COURT BOOTS STRIP-SEARCH CASE

Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman said she was disappointed
yesterday by the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal on
Nassau County's strip-search policy at its correctional facility in
East Meadow. "We think it's an important issue," Goodman said.
"Eventually, the Supreme Court is going to have to rule on something
like this."

The county had sought to take its case to the high court after an
appeals court ruled Nassau's policy was unconstitutional. The county
requires searches of all people taken to jail on misdemeanor charges
without reasonable suspicion they had weapons.

The appeals court ruling last year upheld a 1999 decision in Federal
District Court in Hauppauge by Judge Leonard Wexler.

The judge found that the county's practice of strip-searching everyone
admitted to the jail, whether the arrests were on felony or nonfelony
charges, was unconstitutional unless there was reason to believe the
suspect they might be carrying concealed weapons or drugs.

The Nassau jail handles 14,000 inmates a year. About 10% to 20% of the
some 1,800 inmates housed on any given day are there on nonfelony charges.

Sheriff Edward Reilly, who was hired in 2000 to remedy problems at the
jail after the beating death of an inmate by correction officers, did
not immediately return a call for comment.

The policy was challenged by a lawyer who was forced to strip twice
after being arrested on a misdemeanor charge in 1995 during a domestic
disturbance. The charge was later dropped.