‘WANTON DISREGARD’

Family of Minor Strip-Searched by Baton Rouge Police in Public Settles With City for $35,000

A federal judge wrote that police “demonstrated a serious and wanton disregard for Defendant's constitutional rights.”

The family of a minor strip-searched by Baton Rouge police in January 2020 has settled with the city for $35,000. Baton Rouge Police Department Sergeant Ken Camallo stopped the 16-year-old, his 23-year-old brother Clarence Green, and a woman named Kayleen Butler, who was driving, on the first day of 2020. Camallo, saying he smelled marijuana, handcuffed both Green and his 16-year-old brother and removed their clothes and underwear as they leaned against a police car. Officers wrote in their incident report that they found a firearm on Green and marijuana on the 16-year-old. Police then drove Green and his brother to their home, which they searched with their guns drawn and without a warrant. Federal Judge Brian Jackson wrote that Camallo “gave multiple conflicting accounts” of the encounter and that “the state agents in this case demonstrated a serious and wanton disregard for Defendant’s constitutional rights.” The 23-year-old, who was on probation at the time of the stop, spent five months in jail before charges against him were dropped.