Mount Vernon, NY, Police Department Illegally Strip Searches Elderly Couple Accused of "Selling Drugs"

December 16, 2024 -- By Jacob Jackson Alexander /// TheBlakeMoiaShow.com National Security Correspondent

Allegations are swirling around regarding a troubling incident involving the Mount Vernon Police Department. The case has gained national attention due to the shocking strip searches conducted on an elderly couple, raising significant concerns about the practices and policies in place at the department.

In June 2020, Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) officers conducted a traffic stop of two women, one 65 years old and the other 75 years old, claiming that they saw the women engage in a hand-to-hand drug transaction. The driver of the car explained that she had given her husband a five-dollar bill to purchase a lottery ticket.

The couple were handcuffed and taken to a police holding cell, where they were made to remove all their clothing and underwear, bend over and cough.

An Internal Affairs (IA) investigation later determined that the MVPD officer had lied and there was no basis for the traffic stop.

Following the incident, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department, uncovering a disturbing pattern of behavior.

According to the DOJ probe, there are allegations of at least 12 other incidents involving strip searches and body cavity searches that have come to light, prompting widespread outrage and calls for accountability.

The complaint alleges that the department uses excessive force in numerous ways, including by unnecessarily escalating minor encounters and by overusing tasers and closed-fist strikes, particularly against individuals who have already been taken to the ground, are controlled by many officers or are already fully or partially restrained.

Conducted unlawful strip searches and body cavity searches of individuals until at least 2023; and
Makes arrests without probable cause.

According to a 35-page DOJ report, A man filed a complaint alleging that, after he was arrested for selling narcotics to an undercover officer, an MVPD officer placed him in a holding cell, instructed him to remove his clothes and then bend over, spread his buttocks, squat, and cough. After he dressed himself again, the officer’s partner came, removed him from the holding cell (which had a camera), and took him to another room without a camera. The complainant alleges this officer put on blue gloves, removed the complainant’s pants, put a hand on his back to bend him over, and then inserted a finger into the complainant’s anus. MVPD has no record of investigating this complaint.

These revelations have sparked a fierce public debate over the appropriateness and legality of such invasive search techniques, particularly when it comes to vulnerable populations, such as the elderly. Many community members, including civil rights advocates, are demanding a thorough review of the department's policies to prevent another incident from occurring.

"As MVPD arrested about 8,000 people across approximately 14,500 arrests from 2015 to 2022, this practice resulted in a gross violation of the Fourth Amendment on an enormous scale", the DOJ said in its report.

Calls of urgent need for reform within the Mount Vernon Police Department to ensure the dignity and rights of all individuals are upheld.

As the DOJ continues its investigation, the hope among community members is that this will serve as a wake-up call for law enforcement agencies across the country. The public is increasingly aware of the necessity for transparency and accountability, particularly when it comes to the treatment of elderly citizens and other vulnerable groups.

According to the DOJ, MVPD’s pattern of unconstitutional arrests manifests in a number of ways, including making unlawful arrests to conduct questioning or perform strip searches, arresting people present when MVPD served a search warrant without independent probable cause for arresting those people, and arresting people for behavior that does not constitute a crime.

Following a 2020 roll call training at which MVPD officers were instructed that strip searches must be conducted at the police station, MVPD officers began unconstitutionally detaining persons, in the absence of probable cause for an arrest, to transport them to the station and conduct strip searches. When interviewed in 2022, key supervisory officers did not understand that involuntarily detaining individuals and transporting them to the station constituted an arrest.

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When interviewed in 2022, key supervisory officers did not understand that involuntarily detaining individuals and transporting them to the station constituted an arrest.

An occupant of an apartment that was subject to a search warrant was arrested at the outset of the execution of the search warrant—not merely detained while the apartment was searched—without any documented probable cause. MVPD officers described this as standard practice, extending even to residents of an apartment for which a search warrant was issued who were not at the premises.

Another incident involving the mother of a victim who was struck by a stray bullet was detained for initial investigation and ultimately brought back to the station for further interrogation and not permitted to leave—without any articulation of probable cause to support an arrest—while her daughter was taken to the hospital without her and ultimately died.

MVPD officers arrested and charged a pedestrian with Obstructing Governmental Administration solely on the basis that an MVPD officer ordered him to stop, and he ran away. However, such a charge requires the use of intimidation or physical force, leading a Mount Vernon city court to dismiss it as facially inadequate because “fleeing from a police officer, in and of itself, is not a crime and does not amount to the type of physical force or interference required by the statute even if the defendant is a suspect of a police investigation.”

MVPD officers arrested a person for shouting profanity at them while they were making another arrest. The officers searched for the passerby after completing the first arrest, found him, chased him into a private residence, and used force to arrest him. He was charged with resisting arrest and possession of marijuana found on him after his arrest. No valid basis was ever articulated for the officers’ pursuit in the first instance.

Similarly, other Mount Vernon residents told the DOJ that they were arrested for engaging in verbal confrontations with MVPD officers. The residents had the criminal cases against them dismissed or were acquitted at trial. Arresting a person for engaging in protected speech violates both the First and Fourth Amendments.

The statement noted that three police officers and two civilian employees had been fired following an investigation in 2021. A spokesperson for the mayor of Mount Vernon did not immediately respond to questions about when and why those people were fired.