Women Awarded $1.45 Million for Arrest, Search

FRESNO —  A jury awarded nearly $1.5 million Friday to four women who claimed that their rights were violated during an arrest at a school board confrontation and subsequent strip-search at Tulare County Jail.

Rachel Morales, who later was elected to the Dinuba City Council, got the largest award--$225,000 in compensatory damages and $175,000 in punitive damages for a total of $400,000.

Her sister, Virginia Rodriguez, and Eva Vasquez and Irene Martinez were awarded $350,000 each.

The U.S. District Court jury found in favor of the women, all from Dinuba, Wednesday by ruling against the county and Sheriff Butch Coley on 21 civil rights counts.

The women were arrested Jan. 6, 1992, during a Dinuba elementary school board meeting that authorities said turned into a near-riot over the issue of trustee representation.

The women argued that the usual practice in such misdemeanor arrests was to cite the defendants and release them. Instead, they were strip-searched and held in jail briefly in lieu of bails ranging from $24,000 to $34,000.

Morales and Rodriguez were found innocent of all charges. Vasquez was fined $100 for one misdemeanor count of disturbing a public meeting, and no criminal complaint was filed against Martinez.