Judge Approves Final Jail Suit Settlement

MOTION CALLS FOR CLASS MEMBERS, ATTORNEY TO SPLIT FUND

— A federal judge approved on Wednesday the final settlement in a class action lawsuit over strip and body cavity searches after misdemeanor arrests that resulted in the Siloam Springs city jail being shut down.

The joint motion for settlement, approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Setser, calls for class members and their attorney, Doug Norwood, to split a $1.8 million common fund and for the city to close the jail and quit the practice. The order clears the way for settlement funds to be distributed.

LEGAL LINGO

Class Action

A lawsuit that allows a large number of people with a common interest in a matter to sue or be sued.

Source: The Legal Dictionary

“That’s the end of the story,” Norwood said Wednesday. “They agreed as part of the settlement that they would not take people to the jail and hold them like that anymore. The lawsuit involved thousands of people and they haven’t been strip searching people for about a year and a half now, so we’ve prevented probably thousands of other people from being strip searched.”

The suit, filed July 23, 2008, contended people who were arrested or detained for minor offenses not involving drugs, weapons or other contraband were regularly subjected to illegal searches at the city jail since at least July 2005. The statute of limitations had run out on any claims prior to that time.

Federal courts have ruled that a blanket policy of strip searches or body cavity searches on everyone arrested and brought to jail is unconstitutional. Courts have also held that searching all arrestees detained on warrants for failure to appear or minor traffic charges violated their Fourth Amendment rights, and it is illegal to strip search or body cavity search misdemeanor, pretrial detainees without a reasonable suspicion that they are concealing weapons or contraband.

Blanket strip searches are legal only for people already found guilty of a crime. Corrections officers can perform such searches on inmates in prison for security reasons.

The suit named the city, Police Chief Joe Garrett, former Chief Jerry Toler and nine “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” city employees.

The suit claimed it was the policy of the city, under the authority of the chief of police, to strip and body cavity search any person arrested for any offense before they had a trial.

Class Representative Nancy Zamarron, the first and originating plaintiff in the case, will receive $20,000 and the rest of the 14 class representatives will receive $10,000.

All members of the class who are not class representatives will receive $650 each. Those who were searched on two occasions will get $1,000.

There were 338 valid claims identified, three people asked to be excluded from the suit. Ninety-five claims were found to be invalid or ineligible for various reasons.

Norwood will receive one-third of the common fund, $600,000, plus $6,054 in expenses. One-third is a reasonable and common award in such strip search cases, according to the judge.

Any remaining money, after administrative costs, will go back to the city.

The settlement was not opposed.

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