Video Shows Cops Touched Private Parts During Search, NJ Man Says

A video that was recently published online shows state troopers putting their hands inside a man’s pants while searching him for marijuana on the side of a two-lane highway in Burlington County last year. Now, that man is attempting to sue New Jersey State Police for civil rights violations, calling it “the most humiliating experience I’ve ever been through.”

In the video that was posted online on Monday by open government advocate John Paff, the man claims the troopers violated his rights by touching his private parts during the search. Paff came across court documents showing a motion by the man's attorney was denied on March 16 while filing Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests. He then obtained video from the state police, and published it online.

Police didn’t find marijuana during the search and later dismissed a tailgating ticket against the man, according to court documents. The man is identified in court documents, but isn’t being identified by Patch because he wasn’t charged with a crime.

State Police are aware of the video and said the case remains under investigation. A condensed version of the video that was posted on YouTube can be seen below. (WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE)

The man was initially stopped for tailgating in Southampton on March 18, 2017. After saying they smelled marijuana, police searched the car. After finding nothing, the two troopers turned their search to the man.
The man and another person in the car, a co-worker, were both handcuffed and searched, according to court documents. After initially searching him, one trooper said that the man may have something on him, but it’s not obvious.

“It’s not in his pockets,” the trooper says on the video.

The troopers attempted to tell the man possession of marijuana is a disorderly persons offense, and that he won't go to county jail "like they do on TV." The man says he knows that, and that he's "not stupid."

One trooper, identified as Trooper Joseph Drew, searches the man again, this time putting his hands inside the man’s pants.

“This is like sexual assault,” the man says. “I don’t have anything in my pants.”

After the troopers again failed to find marijuana on him, they put him back in the car. One trooper puts on elastic gloves and pulls the man from the car as the man tells him, “I don’t know if this is legal, but I don’t think it is.” The trooper tells him it is.

During the ensuing search, the trooper puts his hand down the back of the man’s pants as the man yells to cars passing by, “Yo, he’s raping me.” He also says, "You better hope this is legal," and asks him, "Did you find it?"

During the search, the trooper tells him to stop moving, and the man asks, "How many times are you going to check?" The trooper then unzips the man’s pants and searches from the front, after which the man says he thinks he’s traumatized and that that was “really weird.”

In court documents, the man claims the trooper moved his genitals around while searching for drugs. When he didn’t find any, the man said the trooper seemed “very frustrated.”

Finally, the troopers let the man go with a ticket for tailgating and a form to fill out and turn in if he believes his rights were violated or that the trooper acted unprofessionally in any way.

Drew and his partner, Andrew Whitmore, are named in a potential lawsuit, along with New Jersey State Police and other unnamed state troopers.

In New Jersey, there is a 90-day period from the date of the incident in which a person can file a TORT claims notice against the state. A TORT claims notice informs the potential defendant of the intention to file a lawsuit, although it is not an actual lawsuit on its own.

The attorney representing the man in this case filed a motion to have that period extended on the basis that the man didn’t realize Whitmore had violated his rights until viewing parts of the video on Jan. 21, 2018.

At that point, the man realized the other trooper is involved, and that the State Police as a whole may have been involved in the violation of his rights through its policies, according to the documents. He says he initially thought Whitmore was opposed to the searches.

“Under the Tort Claims Act. . .[i]f an injured person is unaware that he or she has been injured or that a particular third party is responsible, the discovery rule tolls the date of accrual,” the attorney said in the motion. “The third party is the State Police.”

That motion was denied on March 16. When contacted by phone on Tuesday, the attorney said there are other avenues that can be pursued when the TORT claims notice period expires, and those avenues are being pursued. He had no further statement on the issue.

Image via YouTube Video