BOSTON, May 30 (UPI) -- A woman arrested for selling sausages without a permit and another for being late in returning a videogame rental are among more than 1,000 women who will share in a $10 million settlement for being illegally strip-searched, reports said Thursday.
More than 5,000 arrested women were forced to strip naked so female guards could search their private parts at the Suffolk County Jail in Boston between Dec. 10, 1995, and Sept. 20, 1999.
During that period, men arrested for minor offenses were held in a Boston Police lockup and not automatically strip-searched, but because the city had no similar lockup for females in similar circumstances, they were sent to the county jail where the Sheriff Department's policy was to strip-search all new arrivals.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner ruled in 2000 that the county's policy violated the women's constitutional rights to equal protection, clearing the way for the class-action lawsuit.
"The searches could not have been more degrading," Gertner said in her ruling.
Damage trials were set to begin next week.
However, in a settlement mediated by U.S. District Judge A. David Mazzone, the city and county agreed Wednesday to pay $10 million to the more than 1,000 women who came forward to join in the lawsuit.
The policy was first challenged in 1998 when Katrina Mack of Boston was charged with drunken driving and strip-searched at the county jail.
The policy has since changed so that women arrested for minor offenses are held at a new Boston Police lockup, and are not subjected to a strip-search unless police have probable cause.
Attorney Howard Friedman, representing the women, said his clients are happy not to have to go to court and "describe what they say was the most humiliating thing in their lives."
One woman, Joanne Maniscalco, 56, a City Hall telephone operator, said she was arrested at a second job selling sausages outside the Fleet Center.
She said in Thursday's Boston Herald she was shocked when ordered to strip naked.
"I kept saying, 'No, I'm only here for selling sausages without a permit. You've got it all wrong.'"
Maniscalco said she was glad the settlement was reached and that the policy has changed.
"That's what I worked hard for," she said, "so girls like me who commit minor offenses would not have to take their clothes off."
Another, Denise Gasparini, 38, a bus driver, said she thought she was in a "bad dream" when strip-searched at the jail.
"I said, 'What are you looking for?'"
Gasparini was arrested for failing to return a video game rented by her children.
A spokesman for the Sheriff's Department said in Thursday's Boston Globe, "We're just pleased that the settlement satisfied all the parties, and we're glad it's over."
A Boston Police statement called the settlement "a fair and equitable resolution ... consistent with settlements reached in similar cases brought in other jurisdictions nationwide."
