Lawsuit: Woman Claims She Was Subjected to Non-Consensual Body Cavity Search at Adventist Health Hospital
24 June 2020 | A woman represented by women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred has filed a lawsuit against California Correctional Institution (CCI) and Adventist Health after what she describes as sexual battery and violation in September 2019.
The woman claims she went to visit her husband at a California Correctional Facility and was abused by CCI staff.
The woman, identified only as Christina, says she was bullied, forced into demeaning situations and sexually violated, according to a report by the site TMZ.
Christina says she was strip-searched at the correctional facility.
She says she was then taken to a nearby Adventist Health hospital where a body cavity search of her vagina was conducted without her consent.
Allred said Christina was subjected to “state-sanctioned torture” and said Christina was suing for “sexual battery, battery, gender violence, sexual harassment, violations of various rights, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and invasion of privacy,” according to TMZ.
Christina demands damages, as well as a court order banning prisons from conducting body cavity searches of women visiting inmate husbands.
In addition to the Adventist hospital’s “invasive body cavity search of her genital area,” Allred claims Christina was X-rayed and given a CT-scan of her body while handcuffed.
The attorney said the invasive search of private parts violated her client’s rights and that, while no contraband was found, Christina was not allowed to see her husband.
Adventist Health has hospitals, clinics, home care agencies, hospice agencies and joint-venture retirement centers in both rural and urban communities, serving more than 80 communities across the western United States and Hawaii. The healthcare system is affiliated with the Adventist Church.
