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This settlement is closed!
Please see what other class action settlements you might qualify to claim cash from in our Open Settlements directory!
UPDATE 7:
- This class action settlement is paying out $451 in a second round of payments.
UPDATE 6:
- Readers reported this settlement paying out more than $400 as of Jan. 26, 2022.
- Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!
UPDATE 5:
- The settlement will become effective Nov. 3, 2021.
- First payments are expected to be issued in two to three months.
- Let Top Class Actions know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.
UPDATE 4:
- According to the settlement website, the Supreme Court petition will not be decided until October 2021 or later.
- Settlement payments will remain on hold until the petition for review is resolved.
UPDATE 3:
- On May 13, 2021, an objector filed a petition seeking review of the settlement by the U.S. Supreme Court.
- The settlement will not become effective until after the review request is decided.
- Top Class Actions will continue to provide case updates as they become available.
UPDATE 2:
- On Sept. 10, 2020, an appeal to the L.A. Women’s Jail Strip Search Class Action Settlement was filed.
- Claims will not be paid until all appeals are exhausted.Â
- We appreciate your ongoing patience. Top Class Actions will continue to provide updates as we learn more. Â
UPDATE:
- The L.A. Women’s Jail Strip Search Class Action Settlement was granted final approval Aug. 11, 2020.
- Let Top Class Actions know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.
The County of Los Angeles has agreed to pay a total of $53 million to settle class action allegations that women inmates were subject to degrading strip searches while entering or returning to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif.
The settlement represents the largest payout in the county’s history.
The Lynwood strip search settlement website notes that Class Members include those who were subjected to a strip search in a group outside of the bus garage while entering or returning from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lynwood Jail between March 5, 2008 and Jan. 31, 2015.Â
Lead plaintiffs claimed that thousands of inmates were subjected to unnecessary and violating strip searches. Plaintiff Jessica Almaraz alleged that she was strip searched a total of five times during her time at the Sheriff Department’s Century Regional Detention Facility.
According to the female inmates, women were often strip searched in groups. They say that they were forced to take off their clothes and be invasively strip searched in front of other women. Allegedly, deputies degraded them and yelled profanity during these searches.
The plaintiffs claim that this treatment violated their Fourth Amendment rights.
Eligible Class Members will be able to receive at least $200 for one strip search, while those who experienced numerous strip searches are likely to end up with thousands of dollars.
Inmates must complete and return a Claim Form to receive monetary recovery. According to the strip search class action, qualifying individuals should have received a Claim Form in the mail. Class Members may also compete a Claim Form online.Â
Class Members can exclude themselves from the settlement, or object to it by June 4, 2020. Those who excluded themselves from the settlement retain their right to pursue independent litigation over the strip searches, but waive their rights to claim benefits from this settlement.
Former inmates who do nothing will receive no benefits, and waive their rights to pursue independent litigation.Â
Class Members can also attend the final approval hearing on July 20, 2020, in which a judge will decide whether or not the settlement will be approved.
Who’s Eligible
Individuals who were subjected to a strip search in a group outside of the bus garage while entering or returning from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Lynwood Jail between March 5, 2008 and Jan. 31, 2015.Â
Potential Award
At least $200 and up to thousands of dollars.
No Class Member who files a claim will receive less than $200 (for one search under the least bad conditions). Persons with the highest number of searches – up to 50 – will likely receive thousands of dollars.
Proof of Purchase
N/A
Claim Form
NOTE:Â If you do not qualify for this settlement do NOT file a claim.
Remember: you are submitting your claim under penalty of perjury. You are also harming other eligible Class Members by submitting a fraudulent claim. If you’re unsure if you qualify, please read the FAQ section of the Settlement Administrator’s website to ensure you meet all standards (Top Class Actions is not a Settlement Administrator). If you don’t qualify for this settlement, check out our database of other open class action settlements you may be eligible for.
Claim Form Deadline
6/4/2020
Case Name
Mary Amador, et al. v. Sheriff Leroy D. Baca, et al., Case No. 2:10-cv-01649-SVW-JEM, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Final Hearing
7/20/2020
Settlement Website
Claims Administrator
Lynwood Strip Search Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91070
Seattle, WA 98111
info@LynwoodStripSearch.com
1-855-233-1237
Class Counsel
Barrett S. Litt
Lindsay Battles
KAYE McLAN BEDNARSKI & LITT
DONALD COOK ATTORNEY AT LAW
Colleen Flynn
LAW OFFICES OF COLLEEN FLYNN
Cynthia Anderson-Barker
LAW OFFICES OF CYNTHIA ANDERSON-BARKER
Defense Counsel
Andrew Baum
GLASER WEIL
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330 thoughts onL.A. Women’s Jail Strip Search Class Action Settlement
i ll never forget that smell and the cold floor and that plastic bin where we have to throw our clothes and next to it our gown and it was a small room and made us all line up close to each other while the deputies would yell in our faces made us bend over and open wide our lips and made us cough several times.
I remember the smell of period blood and feeling violated when they told me to spread my butt cheeks I remember seeing a woman with a both her breast removed. I was 19 the first time I was arrested in 2003 the La county sheriff’s have always treated the inmates like trash talking abusively downgraded woman God bless the people who were brave enough to speak up.May we all get the justice we deserve. I remember the men sherrifs putting me inside a holding cell and they all took turns looking at my private parts they told me I would be released if I compiled.
Its still happening I was just incarcerated last march and the garage is still were we get put I I went back and forth to court 4 to 5 days in a row strip search each time in the garage cold late guards talking shit but I am grateful it is out now I hope that this changes cause those gauges take there authority to a whole other level thank you to the person who stepped up and the attorneys fighting for us may god bless us all
I remember one time their was another inmate in line with us going into the strip search area and she hand no arms. Literally no arms but those deputies were so cruel and messed up to that girl they humiliated her by making her strip down in front of everyone so that they could see how she was going to do it with no arms. They stood there and laughed I couldn’t believe it.
I to remember the strip search in the Lynwood jail facility it was horrific I said it back then that that sort of treatment should be illegal it was unreal so uncivilized humiliating inhumane and degrading I could not believe how the justice system was allowing us as US citizens to be in such manner you could not pay enough money to physiologically damage myself and other people they treated us women like animals they made all of us line up against the wall strip down weather you were on your menstrual or not bend over and cough how sickening is that then once we bent over and coughed we had to pick up each garment one by one as instructed while we were checked for contraband once I had to bend over three times because I did not spread my lips wide enough and once I did spread my lips wide bent over and coughed I was rush up against the wall by the deputys with them twisting my arm and wrist yelling at me it was a lesbian white women who dressed like a stud and one black woman after that I requested to speak to the Sargent because I felt super violated
I get chills down my spine when I think about those days, I have nightmares about the times I was stripsearched. I’ve never felt this deep humiliating way I was there 2008 for a few months ,coming back from court was another ugly feeling knowing we were going to be treated like trash
I was 18 with my first charge . Crammed into a bus garage . Male guard standing in the door way watching us . Female guards acting as off they were gonna puke as they stripped all of us down and humiliated all of us . Screaming at us . Threatening us . …. That day was just the start of many as I went to court n back . … Not to mention the raid on our pod 3200 . When the female guards searching me proceeded to put her hands down my pants as she was searching me n pause with her hand in my pants as she joked n cut up with another guard next to us . . . We need real justice .
They were very rude made you do the unexpected.. When getting off that bus stripping was a disgrace and treating us like animals.. I pray that i never have to be put back in such situation.. We all as women are human and goes through tough times in our lives but having us all or most of us on our menstrual in the cold and even the heat was humiliating.. Lord i pray you fix the staff/workers that was and is on duty during such difficult times..
I get chills down my spine when I think about those days, I have nightmares about the times I was stripsearched. I’ve never felt this deep humiliating way I was there 2008 for a few months ,coming back from court was another ugly feeling knowing we were going to be treated like trash
Filthy floor we had no privacy while being asked to get naked there wasn’t no walls the deputy’s would block the door with a laundry cart /bin made us stick our finger in our mouth after taking clothing off and shoes spread our private area it was disgusting sticking finger in mouth menstrual mess cold conditions standing naked the deputy’s used verbal abuse verbal behavior degrading and traumatic, I hope nobody ever goes through that bad disgusting experience
Just nothing to say it’s a shame how u can treat a human being for making a mistake in life the way they treated us was no words to express nothing but hurt pain never would I treat my worst enemy like that I can’t even say no more it to much to bare !!
I was searched a number of times in 2013… it was degrading and it was done by lesbian women jailers
I can tell you now that I am an older woman. I was strip searched with a large group of women every time I came back from court. One time I was placed in a small cell in the medical unit because I had a physical injury. There was a young woman who just had a miscarriage in the cell. There was blood all over the side of the toilet. She told me the guards took her down to the showers washed her off. Then put her naked body wrapped in a blanket and just left her in cell laying on the bunk. Three days later. The blood was never ever cleaned up. The woman was suffering. The guards did not take her to the hospital. I tried to help her. Then I was relocated to another place in jail. There were male sheriffs who sat at the desk in our pod who had clear view of the showers. I was fighting my case because I had been physically hurt from an ex boyfriend. I was yelled at constantly by the Sheriffs male and female. Especially during strip searching us.
I was horrified by the way the women deputies barked out orders to us women on just how to we should be taking our clothing off, and God forbid if you did it out of order we’d have to be sent back to a holding cell and do it all over again. When it came time for us hold up a our breast I didn’t bother lifting mine because mine didn’t hang and the deputy asked why I didn’t do what she ordered everyone alse to do. My response was that I didn’t have too much to lift. I was sent back to a holding tank and was the last person to be given a bed for that.
Both times I was arrested I was with a group of women and we all had to undress. Not that bad truly but to spread ourselves and cough, then be told about how our bodies looked was shamefully embarrassing! I’m glad to see this action is taking place!! I was put through this revealing and humiliating group strip search a couple times both arrests in 2011!
Send me a form
doesnt the same tyoe of strip searching happen at pretty much ALL county prisons? i’ve experienced it in Philadelohia Prison Systems and we were strip searched in groups as we entered the female facility RCF. we were cursed at and degraded as if nobody there made mistakes but we were all evil women. it was awful because the vast majority of COs appear to be miserable and give the imoression they hate their jobs. very few have any compassion, i only came across one prison employee that treated me like a human being and who didnt disrespect me because of my unfortunate position. As i was released the sergeant who did my mandatory ‘Exit interview’ (followong my medical discharge) was very sweet and spoke to me as if she were speaking to anyone else and she did wished me well on my way out. it was something i aporeciated so muhc, and i didnt expect to have the pleasant conversation we had. back to the strip searches…it is a policy to strip search all inmates if they go INTO a visit as well as on the way OUT of a visit, so you know that each visit from family friend or legal team comes with at least 2 strip searches. they turn our visits, something to look forward, ino something we dread.
No this does not happen in all county jails. I’ve been to jail in Oakland it didn’t happen, I’ve been to jail in Orange county and this didn’t happen, over been to jail in Van nuys and it didn’t happen, over also been to jail in Merced and it didn’t happen. Only time this degrading type of shit happened has been in Lynwood from my personal experiences.
You have sure been to jail a lot.