Plaintiff:
Robert Douglas
Incident date:
05/23/2013
Location:
9040 S. Laflin St.
Allegations:
Douglas was driving Halley and Ford when an unmarked police car approached them, traveling the wrong way on the one-way street. Two plainclothes officers removed Douglas and Ford from the car and searched them. One of the officers pulled up Douglas' shirt and searched down the front of his pants. Soon after, two additional plainclothes officers approached, and one removed Halley from the car. The officers continued to search the interior of the car for several minutes, and they forced a handcuffed Douglas to walk backward off the street and across a yard to the side of a nearby home. The officers shackled one of Douglas' wrists to a window bar on the home, pulled his pants down to his ankles, bent him over and searched his buttocks. When the officers realized a neighbor was watching, they put Douglas into the back of the squad car with Ford, put Halley back in Douglas' car and relocated to an alley behind a church. There, Officer Wherfel ordered Halley, who was surrounded by five male officers, to get out of the car and remove her pants. Halley pleaded with Wherfel, explaining that she was menstruating and was using a tampon. Wherfel uncuffed one of Halley's hands and ordered her to remove the tampon. She tearfully removed the tampon, and Wherfel used her fingers to probe Halley's vagina while the male officers looked on, commenting on Halley's body. When nothing illegal was found on Halley's person, Wherfel bent down, reached toward her own sock and stood up holding a small bag of heroin, announcing that she had found it in Halley's waistband. The officers then falsely charged Douglas and Halley for delivery and possession of drugs. The charges against Douglas were dropped upon his death a month later.