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County sued for strip-searching minors

MCMINNVILLE, Ore., June 18 (UPI) -- Two Oregon boys are suing Yamhill County for subjecting them to unnecessary strip-searches while they were in jail on sex abuse charges.

McMinnville, Ore., residents, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 14, and four other plaintiffs are part of a federal class-action lawsuit filed last week which claims county officials frequently performed unnecessary strip and body-cavity searches on minors, the (Portland) Oregonian reported Wednesday.

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Mashburn and Cornelison last year faced felony sex abuse charges for slapping girls' bottoms at school. The charges were eventually dropped, the report said.

"They have been and continue to violate minors' Fourth Amendment rights protecting them against unreasonable searches and seizures," said Leonard Berman, a Portland, Ore., attorney who took the case.

The suit asks for officials to stop such searches, an undetermined amount of compensation for damages and $2 million in punitive damages, the newspaper said.

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