Georgia sheriff, deputies indicted after body searches of 900 high school students

[niyad]

Georgia sheriff, deputies indicted after body searches of 900 high school students



Sheriff Jeff Hobby of Worth County, Ga. (via WALB-10)

The sound system squawked at 8 a.m., just as the school day was revving up at Worth County High School. The campus was now on lockdown, the announcement said. Neither the teachers nor students at the south Georgia school knew what was going on. For the next four hours, 40 uniformed officers — the entire staff of the Worth County Sheriff’s Office — fanned through the school in Sylvester, ordering students against the walls of classrooms and hallways, demanding the students hand over their cellphones. All 900 students were searched, part of a drug sweep ordered by Sheriff Jeff Hobby, according to court documents. He did not have a warrant. He had a “target list” of 12 suspected drug users. Only three of the names were in school that day, April 14. By noon, when cellphones were handed back and classes resumed, no drugs had been found.

The sheriff’s full-court press, however, would yield legal consequences — for Hobby and his office. In the days following the sweep, students came forward charging they had been inappropriately groped and manhandled by deputies. A class-action federal civil suit followed.
And now, this week a grand jury indicted Hobby and two deputies for their part in the high school raid. Hobby faces charges of sexual battery, false imprisonment, and violation of oath of office, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The sheriff’s position is that he’s not guilty,” Hobby’s attorney, Norman Crowe Jr., told the news outlet. The sheriff was at the school for the raid but personally did not touch students, the lawyer maintained. “He’s committed no crime.”

The search brought unwanted national attention on the department. As the controversy broke, Hobby gave an off-camera interview to WALB in which he said the searches were legal because school administrators were present.

. . . .

The class-action lawsuit — filed on behalf of nine unnamed students — laid out detailed allegations of groping during the school search. One student recounted that a deputy “looked down the back and front” of the student’s dress, then “slid her hands” over her pelvic area and “cupped” the student’s “vaginal area and buttocks,” according to the legal complaint.

. . . .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/06/georgia-sheriff-deputies-indicted-after-body-searches-of-900-high-school-students/?utm_term=.02f7f49024d3

[NCjack]

1. There is a rumor that someone in the Sheriff's office is dealing drugs. Let's line them

all up against a wall and let the 900 students take their cell phones, radios, etc and pat them down. Yeah. The Sheriff and Deputies would like that --

[niyad]

2. a most excellent thought

[mountain grammy]

9. Yes!

[cwydro]

3. This is insane. nt

[Hortensis]

10. Unbelievable?! It was and an absolutely dreadful lesson for the students.

Now they're getting a more proper one. In addition to federal indictment for the warrantless search, the sheriff and 29 deputies are named in a class action lawsuit.

Unfortunately, I haven't found that the school staff or local board took action to protect the students, and the state board of education later said it didn't have the authority. Some more good lessons are needed.

Fwiw, in August the GA supreme court ruled that students have a right to fight in self defense. Some very bad administrators had been expelling students effectively for being PoC, or maybe just poor, whatever, while being attacked.

[cwydro]

15. Yes.

Scary shit.

[lpbk2713]

17. The school board didn't have the authority to defend the students' rights?

Somebody is full of crap. They deserve what I hope is coming to them.

[Hortensis]

20. I just hope it does. This is Georgia, where authoritarianism is part of the culture.

What authority the principal, for instance, may have my not-long search didn't turn up.

The model I like is that hospital that radically changed its rules for police access after that nurse was dragged out for refusing to draw blood for the police without the patient's consent. In that case, though, protections for patient rights under the law are probably much more clearly protected than those of minor students' in Georgia.

[lpbk2713]

4. It was a slow day at the sheriff's office.

"I know what we can do! Let's go molest a couple of hundred high school kids."

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Put Your Bullet Back In Your Pocket, Barney!

The sheriff touched nobody, so he's not guilty. Don't the deputies work for him. Isn't he in charge? At the very least, he's an accomplice.

[Kensan]

6. Seriously...

I always thought people used the line..."but I was just following orders."

Never thought the person giving the actual orders would say, "I didn't personally carry out my own ill-advised orders."

[NutmegYankee]

7. I just wish a jury would convict them.

Because we all know what's going to happen.

[suffragette]

8. Weird inversion of 'just following orders' excuse. In this case, it's ' I just gave the order and am

Their supervisor, but not to blame for their actions in following my orders.'

[Alea]

11. 12 names on a list and they search 900, without a warrant?

Fuck off and die hobby!

[NutmegYankee]

14. +1000!

It's nazi scum like this that sour everyone's perception of law enforcement. Forget just the warrant-less probable cause-less searches - child molestation!!! And these fuckers are still employed!

[rock]

12. You see the trouble with elected officials from sheriff to president

As long as political ads are not held to any degree of Truth. These days, how much truth does there have to be in a political ad? None. The politicians make the laws. Don't you think that political Ads should be exemplars for truth.

[panader0]

13. Hoorah for cops! I know of 900 kids who will never think that way.

He's creating lawbreakers.

[Blue_true]

18. The only good thing from this.

Is the kids of White parents that once thought police can never be wrong got engulfed in that body search frenzy. When someone is feeling up your daughter or son that has done nothing wrong, views change pretty fast. Maybe the police should have done the old fashion gumshoe work of doing stakeouts.

[mercuryblues]

16. only 3 indicted

Forty officers, the sheriff and school personnel involved and only 3 people indicted. WTF? They all should be held accountable. This was a state and school sponsored sexual assault.

[Blue_true]

19. Probably a lot of following orders reasons.

Think about it. If you are a deputy in some rural county and you have one of the best jobs around when the Sheriff, your boss, tell you to go feel up high school kids. Even if you are totally disgusted by the order, what choice do you have but doing as ordered or quitting and maybe getting a job hauling hay during the summer, or a job with your brother in law or sister in law if they have a business that makes money. Small town life does not work like big city life in terms of good jobs.

[Calculating]

21. This kind of bs is why so many people hate cops

Bunch of power hungry pigs with nothing better to do than harass the peasants (us). The war on drugs is what led us to this. Laws which give the police the right to Target people over victimless crimes.

[niyad]

22. had I had a child in that school when that happened, I would be in jail right now.