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CNN Saturday Morning News
Los Angeles County Jail Settles a Lawsuit
Aired August 18, 2001 - 07:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Los Angeles County has agreed to pay the largest civil rights settlement in its history. The case involves people who say they were kept in jail, strip-searched, and humiliated after a judge ordered them released.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Los Angeles County Jail, a place where citizens say their civil rights were violated.
SAMUEL GLADNEY, PLAINTIFF: I was detained for about three days after I was released.
LEELLEN PATCHEN, PLAINTIFF: I was in jail a total of three and a half days.
GUTIERREZ: Days spent locked up in the county jail after a judge had ordered their release.
LORETHA BRETT, PLAINTIFF: My son went to court and was ordered released. I was held for another day and a half.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It's about my human rights. They were violated.
GUTIERREZ: They were arrested not for murder or rape, but for outstanding traffic warrants, DUI, and domestic abuse, cases that were later dismissed or dropped. But instead of going free, like the judge ordered, they were sent back to jail. In many cases, they say, they were illegally strip-searched when they weren't supposed to be there at all.
PATCHEN: I was subjected to a mortifying body cavity strip- search. It was absolutely the most horrendous experience of my life.
PATCHEN: It was like 25 people in there I had to undress in front of, bent over with my legs spread.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I screamed plenty of times, with no avail, "I'm supposed to be released. Why are you doing this? Why do you have me locked up?" GUTIERREZ: They say nobody listened until now.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: ... a total of $27 million...
GUTIERREZ: Samuel Gladney, Leellen Patchen, Eric Mitchell (ph), and 62 other plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against the county of Los Angeles for violating their civil rights.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All of you should have been released directly from court.
GUTIERREZ: In a landmark agreement, the county of Los Angeles agreed to pay $27 million to settle a total of five class action lawsuits. It is the largest civil rights settlement in county history.
SHERIFF LEE BACA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: All of the sheriff's department management was aware of the problems.
GUTIERREZ: L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca says the problems ran deep for years, bad policies and an archaic system. When he took office two years ago, he says serious changes were made. But by that time, much of the damage was done, and the lawsuits had been filed.
BACA: In this case, I changed the policy as soon as this problem was brought to my attention, and I take the responsibility for the fact that this problem even went on as long as it did.
GUTIERREZ: Sheriff Baca says he's trying to fix a system with major problems. Now, if a court orders an inmate's release, they're free to go immediately. He says he's also trying to link the court's records directly with the jail's records through a new computer system. For now, it's still all done by hand.
(on camera): You're looking at more than 19,000 files here at the Los Angeles County Jail, and each one represents an inmate.
LT. ROD PENNER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department maintains the largest jail facility and system within the free world, volumes and volumes of documents that we have to try to update and manage every day.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): A difficult task for Sheriff Baca.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I've rarely seen someone at his level sort of say, This isn't right, people's rights are being violated, and that shouldn't happen, and we're going to fix it.
GUTIERREZ: As for the plaintiffs, they may get anywhere from $50,000 to $5,000, but they say it's not about the money.
BRETT: I feel that justice has been served, and I wouldn't have been able to live comfortable if I did not come forward.
GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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