Wife of imprisoned man in California receives $5.6 million after body search

TEHACHAPI, California. – The wife of an incarcerated man will receive $5.6 million after she was sexually assaulted during a strip search while trying to visit her husband in prison, her lawyers said this week.

After making a four-hour drive to see her husband at a correctional facility in Tehachapi, California, on Sept. 6, 2019, Christina Cardenas was strip searched by correctional officers. At a hospital, she was subjected to drug and pregnancy tests, X-rays and CT scans. She was also strip searched by a male doctor who sexually assaulted her, a lawsuit says.

“There is no reparation that can ever fully heal the pain caused by sexual assault,” Cardenas said in a statement provided to KTVU by the law firm Allred, Maroko and Goldberg. “My motivation for filing this lawsuit was to ensure that others do not have to suffer the same egregious assaults that I experienced.”

Cardenas added that she hopes this lawsuit “serves as a beacon for all families and loved ones of those incarcerated, reminding them that they do not have to endure abuse just because they are visiting a family member or friend.”

Of the $5.6 million settlement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will pay $3.6 million, with the rest being paid by the other defendants, which include two correctional officers, a doctor and Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital.

Prison officials conducted their searches based on a warrant that said a strip search could only be conducted if an X-ray found foreign objects in Cardenas' body that could be contraband, her lawyers said. Neither the X-ray nor the CT scan showed any evidence of that.

Cardenas was also handcuffed in a “humiliating walkway” while being taken to and from the hospital. She was denied water and use of a bathroom for most of the search. She was told she would have to pay for the hospital's services and later received bills totaling more than $5,000. Although no contraband was found in her belongings or on her body, Cardenas was denied visits from her husband.

One of the prison officers asked her, “Why are you visiting me, Christina? You don't have to visit me. It's your decision and that's part of the visit,” Cardenas said.

“We believe the unidentified officer's statement was a form of intimidation designed to deprive Christina of her right to visit with her lawful husband while he is incarcerated,” Cardenas' attorney Gloria Allred said in a statement to KTVU.

Cardenas also had to undergo a body search during a previous wedding visit with her husband and continued to have difficulties during her visits with him, although not to the extent of the incident on September 6, 2019. Her husband remains in custody to this day.

The settlement also requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide its employees with a policy document that better protects the rights of visitors who are subject to strip searches, including ensuring that the search warrant is read and understood by the visitor, that the visitor is given a copy of the warrant, that the scope of the warrant is read and understood by all parties involved, and that the scope of the warrant is not exceeded.

Cardenas is not alone in her experiences at the hands of correctional officers, Allred said, and she hopes this case will help protect the rights of spouses and family members visiting their loved ones in prison.

There is an ongoing problem with sexual abuse and misconduct in California's prisons.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had launched an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually abused incarcerated women at two California state prisons.

In April, the Federal Bureau of Prisons closed a women's prison in Dublin, California, where eight officers had been charged with sex crimes. Seven of them have so far been sentenced to prison.

KTVU's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.