This has got to be the mother of all strip-and-search horror stories. A Florida mom was allegedly strip searched not once but twice in full view of passing motorists and her two children. And then, because that wasn't terrifying and humiliating enough, she says a female cop forcibly removed her freakin' TAMPON. She went Christian Grey on that poor mom!
Leila Tarantino was driving with her children, a one-year-old and a four-year-old, in the back seat. According to her lawsuit (yeah, it's that bad), she came to a complete stop. A cop in a car at the intersection waved her on, then changed his mind, made a U-turn, and pulled her over. The cops never told the woman why she was being searched -- but there has to be more to this story, right?
The way Tarantino's lawsuit tells it, you'd think the cops suspected her of being the Kingpin of a drug cartel, like Salma Hayek in Savages. I mean, why else would you be interested in what a mom might be hiding up in her lulu? And the cop who pulled her over held her at gunpoint from the beginning -- like she was dangerous.
But they never brought in drug-sniffing dogs and they never found anything drug-related on her. They DID allegedly make her sit handcuffed in the back of the cop car -- with her kids still sitting in her car -- while he called for backup. Does that mean a cop left a small child and a baby alone in a car for two hours? Brilliant.
Let's just say there's more to this story that we don't know and Tarantino really is Salma Hayek from Savages. Even if that were the case, that wouldn't justify this kind of treatment. Even alleged drug cartel kingpins have a few rights. Shouldn't a woman be read her Miranda rights before having a feminine hygiene product forcibly zoiked out of her body by someone else's hands? "You have the right to be silent, you have the right to remove your own tampon yourself..." There's about fifty shades of wrong going on in this story, and we'll probably never get the full picture. But whoever Leila Tarantino is I hope she wins her lawsuit.
Do you think anything might justify the police treating someone this way?
Image via Daquella manera/Flickr
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Comments 57
The story sounds a bit far fetched,but if it truly happened the way you tell it, I'm thinking HUGE lawsuit!
Read the filed charges against the police. It is all in there and I don't believe an attorney would take
a case like this unless it were true, there is just too much to lose. So a case has begun and I hope she wins. They didn't have probable cause and still have nothing to offer of why they did this to her according to the official filed complaint. This happened to her last July 2011 and formal papers submitted Aug 3rd 2012. It takes a while to get things in gear, if you ever had to press charges you know that a lot of research and facts have to be in place before an attorney will submit. It looks good for her so far, she has someone looking out for her and that's great.
Maybe that cop needed to be searched...maybe the cop is on something..did anyone think of that ???
A footnote to the VA shooting, the cop involved was arrested and at last check, was being held without bond on a murder charge. His mother who also apparently worked for the same PD was arrested on obstruction charges, seems she was trying to get rid of some docs from his personnel file.
@ harry noyes- Exactly.
If this is true, it is horrifying! You are not allowed to strip search anyone in public. You can search them, but to strip search them, they have to be taken into custody & placed in a room, behind cosed doors & a same sex officer has to do the search. However, if all of that was done & they had reasonable doubt to search her, yes, I believe they would remove the tampon, or have her do it & place it aside. If that cop doesn't get fired, I would be screaming favoratism & starting a petition or something. If they had no reasonable doubt I don't see how they could justify searching her or cuffing her & placing her in their car with her small children in the car alone! She should have, at the least, been able to call someone to come pick up the kids & I'm pretty sure procedure does not allow the kids to be left alone. Someone, whether it be a family member, friend, or child advocate, would need to have the children in their care before anything could happen with the parent. This is appalling & I sure hope this isn't the real/full story. If it is, that cop should be fired & serve jail time bc it probably wasn't the first time he did something this disgusting & wrong. ugh, this is gonna bother me for a while...smh.