A Black woman is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after arresting her at home while she was naked and menstruating, Blavity reports. The unidentified woman — named in the suit as Jane Doe — is suing the department for violating her Constitutional rights and claims deputies were negligent, conducted an unreasonable search of her home and inflicted emotional distress on her, her younger sister and son.
The incident occurred in July of 2019. Deputies were reportedly searching for the woman’s brother who was wanted for assault. However, booking records from the sheriff’s department show that her brother was already being arrested by other deputies in South Los Angeles around the same time as deputies barged into her home in Lancaster.
“They were looking for someone who wasn’t there,” the woman’s attorney Brian Dunn told NBC Los Angeles.
Doe says she was in the shower when deputies arrived.
“I’m telling him I’m not dressed and to wait a minute,” she said, according to the lawsuit. “[He said] no and opened the door.”
The incident was recorded by her younger sister and the video shows four male deputies ordering the woman to walk down a flight of stairs while naked.
“They tied me up, I was dragged across my grass, keep in mind, I was on my menstrual period,” she told NBC. “I’m completely undressed, on my front yard.”
“There was too much aggression and not enough compassion,” her attorney Dunn said, adding that there were no female deputies called in and that the male deputies inappropriately touched, searched and handled his client.
The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the matter and said they were unable to address the allegations due to the ongoing lawsuit. Los Angeles County lawyers have denied the woman’s claims.
“I’m in complete shock that it happened,” the woman told NBC. “I feel as if they should be held accountable for their actions.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office later declined to file criminal charges against the woman’s brother due to a lack of sufficient evidence