4th woman sues Kennebec County over strip searches by jail guards

A fourth case charging Kennebec County and several unnamed jail guards with conducting illegal strip searches has been filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Lorraine True of Readfield filed a $300,000 lawsuit earlier this month against the county, an unnamed female guard, and several unnamed male guards, claiming that her constitutional rights were violated when she was strip-searched at the Kennebec County Jail.

Three other cases, each making similar charges and asking for $300,000 in damages, have been filed in the federal court. One of those cases was settled out of court last November, with the plaintiff receiving a settlement of $25,000.

A case amendment, which is expected to be filed shortly in the federal court, will name the female and male guards alleged to have participated in one of the searches, said attorney William D. Robitzek of Lewiston, representing the four plaintiffs.

He said Wednesday he believed that most of the guards allegedly involved in the strip searches were no longer working at the jail.

Robitzek said the cases were significant in that they were “really trying to bring Kennebec County up to constitutional and statutory standards regarding where and how you can strip-search people.”

Saying that strip searches were appropriate in some cases, he questioned their use with people arrested on minor offenses or who were incarcerated for only a few hours.

“There isn’t any reason to have this kind of intrusion in people’s private lives,” he said.

Sheriff Frank Hackett of Kennebec County said Wednesday he was not aware of the new lawsuit. He said the jail did have a policy of strip searches, adding that it was “the same at our jail as it is at any other jail.”

Hackett declined to comment further on the lawsuit, saying that the county’s insurance company was handling the matter.

Five women have filed notices of claim, required before lawsuits can be filed, against the county since March 1988. Only four lawsuits, however, have been filed in federal court.

Robitzek, who is handling all four cases, said his clients had been referred to him by other attorneys. He said that after the notoriety of the first case, “other women started to make complaints as well.”

Saying that he didn’t expect some kind of class action against the jail, the attorney said, “Women really have to make personal choices about whether they want to come forward.”

In the latest case, True claimed that she was arrested in October 1987 on a warrant for failure to pay a fine, and then was taken to the county jail. She said she was forced to take off her clothes by a female guard, who then conducted a strip search before male guards. The plaintiff also was subjected to verbal abuse by the female guard, according to the lawsuit.

The court document lists Kennebec County, “Jane Doe,” and several “John Does” as defendants.

Seeking damages and costs, True maintained in the lawsuit that her constitutional right of privacy was violated. The strip search also resulted in the infliction of severe emotional anguish and mental pain, according to the court document.

Robitzek said the four lawsuits were in the discovery stage, the point at which attorneys share evidence before a trial. He said the cases could go to trial in federal court as early as this summer, “depending entirely on how the county wants to handle it.”