Opinion ID: 775758
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Shain's Arrest and Strip Search

Text: 3 On July 29, 1995, Nassau County police officers including Peter Ellison 1 responded to a 911 call from Dr. Donna Denier, who was then married to plaintiff Ray Shain, at the couple's residence. Denier showed Ellison a recently expired order of protection that required Shain to stay out of her bedroom. When Ellison realized that he could not arrest Shain for violation of the order of protection, he interviewed Denier because 4 [He] wanted to get a clearer picture of exactly what [Shain] did, to see if [he] could arrest him, if there was another charge that [he] could arrest him on besides the order of protection [and after the interview, he] determined that [he] could arrest him minus the order of protection, without it. 5 Ellison testified that Denier told him Shain entered her room and threatened to rape her and that Ellison then believed he had probable cause to arrest Shain. In his police report, Ellison said: 6 COMP REPORTS AT TIME AND PLACE OF OCCURRENCE LAYING IN HER BED READING WHEN HER HUSBAND ENTERED ROOM. SHE TOLD HIM SEVERAL TIMES TO LEAVE AND HE STATED AGAIN, I'M GOING TO FUCK YOU. SHE TOLD HIM TO LEAVE AGAIN AND FEARING FOR HER SAFETY SHE LEFT THE ROOM AND CALLED THE POLICE 7 Denier gave a more expansive account of her conversation with Ellison, claiming that she also told him that Shain previously had threatened her and been out of control and that he had thrown a table at her and swung a lamp at her on prior occasions. 8 Ellison testified that when he arrested Shain for first degree harassment, a Class B misdemeanor, Shain acted in an agitated manner. Shain himself admitted that he did not turn over a pocket knife when he was asked to empty his pockets. After retrieving the pocket knife, Ellison transported Shain to the police station and rear-cuffed him to a manacle in a holding cell. Despite Shain's complaints that he had undergone a spinal fusion as an adolescent and was in severe pain, Ellison refused to take the cuffs off or to front cuff Shain. Ultimately, Ellison and another officer took Shain to the Nassau County Medical Center where a doctor who examined him reported that Shain was experiencing muscle spasms and lumbar sprain and ordered that he not be cuffed behind his back. Ellison spent the balance of the night at the central police station. 9 The next day, Shain appeared before Judge James H. Madden, a District Court judge sitting as a Family Court judge, who arraigned Shain on Denier's family offense petition. Without holding a hearing, Judge Madden remanded Shain to Nassau County Correctional Center (NCCC) without bond. 10 Upon Shain's arrival at NCCC, Officer James Dantunono directed him to remove all his clothes and submit to a visual body cavity search. Dantunono looked in Shain's ears, his mouth, his hair and under his arms, and then made him turn around, bend over and spread his buttocks apart with his hands to facilitate a visual inspection of his rectum. Dantunono also directed Shain to hold up his external genitalia for inspection. Shain was again strip searched the next morning before he left to appear in Family Court. When Shain appeared in court, Family Court Judge Norman Feiden released him and allowed him to return to his home. Denier withdrew the Family Court petition on August 7, 1995. However, on or about August 28, 1995, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office filed harassment charges against Shain pursuant to N.Y. Penal Law § 240.26. Subsequently, these charges were dismissed pursuant to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.