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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Strip-search ruling reversed

Judge says warrant gave police authority

Thomas Clouse Staff writer

Spokane taxpayers no longer face the prospect of shouldering more than $1 million in damages for a police strip-search that a federal judge previously ruled unconstitutional.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley has reversed his 2007 decision that a 2005 strip-search of suspected crack dealer John Burton had violated Burton’s civil rights.

Ken Kato, who represented Burton, said the case hinged on a search warrant that wasn’t argued during the previous decision, when Whaley awarded summary judgment to his client.

After the initial decision, the city hired a private attorney, Steve Lamberson, who argued that a search warrant gave police the authority to strip-search Burton. Whaley sided with Lamberson and recently reversed his ruling and awarded summary judgment to the city, Kato said.

“That search warrant was in the record and before the court way back in 2007,” said Kato, who argued in the March hearing that Whaley had previously made the correct decision. “The city never argued the warrant. That’s where it got gummed up in the works.”

Asked if he plans to appeal, Kato – a former state appeals court judge – said he probably would not.

The case started in 2005 when Burton arrived at a West Central neighborhood home and was arrested on charges of selling crack cocaine.

Officers, who were already in the home, pulled Burton inside and ordered him to undress so they could see if he was hiding drugs in his anal cavity. They found no drugs, reportedly declaring there’s “no crack in this crack,” and asked Burton if he had been sexually molested as a child, he claimed in the lawsuit.

His constitutional rights were further violated, Burton claimed, when a detective, officer and female officer were allowed to watch the strip-search. He was seeking damages of more than $1 million.

The case established that strip-searches in the field – without a search warrant – are illegal. As a result, Chief Anne Kirkpatrick last year brought in a consultant to help develop a department policy about when it is appropriate to conduct those types of searches.