Florida mom claims cop 'forcibly' removed her tampon during traffic stop

A Florida sheriff’s department is denying a woman's claim that she was strip-searched in public and had her tampon “forcibly” removed by a female officer during a 2011 traffic stop with her children in the car.

Leila Tarantino filed a lawsuit on Aug. 3 in U.S. District Court in Florida's Ocala County against the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office. She alleges she was not only frisked but that a female officer removed her tampon during a roadside search on July 17.

The lawsuit names Citrus County Sheriff Jeffrey J. Dawsey and six officers, referred to as “John Doe Officers 1-5” and “Jane Doe Officer,” as defendants.


View Tarantino’s federal lawsuit (Pdf.)

The sheriff's office denied claims.

“The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office wants to go on record as saying the allegations made in this lawsuit are not only ludicrous, but completely untrue,” it said in a statement released to NBC News on Monday. “No strip search was conducted, and the plaintiff’s tampon was never forcibly removed by any deputy.”

Tarantino alleges that she was pulled over by an officer in Beverly Hills, Fla., after she had stopped at a stop sign on South Columbus Street. She said her two children were passengers in the vehicle at the time of the alleged 4 p.m. incident.

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She accuses the officer of pulling her over, pointing a gun at her, yanking her out of her vehicle, handcuffing her behind her back, then throwing her in the back of his squad car, according to the lawsuit. Tarantino claims she asked why she had been pulled over and the officer didn’t respond.

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She claims she waited in the police cruiser for two hours and when other officers arrived, she was frisked and strip-searched at the side of a busy road, the lawsuit alleges. She said her children had been waiting in the woman's vehicle the entire time. The lawsuit's account:

“During her detention, PLAINTIFF was frisked and strip searched twice at the side of the busy road, in plain view of passers by. During one of the strip searches, PLAINTIFF had a tampon forcibly removed by JANE DOE OFFICER.

"At no point was a drug sniffing dog used to search for contraband,” the lawsuit stated, adding “None of the officers ever found any weapons, drugs, contraband or anything illegal during plaintiff’s detention.”

According to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, Tarantino was issued a criminal citation for violation of restrictions on her driver’s license.  She also was issued a written warning for rolling through a stop sign.

Tarantino's lawyer, Matthew W. Birk emailed to NBC News the following statement: "This case is currently in litigation and will be tried in a courtroom, not the press. The allegations made by Ms. Tarantino are set forth in the Complaint, which is a public record. Because of the sensitive nature of this matter, Ms. Tarantino will not be available for comment until after her lawsuit concludes.

"This case is currently in litigation and will be tried in a courtroom, not the press. The allegations made by Ms. Tarantino are set forth in the Complaint, which is a public record. Because of the sensitive nature of this matter, Ms. Tarantino will not be available for comment until after her lawsuit concludes."

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If this is true I hope this woman does sue and win. No cop can search any cavity of a person's body without a search warrant. Searching a pesons private area other then a search for weapons or narcotics requires a warrant. The search for narcotics in an body cavity requires a warrant period of that the person be in the custody of of jail or prison facility. No cop is authorized to search any one vaginal or anus reason on a traffic stop without a warrant detailing probable cause requesting that a warrant be issue for such a search.

  • 3 votes
Reply#83 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:29 AM EDT

Can you translate that from Gibberish to English for us?

  • 2 votes
#83.1 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 1:58 PM EDT
Reply

Way to proofread the article. Way to proofread the article. Way to proofread the article.

Guess that's why the writer isn't a brain surgeon.

    Reply#84 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:12 PM EDT

    Nothing like iteration repeating itself.

      #84.1 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:59 PM EDT
      Reply

      Bottom line here: If this happened to me, I would have never even driven home, I would have stopped by the nearest Lawyers office and began the process. Next, I would have had contacted the local news and told my story before the 11 o'clock news. During the interview I would have asked for witnesses to come forward as there should have been plenty due to the fact that this allegedly happened on a busy road.

      I call these claims hogwash. Have any of you seen any of the multiple Mugshots of this woman? Yeah, I said multiple, which make me conclude she has been arrested multiple times. Yeah, I would believe anything she says.....sarcasm.

      • 3 votes
      Reply#85 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 1:45 PM EDT

      According to the CCSO Arrest Reports website, this lady is a veteran Arrestee. As far as I can tell she has been arrested at least seven times since 2001. It appears as though she was charged with DUI in April of 2011, followed by an arrest for Domestic Battery in June 2011. All of this info is public record.

      • 2 votes
      Reply#86 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:20 PM EDT

      According to the Brevard police, I committed domestic violence after my boyfriend broke my nose. They had seven plus cops there to arrest me. I was entertainment for bored cops who had nothing else to do that night. I would put nothing past Florida "law enforcement."

      • 1 vote
      #86.1 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:03 PM EDT
      Reply

      The writer liked that last sentence so much, she repeated it. I assume the writer was an idiot female.

        Reply#87 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:56 PM EDT

        Should be easy enough to see if she is lying about a two hour traffic stop. And if it is indeed true she was held for two hours then unless the police have a very solid reason exactly why I expect that in fact the police, once again, have acted inappropriately. Two hours for a traffic stop? Crazy. Of course if we find out she was only held for 30 minutes then we can assume that she is the one that is significantly exagerating the situation.

        • 1 vote
        Reply#88 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:08 PM EDT

        This is too stupid for words....

          Reply#89 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:37 PM EDT

          OK>>>lets start at the beginning. Why does it take two hours to issue a routine traffic citation for running a stop sign????????What were the so called restriction violations????? So far the sheriffs department has two strikes. Why was she hancuffed for a routine traffic violation????? Three strikes for ignorance under ideal conditions. I don't know that I believe the woman but I damn sure do not believe the explanation by the Sheriffs Department. Why were additional officers called to the scene???????????????? If in fact they thought she had drugs on her/or in her car was she given her miranda rights as required by law. In order to search her they had to have just cause??????

          Where When Why How Who

          • 1 vote
          Reply#90 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:01 PM EDT

          Please explain to me what a criminal citation is for violation of Drivers License Restrictions.

            Reply#91 - Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:08 PM EDT

            Oh, hell. Just cause you want to sell your prescription to make a few bucks. Take a bag of weed to your buddy across town. Drink a beer on your way to the casino while your driving you and the family. Have a gun under your seat. Have 5 grand in 100's wadded up in your pocket. Have crack in little individual baggies. Get caught with a guy's cock in your mouth so you can get a heroin fix. Have a mobile meth lab in your trunk. All this while you got the six filthy kids with you and not in car seats. Just cause you want to do all that and the cops get in your way of ALL that fun. They watch too close for crap like that. They stop you all the time when you do that kind of stuff. Damn them anyway. Now for the rest of your life EVERY story you tell the cop is going to come out a bad ass. Every cop till the day you die is going to get your opinion on what you think of cops.

            How's about cleaning up your life and not break the law and abide by the traffic laws and keep your lights working on your vehicle and your registration up to date and insurance on your vehicle. How's about that for a while and see if hey, maybe there isn't a few good cops out there. Some that might actually help you and save your life when you need them too. That is if you will let them and not spit in their face if they try. Geez people. Conspiracy theories and drug induced paranoia seem to be related.

            • 2 votes
            Reply#92 - Sat Aug 18, 2012 2:41 PM EDT

            yeah a cop would never do that? You have got to be on drugs if you truly believe that. Cops will do and say anything to look good. Most believe they are above the law and better than the rest of us. I believe they would and did do this. This is in Florida, wow what a surprise that is.

            • 1 vote
            Reply#93 - Sat Aug 18, 2012 7:13 PM EDT

            they should be gangraped.....

            • 1 vote
            Reply#94 - Sat Aug 18, 2012 10:26 PM EDT

            The beauty of it, NO ONE with a BRAIN belives the cops. They are corrupt and evil in most cases.

            • 2 votes
            Reply#95 - Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:00 PM EDT

            Damn 6 officers for a strip search? Exactly how BIG is this lady, and where the heck was that tampon!? yuck!

            If they did it one time, I doubt they went back for seconds.

            • 1 vote
            Reply#96 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 3:12 PM EDT

            The cops are not that bad. They are the worst. Kevin, I think that the female pig holds lesbian desire and preferences. Then too she may have gotten off by removing the tampon. Either way she should be fired. Brandy I do not live in Florida, but I do live in almost as bad a state, Maryland. The cops here where I live are . I had a firearm stolen from my house several days ago and called the police number and waited more than 2 hours for Barney to arrive-Yes Total Sarcasm. To finish this part all he did was take down notes on paper and tell me to remove a . I did not like MP's when I was in Nam and I definitely do not like these GESTAPO local yokels.

            • 1 vote
            Reply#97 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 3:37 PM EDT

            As I read this story I can't help but be sickened. Whether this woman is lying or not, it is a sure bet that the cops are lying about some aspect of what happened. I too live in Florida and know just how crooked our officers are. I was attacked by a Sheriff's Deputy and when I reported it, nothing was done. I could not believe he was exonerated. I even had a witness to what happened and the dick still got away with it.

            I don't know if what this woman is saying really happened but you can bet that the cops that pulled her over did do something wrong and all of them are rallying together to stay out of trouble.

            • 1 vote
            Reply#98 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 4:51 PM EDT

            travis-1944, I must point out one thing. Since a large percentage of Florida's population come from other places there is an excellent chance that the inbred idiot you mentioned may be a native of your state, may even be related to you. For all the others that want to smear Florida, why don't you mention the state that you live in? That way all of us Florida inbreds can move to your state and just maybe raise the average IQ in ILL., NY, NJ, CA, etc. I also can't understand how so many people can judge the guilt or innocence of any person or group of people just by reading an article on-line. Somebody please explain that to this inbred Florida idiot.

              Reply#99 - Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:32 PM EDT

              i'm not sure what to think, but i can see the 2 hour delay, don't you need a female officer to do a strip search on another female,maybe they had to call in a female officer to the area of the arrest just to do a pat down, then possible did a search in the station, and as far as doing a strip search, maybe the lady refused to take it out on her own, so it was forcible removed, which makes sense to me. then they probably did another strip search after it was out.

                Reply#100 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:42 PM EDT

                I mean 6 officers for a lady? 2 hours for all this to happen? Even the tampon was removed by police. I can't even being to understand how this must have felt to be striped search in the public eye.

                If you didn't see lawsuit coming after this then you need to re-read the story.

                • 1 vote
                Reply#101 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:22 PM EDT

                I'm going to have to google her and maybe friend her on crackbook LOL maybe then we'll get to the bottom of this seemingly over inflated story! Seriously this story sounds like BS!

                  Reply#102 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:38 PM EDT

                  Hey, the enormous lemming machine has for decades declared that "they're not just cops, they're heros"!

                  And just think, the "war on some drugs" has made such rampant 4th amendment violations all possible. Don't you feel safe now all you knee jerk, spit sucking pukes out there whose attitudes and actions have contributed to the LARGEST PRISON POPULATION ON EARTH. The war on drugs has nothing to do with the GOVGOONS caring so much about all the people. It has to do with a modus operandi used the world over to turn the citizens into compliant little children. It's all about power over people. So better hush up and bend over you great American liberty lovers.

                  • 1 vote
                  Reply#103 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 4:30 PM EDT

                  Firstly do not argue with the police, answer and do what they tell u or what u say without a lawyer could be against u. With that name Leila Tarantino seems to be Latin or Italian. She perhaps forgot that this is America! No one forced u to live in this country and is now blaming the police for treatment given? (regardless of whether the treatment was proper or improper) It is curious to see tons of latinos and other immigrants in this country claiming everything but none will put them a gun in his head to come to live here.

                    Reply#104 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:17 PM EDT

                    People of the United States of America,

                    As bad as this all sounds, at least it was allegedly done by a Female Police Officer.

                    If it were a Male Officer this would be a whole hellua lot worse.

                      Reply#105 - Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:02 PM EDT

                      Funny this is not going to be played out in the media. Oh, I forgot msnbc is no longer the media, they are the law nowadays. They tried George Zimmerman and found reasonable doubt for second degree murder and a hate crime when he used self-defense....right? This woman is another patsy for the left and their hate-filled agenda.

                        Reply#106 - Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:22 AM EDT

                        Several years ago I was attending a picnic with a group of white families at a local park and a black police officer approached our group and told us that we had to move our cars because they were in a no parking zone. We informed him that there wasn't any posted restrictions for parking in that area and there never had been. He told we had to move the cars and left the area. The first problem was that he never informed the black groups holding picnics in the park and parking in the same zone that they had to move their cars. He came back later and told us to move our cars again without approaching any of the black groups. At that point I asked for his name and badge number. He gave them to me and I informed him that I would file a complaint for police harrassment and that it would be reported that he failed to notify the black groups to move their cars. He them notified the black groups that they needed to move their cars as well. As a result of the compliant it was determined that he acted outside his authority and without legal justification since that area was not posted as "No Parking" and that his contact with our group was racial in nature. However, he still got to keep his job and will probably harrass other "whites" in the future.

                        • 1 vote
                        Reply#107 - Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:05 PM EDT
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