Swatting Ore. boys sue over strip-searches

MCMINNVILLE, Ore. — Two boys who made national news when they were arrested at their middle school for swatting the behinds of their female classmates are now suing Yamhill County because they were subjected to strip and body-cavity searches while in custody.

Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both of McMinnville, are two of six plaintiffs in the federal class action case. The suit contends that juveniles held for minor crimes and nonviolent offenses were subjected to unnecessary searches.

The case seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages. It also hopes to put an end to the practice.

"They have been and continue to violate minors' Fourth Amendment rights protecting them against unreasonable searches and seizures," said attorney Leonard Berman, who filed the case last week.

Tim Loewen, director of Yamhill County's Juvenile Department and one of two officials named as defendants, declined to comment to The Oregonian, but provided the newspaper with a copy of county policies governing juvenile body searches.

Although they do not specify conditions under which searches can be conducted, the policies state that corrections officers are permitted to search for weapons or other contraband, to find hazards that may have gone unnoticed after an arrest during intake, or to remove items that a juvenile might use to inflict self injury, the newspaper reported.

Mashburn and Cornelison, both 14, were charged with felony sex abuse for swatting the girls in February 2007. The charges were later reduced and then finally dropped amid a public outcry.

The boys were jailed in Yamhill County for five days after their arrest. During this period, the lawsuit says, Cornelison was strip-searched eight times and Mashburn five.

Some of the searches, which also involved inspecting body cavities, came after meetings with counselors and attorneys, the lawsuit says. Corrections officers had no reason to suspect the two had weapons or contraband, the suit says.

Four other juvenile plaintiffs underwent similar searches, according to the complaint.

"It's pretty sick for these people to be strip-searching children again and again and again," said Tracie Mashburn, Cory's mother. "They're embarrassed about their bodies already, and for the juvenile jail people to humiliate them in this way is degrading and wrong."

Strip-searches in Yamhill County also caused controversy back in 1998, when 34 girls at a middle school were forced to shake out their bras and drop their underwear after a student reported items missing from her locker.

The city and school district eventually paid $125,000 to settle legal claims by five girls.