[CORRECTION and APOLOGY: The original headline for this post incorrectly identified the defendants as “Border Patrol Agents.” They are not. The complaint was filed against a number of defendants, including “Two Unknown United States Customs and Border Protection Supervising Agents; United States Customs and Border Protection Agent Portillo and United States Customs and Border Protection Agent Herrera.” Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol are not the same. I apologize for confusing the two, and thank CPB for bringing my error to my attention.]
Cameron Langford reports:
A U.S. citizen’s vagina and anus were left raw from a warrantless six-hour search by Customs and Border Protection agents and doctors, who looked into her with a speculum, then billed her $5,000 for the exam, the woman claims in court.
Jane Doe sued four Border Patrol agents [see Correction above – Dissent], El Paso County Hospital District, its board of directors, the University Medical Center of El Paso and two of its doctors, in Federal Court.
Read more on Courthouse News.
This is disturbingly similar to the case involving David Eckert that I blogged about here. And again, I wonder what the doctors (identified in the complaint as Michael Parsa and Christopher Cabanillas) were thinking before they cooperated with law enforcement’s requests. We’ll have to wait to see their responses to the complaint to begin to understand their version and perspective, but I really wish the AMA would address this issue already in an ethical guidance to all physicians.
The ACLU of Texas is representing Jane Doe in this action. You can read their press release and download the complaint here.