Latino Woman Handcuffed & Questioned for 3 Hours after Searching her house
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Simi Valley police didn’t violate a Salvadoran immigrant’s civil rights when they handcuffed her for hours and questioned her. On Feb. 3, 1998, police searched a home on Patricia Avenue where Iris Mena and several other people lived. Police were looking for evidence related to a drive-by shooting. Mena was handcuffed for three hours, and police and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents questioned her and the other occupants about their immigration papers. Mena, a legal U.S. resident, sued the officers, claiming they violated her Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. The lower courts agreed, and a jury awarded her $60,000. James Muller, Mena’s attorney, wasn’t pleased with the high court’s decision, calling it "an overreaction" stemming from the terrorist incidents of Sept. 11. "In the end, Mena will win," said Muller. "But it is another chip away at the civil rights of the population. . . . It’s more down the path of ignoring the Fourth Amendment for these kinds of paranoid fears that were here not supported." Muller said Mena, a petite Latina woman who was 18 at the time, posed no threat to officers after they’d searched the residence—a 15-minute task—and should at that time have been released from the handcuffs. What’s more, he said, during the three hours that Mena was in handcuffs, the drive-by shooting suspect had been in police custody and released. [more]