Another Sexual Assault in Service of the Drug War

https://reason.com/blog/2016/04/12/another-sexual-assault-in-service-of-the

Suddenly claiming to smell the odor of burnt marijuana coming from Carbone’s car, Maiella arrested her on suspicion of driving under the influence…

At the Lawrence County Correctional Center, Carbone was forced to remove her clothing, “bend over, spread her buttocks, and cough.” Carbone says two corrections officers, April Brightsue and Niesha Savage, mistakenly thought they saw a plastic bag protruding from her vagina, so they repeatedly instructed her to “prod her personal areas by inserting her fingers into her vagina” in the hope of dislodging the imaginary item. Then they had her bend over, spread her buttocks, and cough again. Carbone was “crying hysterically” and insisting that she was not concealing anything inside her body…

Maiella, the arresting officer, asked Salem and Lamancusa what he should do next, and they instructed him to take Carbone to Jameson Hospital in New Castle for “an internal examination of her body cavities.” At the hospital, the cops found a doctor, Bernard Geiser, who agreed that Carbone needed treatment “for a possible overdose, rectal packing and/or oral intake of a controlled substance.” But Carbone did not consent to “treatment,” and the police did not obtain a warrant authorizing the procedures that followed.

Carbone “was restrained to a bed by her wrists and ankles” as Geiser “performed an internal inspection of her vagina and rectum.” He did not find anything…

Since Geiser and the cops thought Carbone “might have something located deeper in her vagina and rectum,” she was subjected to an involuntary CT scan, which found no foreign objects…

Still determined to discover contraband, Geiser “performed a second internal examination of [Carbone’s] vagina and rectum,” then instructed two nurses to perform a third. They also swabbed her vagina “for testing.” After none of these inspections turned up evidence of a crime, Maiella told Carbone she was free to go…