A body-cam video that shows a New Jersey state trooper conducting a roadside strip search has sparked controversy and raised questions about how far law enforcement officers are permitted to go during a traffic stop.
Trooper Joseph Drew had pulled a car over for tailgating and said he smelled marijuana. When a search of the car turned up nothing, he handcuffed the driver and told him to step out of the vehicle.
“You can tell me where it is right now or I can go in and get it,” Drew says on the video.
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The trooper is then seen pulling on blue latex gloves, reaching into the driver’s underwear, and groping his genitals and buttocks while the two stand on Route 206 in Southampton, Burlington County. All the while, trucks and cars pass by on the busy highway.
The driver, a 23-year-old Toms River, N.J., man, insisted several times he had no marijuana and said he doubted such a search was legal.
No drugs were found in the man’s car or on his body, and in the end he was issued a ticket for tailgating. The driver has filed notice of intention to sue, alleging that he was sexually assaulted and that his civil rights were violated.
In the video, the driver can be heard protesting that he is being sexually assaulted as the trooper repeatedly touches his genitals during a four-minute search of the man’s underwear.
Earlier, the trooper checked the man’s pockets and socks and ordered him to turn over drugs, the footage shows. Then he told him, “If you think this is the worst I’m going to do, you have another thing coming, my friend.”
Experts in policing were critical of the trooper’s actions.
Maria Haberfeld, a professor of policing and police ethics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an author of several books on the subject, said the search was unwarranted.
“To reach into someone’s underwear, it has to be for a really good reason, not for marijuana,” she said. “In the times when marijuana has been legalized in state after state, this is some kind of erratic police behavior — and it’s very much about discretion, so even if you can do things, should you be doing them?”
State Police Internal Affairs is investigating the incident, which occurred on March 8, 2017. Drew and a backup trooper, Andrew Whitmore, are still on patrol pending the outcome of that inquiry. Neither could be reached for comment, and their union, the New Jersey State Police Fraternal Association, said it would have to check with its lawyer before releasing any statement on the matter.
The incident came to light last week, when the video was posted on the website of John Paff, who heads New Jersey Libertarians for Transparency, an open government group. Paff obtained the body-cam and dashcam videos of both troopers after filing open public records requests in January. He was checking the court docket, as he does routinely, and came across the driver’s legal filing.
Video: NJ Trooper, donned in latex gloves, searches man’s crotch after allegedly smelling marijuana. https://t.co/Czt0tS9Ehv pic.twitter.com/cF2hnoe71q
— John Paff (@njopengovt) April 2, 2018
The video footage shocked him. “It was extreme, in my view, because of the cavalier attitude, the way this cop acted,” he said. “This is outrageous.”
NJ trooper, wearing latex gloves, searches a motorist’s private area and says “Hope you get a lot of hits on @YouTube” after he’s caught on a dashcam: https://t.co/cLYcQz7Vyf via @phillydotcom
— Jan Hefler (@JanHefler) April 4, 2018
Lt. Theodore Schafer, a state police spokesman, declined to comment on the search and declined to say whether troopers have the authority to conduct such searches under such circumstances. He said he could not release the agency’s policy on searches, saying it is not public record.
Arthur Lang, a Lakewood attorney who represents the driver, said in court documents that he has been unable to obtain a copy of the policy despite several requests made in the last three months. Last month, he filed a motion seeking a court order to compel the state police to provide it.
Efforts to reach the driver were unsuccessful. The Inquirer and Daily News are withholding the man’s name because the newspapers do not identify victims of alleged sexual assault without their permission.
Schafer said troopers must follow the rules outlined in a policy issued by the state attorney general, but he said the state police also have detailed requirements of their own on how and when to conduct searches.
The Attorney General’s Office has a six-page strip search and body cavity search policy that is 23 years old and contains a very general list of “requirements and procedures” for law enforcement officers to follow. A spokesman for the office, Peter Aseltine, declined to elaborate or respond to general questions about such searches.
“I am not authorized to interpret the requirements and procedures, and we do not have any further comment,” Aseltine wrote in an e-mail. He also declined to comment on the search conducted by the trooper.
The attorney general’s policy says anyone who is detained or arrested, but not placed in jail, may not be strip or body cavity searched without a search warrant or consent and authorization by a superior. However, in emergencies, such searches may be performed if law enforcement officers have “probable cause to believe that the person is concealing a weapon, contraband or evidence of crime.”
The policy also says strip searches must be “conducted by person of same sex … in private … under sanitary conditions and … in a professional and dignified manner.”
Body cavity searches should not be performed unless someone is jailed, the policy says in bold letters. Such a search is defined as a “visual inspection or manual search of a person’s anal cavity, vaginal cavity.” In this case, the driver contends that he was subjected to a strip search and visual body cavity search.
Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said troopers must have probable cause for such a search and said “it’s debatable whether the smell of marijuana is sufficient.” He said he was appalled that the search was conducted “on a roadside in a humiliating and undignified way” and that the justification for that was the odor of marijuana.
In Sinha’s view, the case illustrates the need to legalize marijuana. “These are exactly the kinds of harms that can occur when the state is dead set on enforcing unjust marijuana laws,” he said. Such laws ruin people’s lives, he said, because they end up with a criminal record for possessing a substance deemed by health experts to be less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.
We should think abt this from the perspective of people w/ marijuana convictions. The state owes them automatic expungements of their records. Anything short of that would be unjust. Sometimes, states have to grapple with the harms they have inflicted. It’s our moral imperative. https://t.co/wdi2mmVf6L
— Amol Sinha (@AmolSinha) March 30, 2018
Lang, the driver’s lawyer, said in court filings that the state police and prosecutors failed to provide his client with the videos until 10 months after the incident occurred, despite frequent requests.
In order to sue the state police, the driver must first file a tort claim asking the court to waive the government’s immunity against lawsuits. The 90-day deadline for filing that claim has expired, but Lang said the court should allow the claim to go forward because the state police have not given him the information he needs to proceed.
The tort claim seeks permission to sue Drew and Whitmore, a desk sergeant who may have approved the search when Drew radioed him from the road, and state police.
In court filings, the Attorney General’s Office argues the claim should be dismissed because it was filed late. “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” it said.
Regardless of whether a lawsuit goes forward, Sinha, of the ACLU, said the state police and the Attorney General’s Office must address the public’s concerns about the videos. He also said Drew should not remain on patrol while the matter is being investigated.
“Trust in law enforcement suffers when incidents like this happen and we see no accountability,” he said. “We need assurances it won’t happen again, and that the state police amends its policies, training, and procedures … so the public can trust that the police are looking out for the people they serve.”
It’s the Peoples Republik of NJ, what else can we expect?
Same BS in NY, MA, IL, and CT.
The law abiding serfs there have long ago lost their balls, their guns, and their rights.
The cops there have no fear of, or respect for “we the people”.
I was in MA last year for a wedding. The “average Joe’s” I met were so beaten down by the tax man, the regulators, and cops they were afraid of their own shadows.
Mike,as still a licensed Mass builder though moved to the bordering state of N.H.(constitutional carry/no sales/income tax ect.)many in Mass. are sick of the bullshit but not scared,hell,many armed better then the average police.While states like N.J./Mass./Ct. ect. lead the way the country as a whole is headed down this road unless folks stand up.I was not going to waste me time drawing a line in the sand in Mass.,but,Me./Vt./N.H. fall the upper east coast tied up by the control freaks.Soon folks will learn if they have not already that they will have little to lose and everything to gain.
Low life scum pigs need to be taken out. As an arnachist I hate all gov. They only hire the worst of the low life creeps. What we need is 7.5 billion soverien govs. Ya, stand on your own 2 feet and just say no to gov pigs.
At a minimum the trooper should be sued along with the state of NJ.
Maybe this is the answer. If they had to spend a fuckton of money to defend the cops in court EVERY TIME they did this I’m betting they wouldn’t be doing it for long.
What do they care? It’s our money. We need to be able to sue cops personally and individually. What’s the worst that could happen – no one would become a cop? That sounds like a solution, not a problem.
Don’t worry, peasants, this glorious First Responder was simply gloriously protecting your inalienable Constitutional rights.
By shoving his hand up your ass, while conducting an illegal search, under color of law.
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i’d say that all who are likely to be sued or have to pay a judgment,the cops the state,the taxpayers,should want this suit to go forward in state court–
if he is not allowed to sue in state court,it sure looks like a clear cut violation of his federal civil rights-
not only are they looking at civil violations,i would think that discovery would open up some possible criminal violations–
the state should settle this asap w/a non disclosure pact as part of the settlement–
It would have served the Copfuk right if the guy had produced a boner.
Great strategy by the State Police. Delay the release of the necessary evidence until after the 90 period elapses preventing a lawsuit. Also interesting that police policies cannot be disclosed because they are not part of the public record.
It’s only a matter of time until extrajudicial executions can be carried out by Law Enforcement for any reason and no one will be able to do anything about it.
Glad I got out of NJ.
Armpit of Amerika….
“We should think abt this from the perspective of people w/ marijuana convictions. The state owes them automatic expungements of their records.”
Wrong. Just as the State is prohibited from creating ex-post-facto laws, convictions should not be expunged or nullified just because the law has changed. If the act was unlawful when committed, the resulting conviction is justified and should stand.
Reducing sentences to time served is another matter entirely, and IMHO is clearly justifiable. But the conviction(s) should remain on the record.
How do you spell C-O-P-F-U-K?
Hope the lawsuit costs them millions$
If treated this way I would not sue. 7mm Rem. Mag 160grn nosler partition at 2995 fps. Afterwards torch rifle to ash.
Don’t do it in front of the cop’s dash cam.
I TRY AND SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT
BUT DUE TO THEIR OWN ACTIONS IT BECOMES HARDER AND HARDER BY THE DAY
FROM THE DOJ, FBI, STATE, COUNTY AND LOCAL, YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST THEM…
THESE TWO NJ TROOPERS SHOULD BE ON UNPAID LEAVE, AND LOOSE THEIR JOB AND THEIR CERTIFICATES TO WORK AS LEO’S ANYWHERE IN THE US…THEY CAN GO TO THE MID EAST WHERE THIS IS LEGAL.
That’s what the fucker gets for tailgating!! /sarc
1. Where are the cops when you have somebody riding your ass? Oops, this is Cali. They would love that kind of search here.
2. Be sure to let me know if it ever happens to YoBo.
3. 4 minutes is twice my average sex time. Please, if I was the cop, I could have swiped in less than 30 seconds; I think the cop was enjoying raping a young buck. 4 minutes, really? Fucking perv.
4. The sexy mulatta says there was a cop in East LA who had a great ticket trap near a school zone. He was making bank for the city since he invariably surpassed his daily quota from parents parking in a no-parking area next to the school. Somebody fixed the problem. The cop was found dead in his car one day. End of the ticketing.
NJ cops love steroids, especially the taxpayer-funded variety!
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No one, none of the victims, ever holds these police officers personally accountable for their actions.
They pay no personal penalty no matter how egregious their actions.
So they will continue to do it.
I was only following orders , I am a good German ! Remember police can no longer be trusted members of your community . The phony war on drugs , terror , poverty blah blah blah is all a ruse to extract wealth from the public to support the extractors . More and more we hear of the heavy handed policing regarding the alleged war on drugs or drunk driving etc . The fact is Attorney General Sessions is out of touch with reality but he loves asset forfiture wow the Fureh would be pleased !
Just a reminder to you heavy handed badge wearing minions of the state , history has a tendency to repeat itself . You may find yourself handcuffed in a Nuremberg booth with an ultimate date with a rope around your neck !
The bill of rights needs to be carefully understood and defended by you or else you lose the protection of them also !