How a small-time drug bust ignited a feud between police and a Catholic hospital
www.nbcnews.com
Convinced a suspect was hiding evidence, police in Ohio ordered doctors to search his body cavity. The doctors refused.

Last August, police in Lorain, Ohio, arrested a man they suspected of hiding a baggie of drugs in his butt. He denied it, but police were certain, so they took him to a local hospital for a body cavity search.

The case then swerved into unusual territory: The man would not agree to the procedure, so the police got a judge to order it. The doctors refused, saying it was dangerous and unethical — and later added that it violated the hospital’s Catholic principles.

The police pushed back. The doctors didn’t budge. The dispute spiraled.

The hospital now faces criminal charges and has been forced to dismantle its in-house police force. It has sued authorities, alleging retaliation and discrimination. And the man who was held at the hospital while the two sides fought over his bowel movements says he was humiliated and violated by the experience.

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  • @givesomefucksEnglish
    22•16 hours ago

    Really good article that people should read, but…

    TLDR:

    Cops thought a backseat passenger put drugs up his but during minor traffic stop.

    Got a warrant and tried to make a (Catholic) hospital to pull it out

    They refused and said it would be incredibly dangerous.

    Cops retaliated by no longer stationing police at the hospital, so the hospital is suing the cops.

    So it’s interesting but also important. No one wants to live in a country where being in the backseat of a car that fails to single means cops can do cavity searches. And cops intimidating medical professionals is an issue that’s been going on for decades, and neither party seems authentically interested in reigning in police.

    • TheTechnician27English
      23•13 hours ago

      Also of note:

      • No drugs were found.
      • It’s so dangerous because if drugs are there and a bag tears, an OD can be rapid and fatal. Harris additionally objected to the search, and thus it would’ve been unethical unto itself.
      • Harris had a history of drug violations, but the cops’ only “evidence” something was wrong was 1) the SUV pulled up to a house they were staking out (what they presumed to be a drug house), 2) they claimed they saw a “white item at the entrance of his anus”, 3) an officer purported to feel drugs near Harris’ groin, and 4) a CT scan showed an object in the bowels but could not determine if it was foreign (again, Harris had no drugs).
      • You absolutely do not have to perform a cavity search; you can just wait for the object to come out naturally through a bowel movement.
      • Harris was seemingly held for two days (detained August 10, president of the hospital allegedly threatened the police chief to comply the night of August 12, Harris “shortly after” was issued a court summons and released).
      • Harris was charged with obstruction and tampering and is awaiting trial even though no drugs were ever found.

      ACAB.