Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993 TAG: 9305080258
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Billie Jean Blankenship asked for $400,000 in damages in a suit filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court.
According to the suit, Blankenship was taken to jail May 7, 1992, after she was pulled over by a Roanoke police officer on her way home from a night spot.
At the jail, she was strip-searched by a female sheriff's deputy "acting in the course and scope of her employment," the suit states.
When Blankenship complained that Patrolman C.R. Lee remained in the room, he moved outside but stood in the doorway and continued to observe her, the suit claims.
Blankenship complained of physical trauma and emotional distress.
The suit - brought against the city and Sheriff Alvin Hudson, who runs the jail - alleged that the strip-search "followed the routine operating procedure of the departments under the dominion and control of the defendants."
Maj. George McMillan of the Sheriff's Department declined to comment on the suit, saying he had not seen it Friday afternoon.
But in general, McMillan said, inmates at the jail are not strip-searched. The only exception would be if someone is considered a danger to themselves or others, or if they were thought to be carrying a weapon.
A strip-search would be even more unlikely for a drunken driving suspect, because those people are usually held for just a few hours and are not issued jail clothing, McMillan said.
The lawsuit, filed by Roanoke lawyer Marc Small, also claims that Blankenship, who is in her 30s, was not allowed to make a telephone call while being held at the jail. She has since been convicted of refusing to take a blood-alcohol test.
City attorneys were contacted about the incident in September, the suit states. But the city allegedly made no response by Friday - the last day the suit could be filed under Virginia's statute of limitations.
by CNB