Latino Woman Handcuffed & Questioned for 3 Hours after Searching her house
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week
that Simi Valley police didn’t violate a Salvadoran immigrant’s civil
rights when they handcuffed her for hours and questioned her. On Feb.
3, 1998, police searched a home on Patricia Avenue where Iris Mena and
several other people lived. Police were looking for evidence related to
a drive-by shooting. Mena was handcuffed for three hours, and police
and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents questioned her and
the other occupants about their immigration papers. Mena, a legal U.S.
resident, sued the officers, claiming they violated her Fourth and 14th
Amendment rights. The lower courts agreed, and a jury awarded her
$60,000. James Muller, Mena’s attorney, wasn’t pleased with the high
court’s decision, calling it "an overreaction" stemming from the
terrorist incidents of Sept. 11. "In the end, Mena will win," said
Muller. "But it is another chip away at the civil rights of the
population. . . . It’s more down the path of ignoring the Fourth
Amendment for these kinds of paranoid fears that were here not
supported." Muller said Mena, a petite Latina woman who was 18 at the
time, posed no threat to officers after they’d searched the residence—a
15-minute task—and should at that time have been released from the
handcuffs. What’s more, he said, during the three hours that Mena was
in handcuffs, the drive-by shooting suspect had been in police custody
and released. [more]
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