to show your birthday suit to a bunch of salivating cops.
Sources stated that the class action suit forced Foti to scrap an old policy under which all those arrested had to be stripped searched. Gee, you mean, when someone steals a pair of sneakers from K-Mart, they won't be forced to take off their underpants, bend over and let a cop look up their privates anymore?
What millenium is it? It's just sad that the people of New Orleans, and not Foti, wll end up paying this judgment. I think New Orleans has better uses for its limited funds.
But, without lawsuits like this, unlawful behavior by powerful officials would only get worse.
