Danielle Toth  |  December 3, 2021

Category: Legal News

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 jail, class action, settlement, New York
(Photo Credit: George Wirt/Shutterstock)

Jail Visitor Strip Search Settlement Overview:

  • Who: Dana Grottano filed a class action lawsuit against The City of New York.
  • Why: The plaintiff alleged the city’s jails conducted invasive strip searches of visitors without cause. The settlement puts an end to this practice and requires officers to receive new training.
  • Where: The lawsuit is pending in Georgia federal court.

On Nov. 29, a New York federal judge granted final approval to a $12.5 million class action settlement over allegations city jails conducted invasive strip searches of visitors without cause.

“This case involves an invidious and disturbing practice that was allegedly carried out for years in New York City jails, namely the invasive ‘strip/body cavity searches’ of individuals visiting New York City Department of Correction (‘DOC’) facilities,” U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman wrote in his order.

The jail visitor strip search settlement, initially reached in June 2019, will put a stop to the invasive strip searches of visitors at New York City DOC jails and require correction officers to receive new training. 

Plaintiff Dana Grottano filed the class action lawsuit with two other plaintiffs in December 2015 on behalf of themselves and others who had been subjected to invasive searches while visiting individuals housed in a New York City DOC facility between Nov. 23, 2012 and Oct. 30, 2019.

Strip searches are “humiliatingly invasive, degrading, unconstitutional and flatly prohibited by settled law,” the plaintiffs argued in the lawsuit. They say these invasive strip searches violate the 4th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and parts of the New York State Constitution.

Claimants To Receive About $1,150 Each in Jail Visitor Strip Search Lawsuit

To be eligible for settlement payments, visitors must have been subject to an invasive search in which they were required to expose their breasts, buttocks or genitals and involved contact with these body parts that was not incidental or accidental. Women who were allegedly required to expose, remove or display feminine hygiene products were also included in the settlement.

The defendants did not admit to wrongdoing but agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle the jail visitor strip search class action lawsuit.

About 12,500 class members submitted claims for the jail visitor strip search settlement. Claimants will receive an average of $1,149 each.

Have you received a payment from the New York jail visitor strip search settlement? Let us know in the comments below.

Class Members are represented by Bruce Eric Menken and Scott Simpson of Menken Simpson & Rozger LLP, Raymond Audain of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc., and Oren Giskan of Giskan Solotaroff & Anderson LLP.

The Jail Visitor Strip Search Class Action Lawsuit is Dana Grottano, et al. v. The City of New York, et al., Case No. 1:15-cv-9242, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.


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334 thoughts onJail Visitor Strip Search Settlement Gets Final OK

  1. Carlos Jones says:

    I have not received my payment yet what’s going on

  2. Judy says:

    I have send it both paperwork and haven’t heard back from no one

  3. Sabrina munoz says:

    I never received my money

  4. Melanie Connor says:

    My name is Melanie Connor and I filed as soon as I learned of the class action. Can someone tell me something.

  5. Sabrina billy says:

    It is now 3/24/23 and I have not received a dime

    1. Sheema Jones says:

      That exactly the same I was saying they sent me the letter twice and I sent them both back and have not received anything my daughter either and she was and is young going through that

    2. Lisa Holloway says:

      Same here. I called Mr. Gonzalez 2x asking abt the payout n he has yet to call me back.

  6. Cindy Kalman says:

    Still have not received my check nor heard anything..

    1. Zina Williams says:

      I’m part of this classaction suit, but I have not recieve any settlement money

  7. Sherman Thomas says:

    How do you file

  8. Maria Gonzalez says:

    When is this class suit going to happen

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