Last Updated on 11/09/2024 by Arun jain
Christina Cardenas’ husband is an inmate at a correctional facility in Tehachapi, California. When she went to visit him on September 6, 2019, she was subjected to an extensive strip search in multiple locations, including body cavity searches, in which she was allegedly aggressive to the point of sexually assaulting her.
Now, she has won a $5.6 million settlement against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, two correctional officers, a doctor and Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley Hospital, where she was taken for the search.
When officers found nothing after a strip search of the jail, they handcuffed Cardenas and took her to Adventist Medical Center, where she was denied access to water or food and “subjected to an hours-long cavity search that included stripping her, as X— Rays, and sitting on a mirror,” according to Los Angeles Times.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, whose firm represented Cardenas, called the ordeal “state-sanctioned torture.”
The lawsuit also stated that a male doctor made an “unwanted and forceful entrance” on Cardenas during an unwelcome search of a body cavity. She also had to take a pregnancy test.
After all this, she was denied the right to visit her husband.
Cardenas released a statement Monday explaining why she passed on the lawsuit. She said she hopes the experience doesn’t happen to anyone else and that it inspires change in the prison system.
“It’s important not to criminalize or victimize those who are visiting and supporting true rehabilitation,” Cárdenas said.
Initially, the Times reported, her lawsuit sought to stop all body cavity searches of female visitors. It was not part of the final settlement.
Post Woman awarded $5.6 million settlement after shocking prison cavity discovery appeared first Vice.
Post Woman awarded $5.6 million settlement after shocking prison cavity discovery appeared first Vice.