Trial Victory! Nassau Police Officers Found Liable for Illegal Arrest and Strip Search

In a thorough opinion issued yesterday following a bench trial in late April, Eastern District of New York Judge Gary Brown found two Nassau County police officers liable for illegally searching and detaining KLLF client Mr. Jenkins in January 2018. The Court required the officers to individually pay tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Jenkins in punitive damages.

In 2018, Mr. Jenkins was a passenger in a car that was pulled over. Over the next hour, he was handcuffed, searched repeatedly, locked inside a police car, and then stripped naked in the middle of the street. Finally, after police found nothing incriminating, Mr. Jenkins was let go.

Judge Brown found that the police officers’ written statements about the incident included “demonstrably false assertions concerning critical issues in the case.” He ruled that Defendants’ claim to have probable cause to believe that Mr. Jenkins could have been concealing contraband “is belied not only by the facts and circumstances, but by their own testimony, which eschews any suspicious activity by the plaintiff.” He also credited Mr. Jenkins’ testimony that the officers strip searched him, and found the officers’ denials incredible.

KLLF attorneys Ali Frick and Doug Lieb tried the case, and KLLF co-counseled with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.