The wife of a California inmate will receive $5.6 million after she was sexually assaulted during a strip search while visiting her husband in prison, her lawyers said Monday.
After Christina Cardenas traveled four hours to visit her husband at a Tehachapi, California, correctional facility on Sept. 6, 2019, she was strip-searched by prison officials, given drug and pregnancy tests, X-rays and CT scans at a hospital, and strip-searched again by a male doctor who sexually assaulted her, the lawsuit alleges.
“My motivation for filing this lawsuit was to ensure that others do not have to endure the same serious abuses that I have endured,” Cardenas said.
Of the $5.6 million settlement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will pay $3.6 million. The rest will be paid by the other defendants, including two prison guards, a doctor and Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital.
Prison officials conducted their searches based on a warrant that said a strip search could be conducted only if an X-ray found foreign objects that might be contraband in Cardenas' body, her attorneys said. However, neither the X-ray nor the CT scan found any evidence of that.
She was also handcuffed during a “humiliating perp walk” while being taken to and from the hospital, and was denied water or the use of a restroom during much of the search. She was told she would have to pay for the hospital's services and later received bills totaling more than $5,000. Despite no contraband being found in her possessions or on her body, Cardenas was denied visits with her husband.
One of the prison officials asked her, “Why are you visiting, Christina? You don't have to visit. It's a choice, and this is part of visiting,” Cardenas said.
“We believe the unknown agent's statement constituted intimidation, denying Christina's right to visit her lawful husband during his detention,” said Cardenas' attorney, Gloria Allred.
Cardenas also had to undergo a strip search during a previous visit to marry her husband, and continued to experience difficulties during her visits with him, although not to the same extent as the September 6, 2019, incident. Her husband remains in custody.
The settlement also requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to distribute a policy memorandum to employees that better protects the rights of visitors who are subjected to a strip search. This includes ensuring that the search warrant is read and understood by the visitor, that the visitor receives a copy of the warrant, that the scope of the warrant is read and understood by everyone involved, and that the scope of the warrant is not exceeded.
Cardenas isn’t the only one who’s had this happen to prison guards, Allred said. She hopes this case will help protect the rights of spouses and family members who visit their loved ones in prison.
California prisons continue to struggle with sexual abuse and misconduct. The U.S. Department of Justice has announced it has launched an investigation into allegations that corrections officers systematically sexually abused women at two state-run prisons in California.
Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced it would close a women's prison in Northern California known as the “rape club” after an Associated Press investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse by prison guards.
