David Swanson / Inquirer Staff Photographer
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” Tameka Flythe says of being arrested and strip-searched two years ago by a Darby police officer who was looking for drugs. None were found.
Too Tough? Tactics in Suburban Policing:
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Stripped of their rights
Pennsylvania jails have been strip-searching thousands of people detained on minor charges, often without legal justification. It could cost taxpayers millions.
Pileggi also said he was blocked from calling former Darby Mayor Paula M. Brown, who says she was regularly asked to help strip-search women prisoners when she was in office from 1998 to 2006.
Contact staff writer Mark Fazlollah at 215-854-5831 or mfazlollah@phillynews.com.
Frequently, she said, police requested searches that were clearly unconstitutional. "I refused more than I conducted," she said in an interview.
The jury quickly ruled against Flythe.
In interviews afterward, jurors said they believed police could strip-search anyone entering jails, even people arrested for minor offenses.
Foreman Roger Ruggles, 53, an engineering professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., said jurors were swayed by arguments about jail safety. Jurors also didn't think Flythe's search sounded that terrible.
"If they conducted the strip search in the lobby, now, that's wrong," said Ruggles.
As for Flythe, she was determined to appeal, but another lawyer declined the case. Even if she won, he said, Darby was too impoverished to pay much in damages.
Flythe knows there is little more she can do. But she still holds out hope that her fight will make a difference.
"It may be justice for someone else," she said, "a step toward some type of justice for good citizens."
Contact staff writer Mark Fazlollah at 215-854-5831 or mfazlollah@phillynews.com.
