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Two Irving, Texas, women are suing two Texas State Troopers and the director of the Department of Public Safety after they say they were violated during roadside cavity searches in full view of the public and without probable cause.
On July 13, while driving along state Highway 161, Angel Dobbs and her niece Ashley Dobbs were stopped for littering by Trooper David Ferrell. In the dashcam video released by the women and their attorney, Ferrell can be heard telling the women they would both be cited for littering for throwing cigarette butts out of the car.
Farrell then returned to his cruiser and, in the video, can be heard calling female trooper Kelley Helleson to the scene to search both women whom he said were acting weird.
While waiting for Helleson to arrive, Farrell asked Angel Dobbs to step out of the vehicle and began questioning her about marijuana use. In the video, the Trooper is heard telling Dobbs he smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle while asking her several times how much pot was in the car.
Farrell: How much marijuana is in that car? And don't lie to me.
Angel Dobbs: I don't smoke marijuana.
Farrell: OK, how much marijuana is in that car? That's my question.
Dobbs: I swear to God, I don't smoke marijuana.
Farrell: I'm not asking you if you smoke it.
Dobbs: I don't think there is any marijuana in that car.
Farrell: OK, when was the last time somebody smoked marijuana in that car?
Dobbs: I honestly don't know. It's my boyfriend's car. So, I just borrowed it.
Farrell: There's an odor of marijuana coming from the car and that's why I've got to talk to you further about it. Um, and the more upfront you are the better it's going to go for you. So, you're telling me there's no marijuana in that car?
Dobbs: To the best of my knowledge, no there is not.
Farrell: Is there anything hidden on your person?
Dobbs: On my person?
Farrell: On your person, in your shoes, in your underwear?
Dobbs: No. I feel like I'm being treated like a criminal right now. What's going on?
Farrell: I've got a female trooper up the road, she's going to come down here and we're just going to check a little bit more.
After Helleson arrived, she can be seen in the dashcam video putting on blue latex gloves to conduct a search of both women. According to the lawsuit, when Angel Dobbs asked about the gloves, Helleson "told her not to worry about that.
In the lawsuit, Dobbs said the trooper conducted the cavity search on the roadside, illuminated by the police car's headlights, in full view of any passing motorists.
"This has been an eye-opening experience for me. I've never been pulled over, never searched like this. I was totally violated over there a few minutes ago... this is so embarrassing to me," Angel Dobbs said on the video.
"I've never been so humiliated or so violated or felt so molested in my entire life," Angel Dobbs told NBC 5.
Dobbs said she never gave consent for the trooper to "frisk, pat-down, search, or otherwise touch her" and that she never gave consent for Farrell to search her vehicle -- which he can be seen doing in the dashcam video while the cavity search was under way.
Dobbs said she was powerless to stop it. "What are you going to say? What's going to happen to you if you challenge that authority?" she said.
With the cavity search concluded, Farrell then asked Dobbs about prescription medications found in the car. Dobbs said they were for her thyroid and for migraines. According to the lawsuit, Dobbs also suffers from a medical condition that was irritated by the search.
Meanwhile, Helleson can then be seen performing the same cavity search on Dobbs' niece, Ashley.
"It's because somebody is a daily smoker in that car. OK, you can attribute it to that," Farrell can be heard saying on the recording.
The lawsuit further alleges that Helleson performed searches on both women, touching both their anus and vaginas, without changing the latex gloves between searches.
"I don't think anybody needs to have to feel, or go through what we went through," Ashley Dobbs said. "It crosses my mind every day. It's humiliating."
After searching the entire car and finding no narcotics, Farrell then administered a DWI test which Dobbs passed, the lawsuit said. The women were then issued warnings for littering and released at the scene.
The lawsuit goes on to say that a bottle of prescribed Hydrocodone was missing from Dobbs' car and purse after the search. The women returned to the scene of the traffic stop the next day to search for the medication, but it was nowhere to be found.
Their lawyers say the search was illegal and a complaint about it was filed in August but that DPS Texas Rangers who investigated the incident took no action.
"This is outside the constitutional grounds by a mile. It's not even close," attorney Scott Palmer said. "This has to stop. These two need to be stopped. There's no telling how many other people they've done this to and we hope that others come forward."
Attorney Charles Soechting, Jr. said his father was a DPS trooper and he has great respect for the agency. "But in this instance they have completely failed the citizens of Texas," Soechting said.
Soechting said a records request to DPS produced no policy that allows for cavity searches of any suspect in public.
"What we're dealing with is a Class C Misdemeanor. It does not justify any type of pat down, let alone an invasive search of cavities of women,"” he said.
Calls for comment to the DPS Austin headquarters were not returned Tuesday.
The women are requesting a trial by jury and are asking for unspecified, compensatory and exemplary damages and interest as well as recovery of attorney's fees and court costs.
The Dallas County District Attorney's office tells NBC 5 it has received the case and will refer it to a grand jury in January.


Sue the crap out of em!!!
When you win in court what would you do with the crap. It will work as fertilizer in your garden. seems like a lot of work for some Miracle Grow
Bet they don't litter again
Usually if a person hems and haws when asked a question it will raise suspicion and they should be taken to a Police Station and be strip searched completely. She sounded like she was hiding something. Good for the Police for a thorough job
If she was hiding something, how is it that there was nothing? Nothing on her, nothing in the car.
Tell you what: let me and a couple of my friends rape you at gunpoint, and see if you don't act a little nervous.
lol more people going to jail for marijuana..
You can never be too aggressive in the fight against the evil herb Marijuana. Meanwhile 26 dead in Newton Conn.
Land of the free lol... It should be land of the free, Only if you're a rich white business man.
Sue the tobacco company. If she wasn't hooked on cancer canes, none of this would have happened. (sarcasm)
BTW, idiots who throw cigs out the window should be charged a huge fine for the potential hazard. We taxpayers pay for these lazy-ass morons' wildfires.
Let me guess... you have a swastika tatooed on your chest and didn't graduate from high school.
Unbelievable. I think I've heard everything now.
A couple of rogue officers that are going to pay the price, hopefully. To be so dumb to record your own act of criminal behavior? Anyway, these two women are set for life after this little "incident". Ha ya the two "officers" are next in line for the ole glove search. what a crazy world.
FIRE the cops!! And take away their pensions!!
The "War on Drugs", instituted under Nixon is simply a (successful) Republican ploy to strip us of our civil liberties and rights.
Brilliant SCOTUS members like Scalia and Thomas hate freedom and civil liberties.
This is one of the most flagrant abuses of power I have ever heard of.
These state troopers should be suspended without pay. Outrageous behavior on their part. Do they think a couple of babes driving down the street with no reason to suspect they are going to be pulled over would have drugs just routinely stuffed up their privates? Sounds like state troopers looking to get off.
If you are suspected of having a bullet or even if you have fired a gun in your life. Expect the same treatment.
And some people say that only the military and police should have guns. The more you study it, the more relevant the 2nd amendment is today...as it was in the past. Now that we have pretty much lost the 4th amendment with the Patriot Act, and with the coming "revisions" that are sure to be made to the 2nd, how many more rights are we going to lose before people realize that we MUST keep a tighter grip on the government...and not the other way around?
- Edge
I'm fighting the urge to agree with you. It just takes one story like this to give me 2nd thoughts and remind me that those in power do need checks and balances.
Please, please don't agree with this. These two gestapo morons do not represent all cops. Most cops are decent people dealing with a very difficult job who don't get paid enough. Don't start shooting at the people who protect us.
Mountainlady,
For Pete's sake, I am not suggesting that we start shooting "at the very people who protect us". The VAST majority of them are dedicated, caring, hard-working people who do their best to bring sense to senseless situations. You are reading something into what I wrote that isn't there. I'm just saying that someday that may not be the case, as it was in Nazi Germany. I'm also saying, when someone wants to take your gun away...Like Hitler did to the people of Germany...ask why. The Patriot Act was a knee-jerk and OVER-reaction. Let's not do this again.
The 2nd amendment was written to help up protect ourselves from a tyrannical government. There are those today who say that our government could never turn on it's citizens in these "modern times". Every time has been "Modern" at that time. It's all relevant.
Also, do you NOT think that we should keep a close eye on government?
- Edge
If the limited amount of information here is accurate, the officers should be fired and prosecuted in the criminal justice system. No tolerance.
This is sexual assault - pure and simple. These officers should be imprisoned and raped. No punishment is too harsh for nazis who use their power to assault a woman.
Looks to me like she enjoyed the cavity search. You can tell by the way her back arches a little bit. I'm willing that much more hot action took place after the cameras went off.
Really??? Your one sick SOB and if it was your mother, sister, wife, daughter, you'd be kicking some Texas law enforcement a$$!!!!!
I'm very glad the article gave the names of both the cops as the Texas DPS has a very poor track record of disciplining officers. The public deserves to know who the real bad guys are rather than having a bureaucracy cover up a rather obvious crime.
In this particular case both troopers should be fired and charged with sexual assault and theft.
Sounds more like a brown eye-opening experience...
Throw them all in county ( in general population) after roughing them up with a thorough PUBLIC body cavity search. Every orifice in their bodies need to be examained IN DETAIL! IF they survive incarceration for say 30 days fire their sorry asses!
I think these two cops just added themselves to the list of unemployed.
Rape in Oklahoma is a crime, but in Texas the cops have to be so proud of their act and being able to get away with it. let them go to jail and see how it feels to be raped while other's watch.
What a shocker hahahahaha
The DEA, FBI and the Texas DPS are all trying to prove they are the best at apprehending criminals. The President decides to give them a test. He has the Secret Service release a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it. The CIA goes in first. They place animal informants all throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses, after three months of extensive investigations and interrogations they conclude the rabbit does not exsist.. The FBI goes in, after two weeks with no leads they burn the forest to the ground, killing every living thing in the forest including the rabbit. No apologies given, the rabbit had it coming.. The Texas DPS goes in... They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The Bear is yelling, OK...OK, I am a rabbit, I am a rabbit.....CASE CLOSED