Christina Cardenas speaks at a press conference on June 22, 2020 (YouTube).
The wife of a California prison inmate will receive $5.6 million to compensate her for being sexually violated by prison officials during a visit to the correctional facility.
On Sept. 6, 2019, Christina Cardenas traveled four hours to visit her husband Carlos Cardenas at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, a maximum-security prison located in the desert around 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It was the first time she had gone to visit her husband, who is serving a sentence for armed robbery, in over a year, according to her lawyer, famed victims’ rights attorney Gloria Allred.
Cardenas said that when she arrived at the facility for a scheduled visit at 8:30 a.m. after traveling for four hours, she was interrogated, required to submit to a strip search by prison officials, subjected to drug and pregnancy tests, X-rays and CT scans at a hospital, and then faced an additional strip search by a male doctor who sexually violated her. She also said she was placed in handcuffs while being taken to and from the hospital and denied drinking water and the use of a bathroom.
According to Allred’s statement, the doctor who examined Cardenas “proceeded to sexually assault and forcefully penetrate” Cardenas’ genitals, despite the fact that the search warrant specifically prohibited a cavity search unless an X-ray confirmed the presence of contraband — which, in Cardenas’s case, it did not.
The “unwanted and forceful” examination was carried out by a male doctor, Allred said, “even after Christina stated that she was not okay with a male probing her body and that a male probing of her body would be very retraumatizing to her.” Allred’s statement added that the doctor ignored Cardenas’ objections and continued the assault while an officer remained in the room.
The woman also said that at one point, a prison official asked, “Why do you visit, Christina? You don’t have to visit. It’s a choice, and this is part of visiting.”
According to Allred, while her client was “visibly distressed” during the search, an officer screamed, “Oh wipe away your tears! You know what you and your husband have been doing!”
After what Cardenas called a “humiliating” series of events, she was later told that she had to pay for the hospital’s services — which totaled over $5,000.
Her visit with her husband was also canceled, Allred’s statement notes.
Allred said in a statement that the search warrant issued the day of her client’s visit was legally invalid and not based on probable cause. Cardenas sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, individual prison staff members, and Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital, where the examinations were held. At the time of filing, Cardenas said that she decided to take action, “not only to vindicate her rights, but also to protect the rights and dignity of other wives who are seeking family visits with their husbands.”
Gloria Allred announced Tuesday that the lawsuit was settled and that the hefty payout will be split among the defendants, with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation responsible for $3.6 million.
“We believe 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,” Cardenas’ attorney Gloria Allred said.
NBC News reported that the settlement also requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to distribute a policy memorandum to all employees in an effort to protect the rights of those subjected to strip searches. Under the settlement’s terms, visitors must receive a copy of the warrant authorizing all strip searches, both the visitor and the person conducting the search must understand the warrant, and the scope of the warrant must not be exceeded.
Carlos Cardenas remains incarcerated in California. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2028.
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