By Sara StrongA Luverne woman is closer to meeting her goal of righting a wrong.Jodie Smook was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit in which U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol ruled in her favor.He determined that Minnehaha County Juvenile Detention Center employees violated rights of minors when conducting strip searches on every juvenile, no matter the severity of the crime.Smook was 16 and in Sioux Falls in August of 1999 when she and three friends noticed the oil light turned on in her car. She stopped to get oil and to call friends in Brandon, S.D., for help. By then, it was past Sioux Falls’ 11 p.m. curfew, and a police officer stopped them.Without the police hearing their story of car trouble or letting them use the phone, the girls were taken to the juvenile detention facility, questioned and strip searched. Smook’s parents, Vicky and Randy, were called only after the questioning and strip search, at about 2 a.m.The lawsuit was based on that strip search and questioning that included religious preferences. Religious questioning isn’t all that Smook had to answer to, though. Some of the more than 200 questions included which parent they most resembled, whether they had an STD, which parent they would rather live with after a divorce and whether they were ever pregnant.The former policy of the Detention Center was brought to light by Smook, who wrote a letter to the editor to the Sioux Falls newspaper, complaining of her treatment. The Argus Leader then contacted Smook to do a story.The case has gotten regional and national attention, including Smook appearing on The Montel Williams Show.The judge has told the two parties involved to find an appropriate monetary award to plaintiffs in the class action suit.They have until Monday to file a plan for resolving the case. They also have to come up with an end date for others to join the class-action lawsuit. Any juvenile who was strip-searched and charged with either minor offenses after Nov. 1, 1997, or non-felony charges after April 16, 1999 may qualify.
