Jury finds for woman over invasive police search

An eight-person federal jury unanimously awarded $300,000 to a woman who sued a former St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department detective for performing an unlawful body-cavity search.

Kayla Robinson was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages after a three-day trial. Nicholas Dudley, an attorney for Robinson, said the verdict helps deter police from engaging in similar behavior, though Detective Angela Hawkins will not be held financially responsible for the damages.

“Sadly, from a legal standpoint, a jury verdict that will be paid by the city of St. Louis is a small price for Detective Hawkins to pay,” Dudley said. “At least at this point in time, her law enforcement career remains intact, and this verdict didn’t cost her a single dollar.”

The case stemmed from an invasive search in which then-Detective Hawkins probed Robinson for weapons and narcotics on Oct. 19, 2012, in a parking lot after a traffic stop on Goodfellow Boulevard in north St. Louis.

Robinson testified that Hawkins verbally insulted her and threw her against a tractor trailer and that the officer seemed “satisfied” while performing the search, which was inappropriately conducted with a male officer nearby, as shown by video evidence.

Hawkins testified that she believed Robinson, then 24, might have hidden a gun or knife in her vagina as the detective approached a vehicle in which the plaintiff was a passenger. No charges were filed after the incident.

“Hawkins’ testimony was some of the most unbelievable testimony I’ve ever seen from a witness trial,” said Jeremy Hollingshead, a member of Robinson’s legal team. “If a woman were to stick a knife up her vagina while seated in a vehicle, there wouldn’t have been a body cavity search; there would have been an urgent call for an ambulance.”

Robinson admitted to having a small amount of marijuana in her waistband, but she insisted she did not possess other drugs or contraband. Robinson requested to be taken to a police station before the search, but Hawkins declined due to officer safety concerns, according to court documents.

Robinson filed a complaint with the police department’s internal affairs division within two days of the incident, and her story has not changed in the subsequent eight years, Dudley said during closing arguments.

The metro police department declined to comment on the litigation.

At an earlier phase of the case, the department had asked for summary judgment on all of Robinson’s claims. In September, a split panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the case to proceed.

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