An attorney in Texas has released a dashcam video that he says shows sheriff's deputies forcibly searching a woman's vagina for 11 minutes on the side of a road.
Sam Cammack released the video of his client, Charnesia Corley, on Monday after charges filed against two Harris County sheriff's deputies involved in the search were dropped, calling the body cavity search "rape by cop."
The video stems from a June 2015 traffic stop in which the sheriff's deputies said they smelled marijuana on Corley and demanded a body search, Cammack, told BuzzFeed News.
Corley — a 20-year-old college student at the time — had been pulled over for allegedly running a stop sign. But after not finding marijuana in the car, deputies instructed Corley to remove her pants in order to conduct a body-cavity search in the parking lot where she was pulled over, according to a 2016 lawsuit filed against Harris County, claiming her constitutional rights were violated.
When Corley protested against being searched, "deputies forcibly threw Ms. Corley to the ground, while she was still handcuffed, pinned her down with her legs spread apart, threatened to break her legs, and without consent penetrated her vagina in a purported search for marijuana," the lawsuit, which remains ongoing, states.
"She pulled my pants down, and then told me to bend over," Corley told CNN in 2015. "So, you know, I kind of hesitated... so I bent over, and she proceeded to stick her fingers in me."
One of the deputies can be heard in the video telling a passenger who was already in custody, "Oh we are gong to find something, even if we have to put our hands on her."
Corley was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. But Cammack told BuzzFeed News the officers never found marijuana on Corley and the charges were eventually dropped.
The grainy video, in which Corley is partially blocked by a car door, does not show the alleged penetration, but it does show her on the ground for about 11 minutes.
Two of the three deputies involved in the incident were charged with official oppression — intentionally subjecting someone to mistreatment or to arrest — but the charges were dismissed earlier this month.
A lawyer for one of the deputies said the full dashcam video — which is reported to be two hours long — clears the deputies of any wrongdoing.
"Deputies can't pick and choose what laws to enforce," attorney Robin McIlhenny said. "She was never penetrated, she was never violated in that way or inappropriately handled."
Harris County prosecutor Natasha Sinclair also told FOX 26 News that while she did not condone what happened, no criminal behavior took place.
"No one in this office stands by the search the way it was conducted," she said. "No one thinks it’s appropriate. It should not have happened."
Still, Cammack said he decided to release the video in an effort to help prevent a similar incident from happening again.
"The only reason I released the video was for Ms. Corley," Cammack told BuzzFeed News. "I released it so no female has to endure something like this ever again."
Cammack added that he has called on the Texas attorney general to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the case.
"The most important thing out of this is to give the public insight into what happened," Cammack said. "This woman went through something horrific. I haven't seen anything like it."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2i7DuaX
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