There are 12 hits in Lexis Academic for the search: Kerik and strip search in US News / Northeast Sources / All avail
dates / Full Text; including this from the New York Times:
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Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
The New York Times. January 10, 2001 Wednesday
Correction Appended. Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1399 words
HEADLINE: New York Will Pay $50 Million In 50,000 Illegal
Strip-Searches
BYLINE: By BENJAMIN WEISER
..."The Giuliani administration has agreed to pay up to $50 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of tens of
thousands of people who were illegally strip-searched after
being arrested for minor offenses, many of which fell under
the city's crackdown on quality of life violations."
"The searches were conducted by jail guards in Manhattan and Queens during 10 months in 1996 and 1997. Many of the victims of the illegal searches were first-time offenders who were arrested for minor infractions like loitering, disorderly conduct or subway offenses...."
...
"All told, the settlement would be the largest in a civil
rights suit against New York City, lawyers said, and appears
to be one of the largest civil rights settlements against a
municipality anywhere."
...
"The policy was in effect when the current police
commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, was first deputy commissioner
of the Department of Correction. The department had assumed
the responsibility for holding people waiting to be
arraigned, which previously was a police job."
...
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But if you want to get more information on this, it might be wise to go to a large academic library that has Lexis
Academic available. In its Legal News section, this same
search: Kerik and strip search gets a few more hits. One of
them:
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Copyright 2003 ALM Properties, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
New York Law Journal. September 10, 2003, Wednesday
SECTION: DECISION OF INTEREST; Vol. 51; Pg. 28
LENGTH: 7091 words HEADLINE: Decision of Interest
------------------
seems to be saying that the NYPD was also responsible
(scroll over halfway down this 7091 word article):
..."In the present case, Magistrate Judge Pollak applied the substantial relation test and determined that strip searches conducted by NYPD officers at the BCB [Brooklyn Central Booking] were not substantially related to the Manhattan and Queens strip-search cases because these litigations concern different City agencies - the DOC [past litigation] and the NYPD [present litigation] - that are independent of each other and different policies - a written DOC directive an unwritten NYPD directive., See Spinner v. The City of New York, No. CV-01-2715 slip op. at 18 [E.D.N.Y. 2003] [hereinafter "Pollak Op."]."...
So in addition to the question of whether this is still the biggest settlement (it apparently still was in Jan 2001, per the NYT), we have the question of whether it is still in
litigation or appeal. It appeared that even finding the
people who were victims and how much to award each of them
was no simple matter. Definitely best to refer the present
status of this to the legal experts, unless you have time for
very serious digging in some law libraries.
Jim Miller
jmiller2@umd.edu
