Pubdate: Fri, 31 Mar 2006
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2006 Tallahassee Democrat.
Contact:  http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444
Note: Prints email address for LTEs sent by email
Author: Jim Ash
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corruption.htm (Corruption)

COUNTY TO PAY IN SEARCH LAWSUIT

More Than $1m Awarded In Damages

In a federal civil rights lawsuit that pitted the word of a Delray
Beach family against various members of the Jefferson County Sheriff's
Department, a federal jury decided Thursday to believe the family.

After deliberating more than 20 hours over the course of three days,
jurors found that the deputies illegally detained and searched Arnetta
McCloud, her then-15-year-old daughter, Cynthia, and a cousin, Marcus
Frazier, in a midnight traffic stop and drug investigation that
stretched for more than four hours in July, 2001.

"I think justice was done," Arnetta McCloud said as she left the
courtroom, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. "It's been a long, long
journey."

Jurors decided that Cynthia McCloud, who claimed that she was forced
to pull down her pants for a female deputy, suffered the most severe
trauma. They awarded her $1.3 million in punitive damages and an
additional $173,000 for "humiliation" and to compensate for at least
three years of weekly psychological counseling that her therapists
testified would be necessary to recover.

Arnetta McCloud, who claimed she was strip-searched and had her
genitals were injured by the same female deputy, was awarded $250,000
in punitive damages and another $85,000 for humiliation and
compensation for the cost of counseling.

Frazier, who is now an arena league football player, was awarded
$150,000 in punitive damages and $42,000 for humiliation and
compensation for psychological counseling.

The seven-member jury found that all six defendants, all of them
former deputies or ranking officers who took part in the traffic stop,
were guilty of violating the family members' civil rights by detaining
them longer than was "reasonably necessary" to determine that there
were no drugs or contraband in the car. The jurors also found that
each defendant acted according to a "custom" or policy of the
department and did so with "malicious" disregard for the plaintiff's
rights.

The defendants, some of them in uniform, filed quickly out of the
courtroom after the verdict was read and declined to comment.

Their attorney, David Cornell of Gainesville, also declined to
comment.

Only a few days before in his closing arguments, the McClouds'
attorney, Guy Rubin of Stuart, accused the deputies of lying to avoid
responsibility.

Conjuring the ghosts of Nazi atrocities and American abuse of Iraqi
prisoners, Rubin warned jurors not to excuse the deputies because they
claimed they were doing their jobs

"From the days of the Nuremberg trials to Abu Ghraib, there is no
defense that they were just following orders," Rubin said.

Rubin asked for "extreme" damages, saying the searches and nearly
four-hour detention of the mother and daughter were
"reprehensible."

Rubin suggested that both women deserved as much as $1 million in
compensation each for a trauma that will scar them for life, and
another $23,000 to pay for years of counseling that two psychologists
testified would be necessary.

Marcus Frazier, a cousin whom the family raised as a son, deserved
$50,000 for the trauma he suffered from the incident, mostly from
feeling powerless to help his cousin and aunt, Rubin said

In addition, Rubin said his clients deserved $5 million in punitive
damages, to teach the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department a lesson
for slipshod policies and reckless violations of its citizens' civil
rights.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle instructed jurors that the deputies
were lawfully allowed to detain the McCloud women and Marcus Frazier
only as long as was "reasonably necessary" to determine that there
were no drugs in the car.

"It's to punish and deter the agency," Rubin said. "Any less would
have no deterrent effect."

The defense argued that the family was not held against its will after
repeated searches of the car failed to turn up any contraband.
Deputies took the McClouds to a Monticello home of relatives they were
visiting to conduct a search of the residence.

Deputies said they did so only at the invitation of the McCloud
parents. The family claims they were forced back to the home against
their will, forming the basis of their illegal detention claim.

Both women testified at the trial that they were strip-searched by the
side of the road, with Arnetta McCloud suffering a scratch to her
vagina and Cynthia being forced to lower her pants and underwear while
a flashlight was trained on her groin.

Deputies denied ordering a strip search. They said they called in a
female deputy from Leon County to conduct "pat search" on the outside
of the women's clothing because they did not feel comfortable doing so
themselves.

Former Leon County Sheriff's Deputy Evelyn Anderson testified that she
did not strip-search Arnetta or Cynthia McCloud, but she said she was
surprised when the girl volunteered to lower her pants.

Rubin told jurors that Anderson was lying.

"It shows you the extent to which law enforcement officers will come
into this courtroom and change their story to fit the defense," he
said. 
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MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPF Florida)