The federal lawsuit was filed against the Geo Group Inc., a Florida company that runs Delaware County's prison as well as dozens of jails in 15 other states.

The suit lists a single plaintiff: Stephen Dimitri Bussy, 53, a home health-care worker in Media who was strip-searched after a drunk-driving arrest last year.

Bussy represents a class of people nationwide who were allegedly victimized by improper strip searches in Geo Group jails, the suit says.

The Inquirer reported last month that three guards from Delaware County's George W. Hill Correctional Facility - the only one Geo operates in Pennsylvania - said all prisoners entering the jail were strip-searched. They said that included people held for minor violations such as failing to pay child support or outstanding traffic tickets.

Other jails and police lockups across the state followed similar strip-search practices, The Inquirer reported. Since the newspaper reports were published, some cities have changed their policies, and legislators have called for improved police training.

For the last decade, federal judges have ruled that strip-searching everyone arrested for minor crimes violates the Constitution's protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

Bussy, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, was arrested by Media police on July 31, 2001, on charges of drunken driving, public drunkenness and criminal trespass. He had no previous arrests, according to Pennsylvania court records.

Bussy could not post $500 bail and was taken to the county jail in Thornton, where officers required him to take off his clothing, the suit said.

"In connection with the strip search, plaintiff was required to completely disrobe and lift his testicles. Plaintiff's anal cavity was also visually inspected by a correction officer," it said.

Bussy is scheduled to go on trial next month on the drunk-driving and public drunkenness charges. The trespassing count has already been dropped.

The suit cites The Inquirer report as evidence to bolster its case against the Geo Group.

The Geo Group has run the Delaware County prison, which holds about 1,800 inmates, since 1996. Delaware County pays Geo more than $35 million a year to operate the facility.

Only the Geo Group, which operates dozens of prisons across the nation, was named in the lawsuit, though it listed "John Does 1-100" as possible others to be included in the future.

The suit focuses primarily on Delaware County but also mentions a Geo Group jail in Lawrenceville, Va., alleging that it "employed a broad strip-search policy."

Delaware County officials have referred all questions about jail strip searches to the Geo Group, whose representatives did not return phone calls yesterday. In past interviews, Geo spokesman Pablo Paez has declined to discuss the corporation's policy on strip searches, explaining that it was an issue of jail security.

Some of the lawyers who filed the suit have been involved with several successful class-action suits. Some have been consulting with lawyers who won a $7.5 million settlement agreement from Camden County last year for allegedly strip-searching thousands of people illegally.

Similar suits involving strip searches have been filed in Ocean, Salem and Cumberland Counties in New Jersey and in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.

Two of the lawyers, Christopher G. Hayes and Daniel C. Levin, also are involved in a suit filed against the Philadelphia Corrections Department that seeks $15 million for allegedly conducting more than 20,000 illegal searches.

Lawyers in that case held settlement talks yesterday. There was no immediate information available on the results.

Two other lawyers involved in the new suit, Philadelphia's David Rudovsky and Joseph G. Sauder of Haverford, are involved in a class-action suit against the Lancaster County prison for allegedly conducting thousands of illegal searches there.

In an interview after filing the suit in U.S. District Court, Rudovosky said this suit was novel in that lawyers were taking on a major national corporation with annual revenue of $860 million, not just a city or county jail.

"So it's a national class-action suit that we're seeking," he said.

Go to http://go.philly.com/stripsearch to read the lawsuit.

Visit http://go.philly.com/suburbs for articles and video on policing in the suburbs, including strip searches.