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$150,000 Settlement in Juvenile’s Jail Tour Strip Search Suit

The District of Columbia on August 15, 2003, entered into a $150,000 consent judgment in order to settle a lawsuit by a teenager who was strip searched by guards during a tour of the D.C. jail.

On May 17th, 2001, Joseph Bennett took a field trip to the D.C. Jail. Bennett, then a 7th grade student, did not expect what was to come.

Once inside the jail, Bennett and the other strip search participants were ordered to submit to a strip search by guards; Bennett was the last one to be strip searched, having endured screams from his classmates in a nearby cell where they were being humiliated by guards.

Bennett refused to strip down completely. A guard then forcibly removed Bennett’s boxer shorts.

Bennett alleged false imprisonment, assault and battery, and other claims against the District. The District offered judgment under Fed. R. Civ. p 68 for $150,000 which Bennett accepted.

See: Bennett v. District of Colombia, No. 1: 02-CV-00729 (D. Colo. 2003).

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Related legal case

Bennett v. District of Colombia