Christina Cardenas: Wife of a Californian prisoner receives $5.6 million in compensation for strip search

AP
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The wife of a California inmate 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 Monday.

After Christina Cardenas made a four-hour drive to see her husband at a Tehachapi correctional facility on Sept. 6, 2019, she was strip searched by prison officials. She was given drug and pregnancy tests, X-rays and CT scans at a hospital, and was subjected to another strip search by a male doctor who sexually abused her, a lawsuit says.

“My motivation for filing this lawsuit was to ensure that others do not have to endure the same egregious crimes that I experienced,” Cardenas said.

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 under a warrant that stated that a strip search could only be conducted if an X-ray revealed foreign objects in Cardenas' body that could be considered contraband, her lawyers said. Neither the X-ray nor the CT scan showed any evidence of that.

She was also handcuffed on the way to and from the hospital while being taken to the hospital in a “humiliating walkway.” She was denied water or use of a bathroom for most of the search. She was told she had 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 a decision and that's part of the visit,” Cardenas said.

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

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

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 of sexual abuse and misconduct in California's prisons. The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has launched an investigation into allegations that correctional officers systematically sexually abused incarcerated women at two California state prisons.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced the closure of a women's prison in Northern California known as the “Rape Club” after an Associated Press investigation uncovered widespread sexual abuse by correctional officers.