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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.
- We appreciate your ongoing patience. Top Class Actions will continue to provide updates as we learn more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: 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 was there in 2010 and this is one of the most humiliating experience that I had to endured. The yelling is one thing but the racist and womanizing slurs was pretty disturbing
All the deputies were so rude, when they searched us, they all gang up and they used profanities, it was such an ugly and embarrassing experience.
All these things happened to me at Twin Towers between “2001” and “2002” for 9 months as I was illegally arrested because my ex husband made up lies about me. I was sent on dry runs constantly to go to court and NEVER had a hearing. I could write a book of all the EVIL MEN AND WOMEN that work there. If they ever have a class action against Twin Towers I would like to join. He got me arrested for protecting my babies from him after he caused my new born son to die. and was trying to cause my other babies to die. I had triplets…..
Yes, I am another Elisabeth, Spelled differently, bit still I’m one. I too went through this cruel and unusual punishment. I shudder each time I think about the one and only experience with that particular torture tactic.
I just wanted to mention 2 things. The first is the fact that the lawyers going to bat for the ‘likes of us’ are very experienced, skilled professionals. And although we would like to think they are representing is because they feel bad for us, the truth of the matter is that they can be choosey with which cases they take. Mr Barrett Litt has fought and won the county of San Bernardino for illegal strip searches in the jails ( idk if it was all the jails or just west valley) . So he is probably certain he will win this as well. He earned over 1 million $ in the last case.
Second, I would like to know if any of you know if the guards; the ones who committed the offences to us, have been reprimanded or fired? It did not occur to you, did it? We’ll, court is a step, but the ones who mistreated people dependant on them should be punished. They broke the law. Does a civil suit come before you can persue criminal suit?
~food for thought~
A claim should also be opened up for the women’s L.A. downtown Sybil Brand jail, CRC and CIW prisons. I am a former inmate and author who appeared as a Guest Star and Expert Panelist on numerous nationwide TV and radio talk shows on the mid 90’s.
In my autobiography “DEATH ROW MADAM: EXPOSING SEX AND DRUGS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY” I documented the abuse suffered at the hands of prison guards by myself and other inmates during my 1987-1989 incarceration and housing in “Death Row” amongst the Manson Murderers when I was framed for pandering, by simply arranging a blind date as a Hollywood Madam. No amount of money suffices for the humiliation, trauma, depression, and PTSD caused by this inhumanity inflicted upon human beings, many who were innocent victims of a corrupt legal system.
Id like to read your article, i was there too
Yup tests the truth u wrote my thoughts of the exact same thing the exact same way it happen
I hope coronavirus doesn’t affect this had another dream bout being jail there again what happened I was strip searched and yelled because hav3 seizures didn’t understand never been to jail didn’t understand was scared this settlement needs go through I have ptsd bad from it
I have been to jail many times,but the treatment at Lynnwood isthe worst
How is it ok for Gay women to do strip search other women,yelling I want to see inside ur vaginas,not ur assholes,don’t u dumb bitches know the differance?!!?
I did the crime,and my time,but nobody deserves the lack of respect the Lynnwood deputies constantly show iinmates.,.
Felons are people too???
I remember women lined up along the tarp covered fences, some shy and some familiar with the procedure. Some nights were so cold as we stood out there naked, I remember looking up at the sky thinking “this is the closest to freedom I’ll get for a while”, and then seeing a helicopter or airplane fly over and think “damn can they see us”? I was in fact on my period a couple of times and those times i I was instructed to still strip naked but hold a pad up to my crotch until they bent us over and looked into our vaginas with a damn flash light. I knew better to open it wide and cough hard or I’d have to keep doing it over and over. Some women didn’t get that, they were so humiliated they barely coughed or spread they’re vaginas and I remember the cops laughing and telling them they were going to keep doing it until they did it right. I remember when I was pregnant, no special treatment. I was 2nd term the 1st time in 2008 and then 9 months in 2011 and guess what… no special treatment either time. I had to sit for HOURS on those cold hard holding cells, while women were losing their sanity from being cooped up and exhausted in such… fights breaking out because women were covering with tp or using pads for pillows because they were desperate cold and tired but other women were on their period or needed to take a dump. I remember EVERY time going through that same shit… being cooped up, freezing, starving, and exhausted all the way to the “nurses chest exam” benches. Everyone emotionally disturbed or hostile from the step searches. The most dreadful part EVER of being incarcerated.
I was strip searched 4 to 5 times I really dont like to talk about it