Oklahoma Jail Closes After $2.55 Million Payout for Retaliatory Strip Search
by Chuck Sharman
After receiving approval from the City Council of Stillwater, Oklahoma, a massive $2,550,000 settlement was incorporated into the judgement issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on April 6, 2026. The agreement resolved claims by a former detainee at the city lockup, who was subjected to a strip-search without cause by a group that included both male and female guards.
The humiliation was inflicted on Claire Hosterman in September 2023, after the Oklahoma State University student and several companions were subjected to a late-night arrest upon leaving a bar. Cops with the Stillwater Police Department (SPD) said that they got a complaint of a belligerent patron, whose description matched one of Hosterman’s pals. As they began to question the unnamed woman, they threatened to arrest Hosterman and a male companion if they did not leave the scene. Moments later, both were tackled to the ground and arrested “on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest,” as Hosterman recalled in the complaint she later filed.
At the Stillwater City Jail, Hosterman and her belongings were searched, but no drugs were found. She also cooperated with the intake interview, denying any suicidal ideation. Yet while still handcuffed, she was forcibly strip-searched by a group of guards of both sexes, who left her naked in a holding cell for an hour before she was provided with a paper smock, she said. “You didn’t give me any chance to cooperate,” Hosterman recalled crying, begging the group of male and female jailers: “Please don’t take my clothes off. Please. Please. No. You had no reason to arrest me.”
Adding to her emotional trauma, the strip-search was conducted in plain view of two male SPD officers, who took advantage of the opportunity and watched. As if to emphasize how routine this violation was of her Fourth Amendment right “to be secure in [her] person[],” a third male SPD cop, Operations Cpt. Royce Stephens, “stood in the doorway of the cell and oversaw the entirety of the unconstitutional strip search,” the complaint said.
It was filed in the district court in September 2024 with the aid of attorneys Daniel E. Smolen, Robert M. Blakemore and Bryon D. Helm of Smolen & Roytman in Tulsa. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, they made a claim of excessive force for the strip search, in violation of Hosterman’s civil rights, noting the utter lack of pretext because she was “1) unarmed; 2) not fleeing; 3) not actively resisting; and 4) posed no threat to herself, the officers, or anyone else.” The complaint also made a claim against Stephens for supervisory liability and against the City for maintaining a de facto policy of conducting unreasonable and unnecessary strip-searches.
Less than six months later, the parties emerged from a settlement conference with an agreement that included the huge payout—$875,000 of which was paid by the City’s insurer, the Oklahoma Municipal Insurance Group, with the remaining $1,675,000 paid by the City. See: Hosterman v. City of Stillwater, USDC (W.D. Okla.), Case No. 5:24-cv-00976.
In preparation for trial, Smolen collected testimony from multiple witnesses who said that jailers routinely resorted to the sort of “forced change out” that Hosterman was subjected to, in retaliation for behavior perceived as noncompliant. “There seems to be a habit of … young males participating in watching the stripping of clothing of young female detainees,” Hosterman said, adding that a fellow female detainee “had the same thing done to her even though she was arrested for a DUI. … She was in the cell across from me. She was also naked.” In his own deposition, though, SPD Chief Chris Hassig testified that his jailers “followed policy and procedure,” adding that “we could use that [video of Hosterman’s ordeal] as a … training tool.” As Smolen later told The Oklahoman, “This was not a momentary lapse in judgment.”
While concluding settlement negotiations with Hosterman, the City Council voted to close the lockup in March 2026. Beginning on July 1, SPD arrestees will be booked into the Payne County Jail in Stillwater.
Additional source: The Oklahoman
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Related legal case
Hosterman v. City of Stillwater
| Year | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (W.D. Okla.), Case No. 5:24-cv-00976 |
| Level | District Court |