CUSTOMS AGENTS SMIRKED DURING AIRPORT STRIP SEARCH, PLAINTIFF TESTIFIES

CHICAGO -- A woman suing the government for alleged psychological
damage incurred during an airport strip search testified Tuesday that
two Customs agents smirked at her while she was put through a four-
hour ordeal.

Kathryn Kaniff, 36, said the two female agents at O'Hare
International Airport conducted a rough and humiliating strip search
in December 1997, then "smirked" at her as she put her clothes back
on.

Kaniff apologized to the agents at the time. "To this day, I don't
know why I was apologizing to those girls after what they did to me,"
Kaniff, a hairdresser from Washington Island, Wis., testified at the
federal civil trial.

Though Kaniff's lawyers didn't mention any specific damages in their
opening statement to the jury Monday, court papers put damages sought
at as much as $2 million.

Kaniff's 1999 lawsuit came as the U.S. Customs Service was under
attack for singling out African-American women for intrusive strip-
searches after international flights. The agency enacted several
reforms as a result.

The lawsuit by Kaniff, who is white, is believed to be the first
accusing the Customs Service of wrongdoing to go to trial.

Government lawyers say that agents Olga Martinez and Guadalupe Corona
White were merely doing their duty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Simon said inspectors have to play
detective, using deduction to determine whether a traveler's story
makes sense.

Simon said Kaniff drew suspicion for several reasons: She had bought
her airline ticket on short notice and paid cash, didn't stay at a
hotel in Jamaica, traveled alone from a country that was a common
source for marijuana and hashish, and had made several trips to
Jamaica in recent years despite her low income.

Kaniff was stopped on her return to Chicago, where she lived at the
time, from Jamaica. A drug-sniffing dog indicated that she might have
drugs on her. No drugs were found.

Kaniff testified that she accurately told Customs agents that she was
self-employed and bought her ticket through a travel agent.

Suspecting Kaniff might have narcotics hidden in a body cavity, an
inspector obtained the supervisor's approval to conduct a partial
strip-search, but no contraband was found.

Authorities insist they then won Kaniff's consent to take an X-ray at
Resurrection Hospital, but Kaniff's lawyers say she never signed the
consent form.