Plaintiff:
Tiffany Hondras
Incident date:
07/14/2011
Location:
2800 W. Harrison St.
Allegations:
Hondras was a passenger in her boyfriend's car when Officers McGhee, Furqan and Granville pulled over the car and approached it with their guns drawn. Hondras' boyfriend asked the officers why he was being stopped and asked for a police supervisor to come to the scene. Furqan and Granville responded by banging on the car's window with batons. When Hondras' boyfriend rolled down the window to speak to an apparent supervisor, a uniformed officer reached through the open window, unlocked the driver's side door and dragged the boyfriend out of the car. McGhee then pulled Hondras out of the car, bruising her arm. McGhee searched Hondras and her purse and didn't find anything illegal. The officer told Hondras she was "not under arrest," yet placed her in handcuffs in the back of a squad car. The officers brought Hondras and her boyfriend to a police station, where Hondras was handcuffed to a wall. After about an hour, one of the officers released Hondras and returned her purse. But as Hondras left the station, Officer Sajdak saw her and took her purse again, handcuffed her, and accused her of having drugs. He brought her back in the station and, in front of Hondras' boyfriend, suggested that she needed a body-cavity search. McGhee performed a strip search of the plaintiff in a bathroom with no door on it. McGhee put her hands inside Hondras' shirt, pulled up her bra and used a wand to look into her pants. Then she had Hondras remove her pants and panties, squat, and cough multiple times. Hondras cried as McGhee told her to "cough harder." Nothing illegal was found on or inside her body or her belongings. Officers again released Hondras without charges. Her boyfriend remained in custody and was charged with traffic violations.