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
I don't see this as far fetched at all. When I was 17 I got pulled over for speeding and the cop had a drug dog circle my car because of some dirt he saw in the car and laughed at me when I said there was nothing in there.
Let me clarify, this cop BROKE THE LAW. I was under 18 and even though I paid for the car it was in my mom's name, he HAD to have her permission before asking me to step out of my vehicle and have it circled.
Cops do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want.
how nasty can this be
Regardlesss of any excuse, trumped up or otherwise, no, I do not think there could be any reasonable excuse for any such roadside behavior. Period, end of story.
I don't care if she had a record 10 ft long, there was NO reason to strip search her on the side of the road. Even without the digital removal, that was sexual assault.
And leaving the kids in the car while they did all this? It was summer. In Florida. It's beastly hot out. We would have been arrested if one of us did that. Sounds to me like this cops dream job is working for TSA.
@ Bree ~ I dont think its all that far fetched either.
I was alone on a business trip in a town in Arkansas 8 years ago it was about 1am and I stopped at an IHOP to get something to go before going to my hotel room. While I was waiting I sat down and leaned my head back and (admittedly) catnapped about 5 min. I mean, it WAS 1am. When I left, I was stopped and checked for DUI. While they were putting me thru my sobriety tests, they called back up and went to my hotel room, let themselves in without any hotel personnel present or even knowing they were there. They trashed my hotel room and stole 5 $100 bills (oddly enough there were 5 of them). I know it was them cause they came back and told the other 2 they didn't find anything there. They took me to the police station and resumed their sobriety tests for 2 hours. Eventually letting me go but they had towed my car so I had to pay to get it out of impound. Their "reason" for stopping me and putting me thru all that? They were teaching a new guy how to do sobriety tests. I did try to sue and was told it was their word against mine and there were 5 of them. When you're young ( 20), alone, and female, unfortunately sometimes it's the guys who are supposed to be good that aren't.