The Manhattan district attorney charged six female corrections officers at a city jail for allegedly strip-searching female visitors and falsifying paperwork to cover it up, New York’s Daily News reports. The guards were indicted on charges of official misconduct, unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy, various counts of offering a false instrument for filing, and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Citing court documents and statements made in court, the district attorney’s office said the officers were assigned to the visiting area of the Manhattan Detention Center, known as the Tombs, where they checked for items not allowed in jail. The Correction Department has an official procedure for conducting “pat frisk” searches of visitors suspected of carrying contraband, which requires written consent of visitors before a search. Minus consent, the visitor may leave, or officers may offer a “noncontact booth visit” or deny a visit. Instead, the officers routinely strip-searched female visitors, including forcing visitors to remove their pants and underwear, touching visitors’ breasts, and examining their private parts, the DA’s office said. In order to justify their unlawful searches, four of the officers filed false paperwork with the Correction Department and the Manhattan DA’s office, leading to the arrest of three visitors whose charges were based on illegal searches, according to the DA’s office.