Strip-searched inmates can't sue as class

In what officials called "a major victory" for financially troubled Nassau County, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that inmates illegally strip-searched at the county jail are no longer a class, and will have to sue individually to collect damages for emotional distress inflicted during the procedure.

Attorneys for the more than 15,000 people who were subjected to the illegal searches had argued that a single class-action trial should settle the matter. County officials have said the loss of such a case could cost the county as much as $177 million.

But in a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip said that the people searched may have had different degrees of emotional distress, so there was no common harm to a single class of people.

The judge had considered the plaintiffs a class last year when, in a separate decision, he awarded $500 in damages per search to each victim, saying they all as a class "suffered the same injury to human dignity inherent in the loss of the right to determine [who] may visually inspect [his or her] naked body." That ruling alone could cost the county a maximum of $11 million, officials have said.

But Wednesday, Hurley decertified that standing for other types of damages.

The strip searches between 1996 and 1999 involved people arrested in connection with misdemeanors or lesser offenses, but the procedure was halted after a judge ruled it unconstitutional. People arrested for more serious crimes or who are considered a threat are still strip-searched at the jail.

County Attorney John Ciampoli hailed Hurley's decision as a "major victory."

The decision means the county could litigate many different actions instead of running the risk of losing one with such a severe financial loss. Also, individual gains in a single action would be limited, making it less likely many single plaintiffs will file suit.

He noted that this week the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case in which the state of New Jersey argued it was constitutional to strip search almost all of those arrested.

But Robert Herbst, the lead plaintiff attorney who brought the case, said the illegal searches may still prove costly to the county, predicting a number of victims may bring suits.

"They are still going to have to try a lot of [individual] cases," Herbst said.

In arguing that those strip-searched should be allowed to seek additional damages as a class, Herbst said that they all suffered from the same "garden-variety emotional distress, shame and humiliation."

But Hurley said that type of suffering was already compensated for in his award of $500 each for the injury to their human dignity.

Ciampoli said Nassau will strongly contest them. "We are not going to roll over and play dead," he said.