VERDICT AGAINST CUSTOMS AGENTS UPHELD BY JUDGE

Woman at SFO was X-rayed and strip-searched

A federal judge has upheld a jury verdict against U.S. Customs employees
who strip-searched, X-rayed and forced an airline passenger to repeatedly
take powerful laxatives in an unsuccessful search for drugs.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on Friday refused to throw out the jury's
$451,002 verdict, saying the customs agents' actions were unjustified,
intrusive and clearly unlawful.

"It was indisputably known to customs agents that they had to have
increasing suspicion in order to escalate their search," Walker said in his
ruling.

The agents subjected the passenger, 52-year-old Amanda Buritica, "to
increasingly unconstitutional searches" despite the fact that previous
searches indicated no evidence of criminal activity, the judge said.

Buritica, of Port Chester, N.Y., was detained by agents at San Francisco
International Airport upon arrival from Hong Kong on Sept. 22, 1994.
Authorities conducted a pat search, a strip search, a body-cavity search,
an X-ray examination and then took her to a hospital where they forced her
to take a potent purgative that induced 28 bowel movements. Authorities
found no illegal drugs in her body and she was later released.

The judge's ruling leaves intact the decision of a seven-member jury in
February which unanimously awarded Buritica damages for personal injury and
civil-rights violations against four of five customs agents who
participated in the search. The verdict included $1,000 in punitive damages
for malicious conduct against John Petrin, chief customs inspector at the
airport.

The judge has yet to rule on whether the Customs Service will be held
responsible for damages and whether additional compensation should go to
Buritica.

The judge must also decide whether to grant an injunction requiring the
Customs Service to change its policies and improve training and procedures
for agents.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gail Killefer, who represented the government, had
argued that the agents should not be held liable since they were simply
following department procedures and orders from superiors. She also
contended the agents were only responding accordingly to Buritica's
"evasive answers and somewhat bizarre representations."

"The law exempts all those agents unless their actions were plainly
incompetent or malicious," Killefer said. "The defendants were just doing
their job and could have believed their actions were lawful."

She had asked the judge to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case for
insufficient evidence.

Buritica's lawyers argued that the customs agents should have known their
actions were improper. Lawyers also contended that the strip search was
unnecessary and that agents coerced Buritica into signing a consent form
for X-rays.

"She was crying, confused and kept saying, "Why are you doing this to me?"'
said Buritica's attorney Nancy Huneke.

Gregory Fox, also on Buritica's legal team, said agents arbitrarily singled
her out because she was a middle-aged woman born in Colombia and traveling
alone.

During trial in February, agents said Buritica raised their suspicions
because she had flown from Hong Kong to San Francisco on Singapore Airlines
on a flight frequently used by drug smugglers. They noted she wore loose
clothing, rubbed her stomach and refused to answer agents' questions.

Fox said the agents' actions illustrated serious problems with policies and
procedures used by the U.S. Customs Service at SFO. He also contends cash
incentives paid to agents for searches and successful drug seizures sends
the wrong message.

Last year, 64 customs agents in San Francisco were awarded a total of
$24,474. Twenty-six inspectors got "on-the-spot" cash awards totaling
$5,750, of which 10 were for narcotics seizures, court records said.

"It gives them incentives to search more and more people and to use
increasingly invasive methods," Fox said.

)1998 San Francisco Examiner