Tennessee deputy groped woman, forcibly 'baptized' her in lake after finding marijuana in car during traffic stop: Lawsuit
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE: A Tennessee woman is suing Hamilton County on allegations that a deputy groped her and forced her to get "baptized" in a lake after he found the butt of a marijuana cigarette in her vehicle during a traffic stop.
In an $11 million lawsuit filed in Hamilton County Circuit Court this past week, 40-year-old Shandle Marie Riley accused Hamilton County Sheriff's Office deputies Daniel Wilkey and Jacob Goforth of these allegations.
She further accused them of depriving her of her First and Fourth Amendment rights to freedom of religion and to be free from injury or harm while in custody, and her Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizures.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that the lawsuit stemmed from an incident on the night of February 6 when Wilkey followed Riley from a gas station and initiated a traffic stop on her as she pulled into a friend's driveway, allegedly without any justification.
It says he ordered her out of her vehicle and then searched her by "feeling, through [her] clothing, her breasts, abdomen, buttocks, inner thighs, and her crotch," before asking her to reach under her shirt, pull out her bra, and shake it and her shirt.
The lawsuit pointed to the sheriff's office policies that states stop and search frisks are limited to a "protective pat-down for concealed weapons".
It also highlighted the fact that strip searches have to be conducted in a "controlled and private environment" by "at least two deputies of the same gender as the person being searched" and argued that her rights were violated.
Furthermore, it stated that when Wilkey found the butt of a marijuana cigarette during a search of the vehicle, he asked her if she had ever been "saved".
He asked her whether she believed in Jesus Christ before telling her that God was "talking to him during the vehicle search" and that he "felt the Lord wanted him to baptize [her]".
He told her to go get towels from inside her friend's home for a baptism, promising to issue only a criminal citation for the possession of marijuana rather than taking her to jail if she agreed to go through with the procedure. He also promised he would talk to a judge for her.
Wilkey then took her to a boat ramp at Soddy Lake, at which point deputy Jacob Goforth arrived because "in order for a baptism to be valid, a witness must 'attest' to the ritual."
The lawsuit stated that the latter stood and watched as Wilkey "stripped nearly naked", led Riley into waist-deep water, placed one hand on her back and the other on her breasts and completely submerged her under the water.
The temperatures that night fell to 55 degrees, according to the lawsuit, and left Riley "shivering uncontrollably" and feeling "horribly violated".
Riley's lawsuit is one of two lawsuits filed against Wilkey. In the second, which seeks $17 million in compensation, a man claimed that Wilkey and another deputy performed an inappropriate body cavity search in July 2019.
Wilkey remains on paid administrative leave stemming from the July incident.