Lawsuit over policy-violating public strip search by Jacksonville police ends with settlement

Yahoo

14-03-2025

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit between the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and a man who was publicly strip-searched by officers.
Court documents dated for the end of February show that the man who filed the lawsuit was dropping it after reaching a settlement with Sheriff T.K. Waters.
Related: Jacksonville City Council approves measure to give sheriff a say in settlements involving JSO
The lawsuit was filed after the man was inappropriately strip-searched on the side of a Jacksonville road in 2022.
Video of the incident, first obtained by The Tributary, shows multiple JSO officers pulling down the man's pants and underwear, exposing his genitalia to onlookers.
In the body camera video, he could be heard saying 'You can't bend me over like that bro. I know my rights.
Police had believed that he was carrying illegal drugs. The Tributary reported that those drugs were never found, but he was charged with possession anyway.
Those charges were later dropped.
Action News Jax told you last year when three involved officers were disciplined for the conduct, which JSO said violated department policy.
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While Florida statute does authorize law enforcement to conduct strip searches for narcotics upon receiving written approval from a supervising officer, JSO policy only allowed corrections officers to conduct the searches.
During the internal investigation at JSO, at least two of the three officers involved stated they didn't believe what they had done to the man during his arrest constituted a strip search, but after reviewing state statute, they came to believe it was a strip search.
Those same two officers, Joel Belgard and Nicholas Hackley, both testified they were never trained on the agency's strip search policy.
But according to JSO, all officers are trained on the agency's strip search policy.
'All police officers receive training concerning searches, to include that strip searches are to be performed by corrections officers rather than police officers,' said PIO for JSO in an emailed statement last year.
The terms of the settlement were not immediately available upon Action News Jax' search of the court records.
Read: 'Lot of questions': Family waiting for answers after mother killed outside Jacksonville daycare
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