Inmate’s wife sexually violated during strip search awarded $5.6 million in settlement: attorneys

A California woman who was sexually violated during a cavity search while trying to visit her incarcerated husband was awarded $5.6 million in a settlement with the department of corrections and the hospital that oversaw the search, her attorneys said Monday.

Christina Cardenas, 45, told the New York Times she was left “traumatized” during an attempted visit to her inmate husband on Sept. 6, 2019 that ended with her going through two strip searches, a cavity search where a male doctor allegedly violated her, X-ray and CT scans, and a drug and pregnancy test, according to the lawsuit she filed against the two parties.

She was then hit with a $5,000 bill from the hospital that did the tests. But Cardenas will recoup that money and then some.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will fork over $3.6 million and the rest of the total $5.6 million settlement will be divided up between Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley Hospital, a doctor and two correction officers. All defendants denied any wrongdoing in the settlement, the Times reported. 

But it wasn’t just the money. Cardenas said she sued the defendants so that the alleged misconduct and violations she was subjected to doesn’t happen to others seeking to visit their loved ones in prison.

“My motivation in pursuing this lawsuit was to ensure that others do not have to endure the same egregious offenses that I experienced,” Cardenas said.

The correction officers had a warrant to search any visitors of her husband, who has been in prison since 2001 when he was convicted of armed robbery, according to the Times.

But the warrant stipulated that the officers could only conduct a strip search of the visitor if an X-ray detected any foreign objects that could be contraband inside the visitor’s body. Cardenas underwent an X-ray and a CT scan and neither picked up any abnormalities, according to her lawyers. 

Her lawyers also said a prison official tried to intimidate her during the intrusive ordeal.

“Why do you visit, Christina? You don’t have to visit. It’s a choice, and this is part of visiting,” the official reportedly taunted, according to chilling details Cardenas revealed in the suit.

Cardenas is being represented by Gloria Allred, the high-profile women’s rights attorney, whose past clients include Mimi Haley in her suit against Harvey Weinstein, Judy Huth in her suit alleging she was sexually abused by Bill Cosby, and the family of Halyna Hutchins.

“We believed the unknown officer’s statement was a form of intimidation used to dismiss Christina’s right to visit her lawful husband during the course of his incarceration,” Allred said. 

Cardenas was also made to strip and squat over a mirror, which is a type of search usually reserved for inmates, Allred told the Times.

Allred was not immediately available for comment when contacted by The Post.

Cardenas further revealed that while being transported to and from the hospital, she was put in handcuffs in a “humiliating perp walk.” She also said she was denied water or bathroom use for the majority of the search. 

And after the long-winded search and tests yielded no contraband in her body or belongings, Cardenas was not permitted to see her husband, Carlos Cardenas. 

The traumatizing ordeal wasn’t the first time she had been subjected to a grueling search by prison officials.

Cardenas underwent a strip search to marry her husband — they began dating after he was behind bars — and said she had experienced difficulties during prior visits to him, but not to the magnitude of the September 2019 incident. 

The settlement additionally requires that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation distribute a policy memorandum to workers to ensure visitors’ rights are protected when they are subjected to strip searches.

As part of the requirement, prison officials must give a copy of the search warrant to visitors and ensure they read and understand it. The officials also cannot exceed the scope of what is allowed under the warrant.

Sexual abuse and misconduct have been a systemic problem in California prisons. On Sept. 4, the Justice Department announced it had opened an investigation into allegations that correctional officers sexually abused female inmates at two state-run California prisons.

The federal Bureau of Prisons also shut down a women’s prison in Northern California — the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin — following similar allegations. The prison was dubbed the “rape club” after an Associated Press investigation exposed widespread sexual abuse by correctional officers. 

With Post wires.