MIAMI-DADE WILL PAY AFTER STRIP SEARCHES SPARK LAWSUIT

MIAMI -- Miami-Dade County agreed Monday to pay $4.55 million to thousands
of people strip-searched at its jail, in a tentative settlement reached
when three women activists sued after their arrests during free-trade
demonstrations in 2003.

Judith Haney, Liat Mayer and Jamie Loughner last year filed a class- action
lawsuit against Miami-Dade after the Free Trade of the Americas meeting in
downtown Miami, alleging they had unnecessarily been subjected to invasive
strip searches.

On Monday, the county agreed to settle the suit and pay the settlement to
more than 100,000 people.

Miami-Dade also has agreed to comply with state law, which bars jail
officials from subjecting to strip searches people accused of minor
offenses unless the person is arrested on a drug charge, is suspected of
having contraband or is booked on a violent offense.

The law requires supervisors to give written authorization for such a search.

"[Such] searches are extremely violating for anyone, but particularly for
women," said Terry Coble, president of the Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU.

"This settlement reinforces that principle."

The tentative deal was signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto
Jordan; final approval could come Sept. 23.

It brings to an end a longstanding practice discovered only after police
arrested 234 people during the FTAA protests, including the three women.

"We didn't know this was going on for at least seven years," said Randall
Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute and a lawyer for
the women. "That's how we found out about it, the FTAA."

Under the Miami-Dade Corrections Department's new policy, jail officials
may strip-search people suspected of bringing in contraband, and women
charged with nonviolent misdemeanors can be strip-searched before their
first appearance in front of a judge if a supervising corrections officer
has given written authorization.

At the Orange County Jail, spokesman Allen Moore said corrections officials
rigorously follow state law and often exceed it.

"We do strip searches on all people who are charged with drug offenses, but
we don't strip-search every inmate," Moore said. "We have a standard
operating procedure and policy on strip searches, and we are even more
restrictive than state law, in some cases."

Maya Bell of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Chrystian
Tejedor is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune
Publishing newspaper.