AWARD UPHELD ON AGENTS WHO FED WOMAN LAXATIVE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal judge upheld $450,000 in damages Friday for
a woman who was held for 22 hours by airport Customs agents, strip-searched
and forced to take repeated doses of a laxative in a fruitless search for
drugs.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker rejected a government lawyer's argument
that the agents had acted reasonably. He also said the damages were not
excessive or punitive.

Amanda Buritica, 50, of Port Chester, N.Y., a Colombian-born U.S. citizen,
was returning from a round-the-world trip when she was detained at San
Francisco International Airport in September 1994. After a luggage search,
she was patted down, strip-searched, X-rayed, then sent to a hospital for
administration of a strong purgative.

She testified she was told she would be forcibly fed the purgative if she
refused to drink it. Two agents watched her continuously while she used a
portable toilet repeatedly during an eight-hour period, she said. After
finally concluding she had no drugs in her system, the agents left the
room, but no one told her she was free to leave for six to eight hours, she
said.

Her lawyer, Gregory M. Fox, told the jury that agents had no reason to
suspect Buritica of being a drug courier. He also said they intensified
their search when they found no evidence and ignored the fact she was
already suffering from diarrhea. Agents found anti-diarrhea medicine in
their initial search.

The jury found the search unreasonable and awarded $225,000 in damages
against each of two Customs agents.