(WOMENSENEWS)–Deborah Flick, 39, a student teacher, on Wednesday charged the city of San Francisco and its police and sheriff’s departments with strip-searching and jailing her in a so-called cold room without any criminal charges filed against her, according to Bay City News.
She says she was arrested in March and forcibly strip-searched twice after she refused to consent to a search.
The charges follow an April lawsuit by anti-logging protester Mary Bull claiming she was illegally strip-searched and kept nude overnight in a cold cell last November.
Attorneys for the two women are seeking to have the two lawsuits consolidated and certified as a class-action case on behalf of all arrestees who are illegally searched or jailed in cold rooms.
A hearing on whether to grant class-action status is scheduled before a federal judge in San Francisco next March.
