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Monday, December 01, 2008

Ind. Decisions - Federal district court sanctions city of Madison over strip-search

Brian Jones of the Madison Courier reported Saturday in a story that begins:

The United States District Court has set sanctions against the city of Madison, former Mayor Al Huntington, former Madison Police Chief Robert Wolf, Madison City Councilman Jim Lee and former city attorney Rob Barlow for not producing documents in a lawsuit filed by three Madison women who say their constitutional rights were violated when they were strip-searched by the Madison Police Department in January 2007.

The sanctions require the city and the other defendants in the case to pay a fine of $1,000, complete all requests for documents by the plaintiff by Dec. 5, and pay the three women's attorney fees for filing the motion which resulted in the sanctions.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William G. Hussmann Jr., decided to apply the sanctions after the defense repeatedly promised to produce evidence and depositions in the case but failed to do so as ordered by the court.

"The testimony of Mr. Barlow in particular indicates to the court that these defendants were not taking their obligations to comply with discovery in a serious matter, and in many instances did not attempt to comply at all," Hussmann wrote in his decision.

Hussmann's decision also pointed out, when the initial request for documents outlining the Madison Police Department's standard operating procedure was given to the women's attorney in December 2007, it contained directions for 31 procedures. However, when Wolf's deposition was taken in April of this year, he revealed new standard operating procedures numbered 32 through 35 which had been prepared prior to Dec. 21, 2007, but had not been revealed to the women's attorney.

Standard operating procedure 35 addresses warrantless searches and provides detailed rules concerning matters relevant to strip-searches.

Here is a copy of the 9-page order of William G. Hussmann, Jr., United States Magistrate Judge, dated Nov. 20, 2008.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 1, 2008 05:22 PM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions