Police in Harris County, Texas, forcibly searched a woman's vagina by the side of the road because they thought they smelled weed in her car.
Please sign the petition to urge Harris County Sheriff's Department to stop conducting cavity searches for marijuana! Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old Black woman, was pulled over in Harris County June 21 for running a stop sign. The male deputy said he smelled marijuana, so he handcuffed Corley and searched her car for nearly an hour. He didn’t find any pot, but that wasn't enough for him.
The male deputy called in a female deputy to conduct a cavity search. The female deputy told Corley to pull her pants down, but Corley protested because she was handcuffed and was not wearing underwear. The deputy ordered Corley to bend over,
pulled down her pants and began to search her.Corley stood up and protested, so the deputy threw her to the ground and restrained her while another female was called in to assist. When backup arrived,
each deputy held one of Corley’s legs apart to conduct the probe. A spokesperson for the police department said that “the deputies did everything as they should.”
What these officers did was commit sexual assault. Even if Corley
did have weed, it would have been a nonviolent, victimless crime.
In Texas, possession of marijuana is a
misdemeanor. It takes 4 ounces of marijuana to bring a felony charge -- an amount that no human could conceivably hide or hold inside their body! That means these officers violated Corley's constitutional rights to search for evidence that at worst would have brought a
misdemeanor charge.
Increasingly, states across the country are decriminalizing or totally legalizing marijuana, and the majority of Americans support legalization.
Harris County needs to change its policies and stop conducting cavity searches for this harmless drug.Please sign the petition to urge Harris County Sheriff's Department to stop conducting cavity searches for marijuana!
Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old Black woman, was pulled over in Harris County June 21 for running a stop sign. A male deputy said he smelled marijuana, so he handcuffed Corley and searched her car for nearly an hour. He didn’t find any pot, but that wasn't enough for him:
he called in female deputies to forcibly penetrate Corley by the side of the road, all to try to find evidence for a crime that would've amounted to, at worst, a misdeameanor charge.What these officers did was sexual assault, and it is absolutely abhorrent that officers would violate someone's constitutional rights in this way.
Increasingly, states across the country are decriminalizing or totally legalizing marijuana, and the majority of Americans support legalization. Harris County needs to change its policies and stop conducting cavity searches for this harmless drug.
We the undersigned urge you to stop conducting cavity searches for marijuana possession. 