Lawyer's suit claims jail officer's upskirt search with metal-detecting wand amounted to assault
A New Jersey lawyer claims a sheriff’s officer who screened her during a jail visit committed assault and battery when he placed his metal-detecting wand under her skirt.
Hackettstown lawyer Bonita Bourke says in a lawsuit that she was so upset over the incident that she vomited after leaving the facility, NJ.com reports.
According to the suit, corrections officer Sean Long used the wand last August after Bourke set off a metal detector. He placed the wand between Bourke’s legs and moved it up, lifting the skirt, according to the suit. When Bourke objected, she was told she had to submit to the search to enter the jail, the suit says. Long then told Bourke to spread her legs and wanded her a second time in a similar manner, the suit alleges. A male intern who was accompanying her was also searched and wanded, but in a “different and acceptable manner,” according to the suit.
Bourke says the search was not called for by the wand manufacturer. Besides assault, she claims she was subjected to a hostile environment in a place of public accommodation and suffered severe emotional distress.
The suit, amended in January, also says the sheriff’s office retaliated after the initial suit was filed by twice refusing to allow her to have private conversations with clients in a holding room before court appearances.
As a result of the incident, Bourke says, she is apprehensive when approaching any metal detector. One client fired Bourke after she became “visibly upset, nauseous and panicky” when she was being screened at the courthouse, the suit says.
The defendants are represented by lawyer John Gonzo, who tells NJ.com that officers followed proper screening procedures and a videotape contradicts Bourke’s version of events. Bourke’s lawyer, on the other hand, says the tape will be key evidence in proving the case.
