JURY SAYS OFFICER IS LIABLE

Men Win Damages For Strip-Search

The five men in their forties and fifties were standing around outside a
Suitland apartment talking about sports on a hot summer night when suddenly
they were surrounded by several uniformed Prince George's County police
officers, some with their guns drawn.

Minutes later, one of the officers ordered them to drop their trousers and
underwear and pointed a flashlight at their genital areas while they stood
on a public sidewalk. No drugs were found during the strip-search.

When the men protested later to authorities, the officer who ordered them
to strip was given a letter of reprimand.

But now a federal jury has found that the officer invaded the privacy of
the five men and awarded each of them $6,500 in compensatory damages for
the August 1994 incident.

Although the judge found Cpl. Anthony Mills liable in the case, the damages
will be paid by Prince George's County, according to attorneys involved in
the case.

Mills testified during a civil trial in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt
that he conducted the search as described by the five men, attorneys said.
Mills testified that he was searching for drugs that he believed the men
might have been hiding in their genital areas, attorneys said.

Stephen A. Markey, a Bladensburg attorney who represented the five men,
said yesterday he was disappointed in the amount of damages awarded by the
jury on Thursday. He had asked for $500,000 for each of his clients in his
closing argument.

"It's a victory without a victory," Markey said. "It's more of a whisper
than a message."

"It's confusing," said Walter Williams, 59, one of the men who was
strip-searched. Awarded damages along with Williams were Dennis Weeden,
Donald Parker, Dannie Jackson and George Price.

In the lawsuit, the five men accused Mills of violating their civil rights
and imprisoning them falsely, as well as invading their privacy. The jury
found that no civil rights violations or false imprisonment had occurred.

"I'm gratified the jury did not find a civil rights violation," said Jay
Creech, the associate county attorney who defended Mills during a three-day
trial. Creech said he is reviewing the case to determine whether there are
grounds for an appeal.

There was little, if any, dispute between the two sides about what happened.

According to court records, attorneys and one of the plaintiffs, the five
men were hanging out near an apartment complex in the 3600 block of Parkway
Terrace Drive about 9 p.m. on Aug. 24, 1994.

The officers first ordered the men to turn around and place their hands on
a wooden fence and to provide identification, according to court records
and attorneys. Officers checked to see whether any of the men were the
subject of arrest warrants and found that none were.

However, one officer testified that a small glassine pouch believed to
contain marijuana was found on one of the men.

Mills testified that based on that discovery, the fact that the men were in
a known drug area and that one of the men was carrying $400, he believed he
had probable cause to conduct the strip-search, Creech said.

"I thought it wasn't right, but what could I do?" Williams said yesterday
in a brief interview. "We weren't doing nothing except talking about
sports, like we usually do."

"They acted like they were having fun, telling jokes," Williams said of the
officers.

Dozens of people drove by or were in the area during the strip-search,
including the daughter of one of the men, according to Markey and one of
the plaintiffs.

No drugs were found on any of the men, and no one was charged with any drug
offense. After an internal affairs investigation, Mills was given a written
reprimand. According to the police department's general orders,
strip-searches are to be conducted out of sight of the general public.

"One of the problems we have in law enforcement is a subculture among
police who work certain details in certain areas and do things which are
unreasonable, illegal and unethical," Chris Hertig, a member of the
American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers and a behavioral science
professor at York College in Pennsylvania, said yesterday.

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski