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Officer squeezed my genitals, is that legal? Long read.

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Tucker26

Member
Hello, I am sharing my story here, I am not sure if anything can be done or if the officer can legally do that to me, but it has caused me great trauma and I would like to at least know that he was, at least legally, right in what he did. Thank you in advance for any advice given.

This incident happened in December of 2016, I reported it to PoliceAbuse.com but never heard anything back and I don’t know what to personally do about the situation, as it has taken a serious toll on my mental well being. I will try to be descriptive as possible.

I was followed to a friends house by police, (Not a drug area and I was not wanted by any law enforcement agency or anything like that, completely random as far as I know) they parked at the end of the road and waited between 30-45 minutes for me to leave. I know this because I could see their vehicle from the house I was in and finally decided to just let them pull me over. They pulled me over as soon as I left the driveway because my drivers side reverse light was out. The officers ran my license and returned to my vehicle and explained that they weren’t issuing me a ticket. They then asked to search my vehicle and I refused. The officers took offense when I refused and said they were bringing a drug dog, and that they could legally hold me for 15 minutes on the side of the road no matter what. The whole time I was waiting, they were making rude remarks saying it's going to be a lot worse and stuff like that. They also kept asking me to repeat my name and address and even made me spell it to them several times. One officer himself asked me four or five times what my address was. The dog finally arrives and the officer said he alerted, but I honestly don't think he did. They searched my car for over an hour, it was closer to two hours altogether by the time I went home. They searched me, then my truck, then back to me, then my truck and searched VERY intently, even going as far as looking through bed of my truck looking through the dirt and picking up sticks that were less than an inch long (I had been hauling brush the day before) and then made me take my hat off and searched it, and then went back to my truck again and finally found a pop can that had been made in to a pipe for marijuana and a small marijuana seed. No tickets were issued and no arrest was made. The next part is the main reason for my question here today. My complaint isn't for the search itself, but after they found the pipe one of the officers said he used to work at the prison and knows where people hide things, and used his hand to check between my buttcheeks and also around my genitals. I feel like this was very unprofessional, and I feel violated that he could literally grab me the way that he was on the side of the road. I understand searching, but this was completely uncalled for. He even made a comment about me being gay and "Getting a freebie." I cannot express the fear I felt that night. This man had my entire genitals in one hand had the other hand feeling between my buttcrack from the bottom up, all for a reverse light being out. He did it SLOW.. I am not exaggerating. He squeezed my genitals and had his hand between my buttcheeks when he made the comment about me being gay. He then apologized and said that I looked suspicious, and they let me go. I told them that it wasn’t my intention to be suspicious and said sorry, walked back to my truck and left. I was never disrespectful or rude in any way, shape, or form during the incident even after this happened.

I understand that worse things have happened at the hands of officers, and for sure at the hands of other people in general, but I honestly feel that he overstepped his authority and violated me in several ways. This incident has left me emotionally scarred ever since. I have dreams about this man and about other officers sexually assaulting me on an almost weekly basis, most of which I wake up from in panic dripping sweat. I am extremely embarassed to say this. But as a grown man I should never be waking up in the middle of the night from a dream like this, especially when I never even broke the law. I know I should talk to a therapist but I can’t afford to pay for it. I have extreme anxiety issues anytime I’m driving, and especially when I see a police officer. I’m talking to the point of being physically sick and shaking, because I am so scared of this happening again. I was in the gas station the other night and he walked in and the only people there were me, my friend, the officer in question (no longer an officer), and another man who used to be an officer here in town but isn’t any longer, as well as the cashier. He began making loud comments to his friend about how I had reported him for sexual harassment (I believe the report I submitted with PoliceAbuse.com is obviously what he was referring to, although I never received anything back from that so I never knew what had happened regarding that) and they made jokes between each other. I kept my mouth shut and didn’t respond and paid for my items and left as to not cause a scene, and he didn’t continue the behavior.


Is there anything that can be done is this situation?? And if so, what? I am afraid of the repurcussions if I pushed it farther. He is no longer employed by the city, he left a month or two after this incident and went to another small town about thirty minutes south of me, and within a month there he was in an altercation where he shot a man to death. He was proved to be within his rights, but it still had me thinking, like what if I would have been more angry with him instead of trying to politely and respectfully express my rights?

Has anyone else here ever had this happen to them? Any help at all is appreciated.. This has been over two years and my anxiety after the event has steadily gotten worse. I barely leave my house other than when absolutely necessary and most of the time when I do leave I walk, since my hometown is only about a mile long and any of the stores are only a few blocks from my house and because the officers generally don’t bother people walking as much as cars.

There is no way that something that can cause this much emotional pain this can be legal. I don’t have children of my own, but I do have several nieces and nephews and another reason behind this is because they’ve had me thinking about this man a lot lately. I am supposed to teach them to obey the police and that they’re here to help, how can I tell that to me 4 year old niece to do that when this man was allowed to grab me by my most private area, an ugly, chubby, 23 year old man on the side of the road, for nothing? And what would he be willing to do to someone else? If the PoliceAbuse.com report was submitted by them, I read on their website that the complaint would be sent to the department of justice and that the complaint would stay on his record, but I never received mail or email regarding it so again, I have no clue as to whether it was actually sent or not, and I don’t know how to check on anything like that.

Again, thanks in advance for any advice or input given. Even if he was legally allowed to do this to me, I am very interested in hearing how other people feel about this incident. I cannot discuss it with very many people in person as I usually get laughed at or at the very least not taken seriously.

I don’t mean to downplay any assault victims; I’m sorry if any of this seems that way, I do understand that people have been literally beaten and killed and in cases I’m sure even some cases full on raped by an officer, so I will acknowledge that this incident may appear like nothing next to them, but is in no way NOTHING to me. Men like him being able to do things like this to law abiding citizens is despicable and from what very little I could possibly learn from a few Google searches, I do believe that he infringed my constitual rights.
 


Tucker26

Member
Those incidents mentioned are the only run-ins with the man that I have had, I do not know him outside of what’s mentioned here, just to clarify.
 

Tucker26

Member
Also I don’t mean to imply that officer WANTED me sexually, I believe that it was more of a power play because I had told them no about searching my vehicle. His intention shouldn’t matter at that point though, he still did it.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I do believe that you could greatly benefit from some counseling. You might try to see if you can find someone who charges on a sliding scale basis. Your church also might offer counseling services. Start making some phone calls.
 

Tucker26

Member
I agree that it would benefit me. A big problem I have is that I live in a very small town of about 1,500 people, once I made that public I’m scared of what would happen, mainly because I know what kind of things people around here would say, and also because I’m scared of retaliation from him or from other officers as a result of telling on him.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
I agree that it would benefit me. A big problem I have is that I live in a very small town of about 1,500 people, once I made that public I’m scared of what would happen, mainly because I know what kind of things people around here would say, and also because I’m scared of retaliation from him or from other officers as a result of telling on him.
Counseling is 100% confidential.
 

commentator

Senior Member
I too strongly strongly suggest counseling for you to help you move forward from this incident. If you are in a very small place, as you say, and you've been emotionally traumatized to the extent that you're basically non-functional or barely functional for two years now due to the trauma of that one incident, I have unpleasant news for you. Everyone who was ever the least bit interested knows all about it, what you claim happened, and by now, with the officer who did it gone, they've probably forgotten all about it.

Yes, they treated you poorly. Local small town law enforcement officers are sometimes dumb crude jerks who are bored and like to bully people when they are in the position to do so. But there's no crime that was committed that you could do anything about at this point, you're dwelling on it far too much, and you've given this incident far too much power in your life.

The way to change things is from your moving on and doing better yourself. Perhaps you can become an advocate for others who've been treated badly or traumatized. That seems to help sometimes. But dwelling on your particular situation to this extent is a symptom of serious depression that you need to get good treatment for, more than you need some sort of lengthy lawsuit and dramatic trial to punish your molester and validate that yes, this did happen to you and it was affecting.

Everyone else involved has long since moved on. For your own sake, please, seek some good counsel, help yourself heal and possibly get away from this small place where you feel you're already typecast and in a cycle of self flagellation for just about everything that has ever happened to you, not just this incident. Sincere good wishes to you for your healing.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
There are multiple legally questionable actions. The biggest problem: you waited way to long to do anything about it.

Due to the time passing and your fear from retaliation, you are pretty much relegated to counseling to help you get beyond the incident.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
One thing you might want to be aware of, is that it's entirely possible he was disciplined by the police agency but that discipline fell short of termination of employment. They do not report back to you what action they took, and they are not required to terminate his employment. But he clearly knows about the report - how would he know if they hadn't taken some kind of action? But it's not public knowledge - they don't report back that he was suspended or took a pay cut or put a warning in his file.
 

Tucker26

Member
Thank you very much for the well wishes, it means a lot. I’ve decided to move forward with seeking counseling, I’m not sure exactly where to start there though, I guess my church is a good idea. I don’t know, I just don’t see how that’s legal. I’ll be completely honest, I don’t know a lot about the law but what would be the point in a constitution if an officer is allowed to touch me any where he pleases for any reason he pleases? If I went out and touched ANYONE’s genitals on the side of the road, I would be in jail. If an officer has to ask me to reach in to my pockets how can he grab my privates and hold them in his grip? And for the other officers to stand there and let it all happen? It was completely obvious that he knew there wasn’t anything in my pants, it was a blatant power move because he knew he looked stupid after two hours of searching and was showing me what he could do to me.
I do appreciate the advice, I didn’t expect so many answers so soon. I just don’t understand how that’s not a violation of several rights, or abuse of his authority, public humiliation, cruel and unusual punishment, anything? There were people outside their houses watching it all happen, the friend who’s house I left was actually on his back porch, it was degrading.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Frankly I'd suggest you discuss seeking counseling with a medical professional instead of or in additional to talking to someone in your church, perhaps let them refer you to someone, possibly in a larger place. This would help with confidentiality issues. You just don't tell everyone that you're doing this, and they don't have it to talk about. This is a given of small place life.

Some church have excellent counseling facilities and highly trained counseling available, but if as you describe you are in a small more rural area, the church may have some opinionated non-professionals who might misguide you related to treatment of depression issues. And depression does seem to be a possible issue with you right now.

Even if you were legally able to take this issue further, your having sought professional help to deal with what has happened to you would be an important part of it. You couldn't, even if you could still take him to court or sue him or something, get up and say, "This has caused me permanent damage. I'm really depressed and having a lot of emotional issues related to what happened" unless you'd backed your claims up by seeking treatment from a medical professional. So do it anyway.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
Who said it was legal? I see several questionable actions

BUT

Due to the passage of time, it is too late to do anything in the legal arena


Since you seem to be looking for advice regarding treatment, here is a form of treatment I believe you may benefit from


EMDR

Check it out. Seems hokey but even the VA is acknowledging it has value for PTSD (yes, it appears you are suffering from PTSD although I’m not a medical professional so take it for what it’s worth)
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
No one said it was legal. But you're assuming that because no one from the abuse hotline got back to you, it means that no action was taken and that is simply not true.
 

Mass_Shyster

Senior Member
It's not legal. Unfortunately, you are a victim of a crime. Like the vast majority of crimes committed in this country, this one will also go unpunished.

I hope you can get past this.
 

commentator

Senior Member
No, nothing I said was meant to suggest what happened to you was not bad, or even illegal, it was that you used one avenue available to you of filing a complaint with the department. And it may or may not have done some good.

You'd like to hear that there was "justice" for your mistreatment, that things worked out fairly. But you won't ever know. What you'd like to get is vengeance. This won't happen. And so what you can do, all you can do, is seek help for yourself. EMDR might very well be a helpful therapy. But really, having some experience with these things, it has been my observation that therapy of any kind may be tricky to get, locate, pay for, get a referral for, even if you are well and soundly insurance covered. And as I said before, pastoral counseling may or may not be even semi-acceptable or be much help. I also hope this person gets past this.
 
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