Baton Rouge reaches settlement with family of teen who was strip-searched, had home entered without warrant

The city of Baton Rouge has reached a settlement with a local family after police strip-searched a minor during a traffic stop and conducted a search of his home without a warrant.

Clarence Green, 23, and his unnamed 16-year-old brother were pulled over by police on New Year’s Day last year, with body camera footage showing an officer groping both of them during a search for drugs, The Advocate reported on Wednesday.

A video of the incident also showed an officer entering Green’s family home with his gun drawn.

Green’s family reached a settlement with the city for $35,000, and the police officer involved is currently being investigated.

“What’s captured in the video bears a closer resemblance to sexual assault than it does to constitutional policing. The officers involved were clearly outside the bounds of anything that the Supreme Court has said is permissible for law enforcement officers to do,” Thomas Frampton, the Green family attorney, told CBS News.

Police reportedly did find drugs on Green during the search, and he spent five months in jail. A judge ordered his release after ruling that officers on the scene “demonstrated a serious and wanton disregard for Defendant’s constitutional rights.” 

Though the officers involved are under investigation, the Baton Rouge Police Department told CBS News that they have not been removed from the force.

“I think there’s a lot of work there to be done by the chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department to determine if policies and procedures were followed. If they were not, then disciplinary action should follow,” said Ronal Serpas, a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.