DELRAY STRIP-SEARCH VICTIM TELLS OF FAMILY'S ORDEAL WITH DEPUTIES

STUART When five Jefferson County sheriff's deputies surrounded,
detained and strip-searched Delray Beach resident Arnetta McCloud and
her family five years ago, McCloud thought they were as good as dead.

"I didn't think we would be sitting here today," McCloud said Friday
at the Stuart office of her family's attorney, Guy Rubin. "We were
scared for our lives."

In July 2001, deputies pulled McCloud, her husband, Freddy, daughter
Cynthia and nephew Marcus Frazier over on a desolate road. The family
was headed to Tallahassee after celebrating a relative's birthday in
Monticello.

After deputies searched the car for drugs and found none, the men were
put in police cars and the women were strip searched by the side of
the road. Cynthia was searched twice.

On Thursday, a federal court jury in Tallahassee awarded the McClouds
and Frazier a $2 million settlement, agreeing the deputies had
violated their civil rights.

Cynthia McCloud initially couldn't speak as tears welled in her eyes.
Later, she said she hoped the case would inspire other victims to
fight for themselves.

"I hope that it shows everybody justice will be served," she said.
"You tell somebody, 'Stand up for your rights. Do what you have to
do.'"

The family has only traveled back to the area for the trial. Though
some members of the family have moved out of Jefferson County, many
were afraid of retaliation from police officers.

They all live in fear of police cars.

"Whenever I see them, I look down and make sure I'm going my speed and
hope they don't pull me over," Frazier said.

The case wasn't about the money, Arnetta McCloud said.

"It's so it won't happen to someone else," she said. "My nephew and
daughter, they were 15 and 16 at the time, they'd never been in a
police car in their lives. If that happens to you, you stand up and go
help yourselves."

Rubin said the sheriff's office stonewalled the entire investigation,
dating back to a few weeks after the incident when the family first
came to him.

He couldn't get documents he requested, nor the video of the incident,
and had to go to court to get them.

Rubin called the verdict a victory for the Constitution and hopes it
will help the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office teach its officers
about legal and illegal searches.

"We all have the rights people like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther
King fought for," he said. "They're the rights of everyone who passes
under the Statue of Liberty have: blind justice and transparency."