The St Louis Police Department is under fire for a 2012 traffic stop that resulted in an unlawful vaginal search of a young woman along the roadside. The victim, identified as Kayla Robinson has filed a federal civil rights violations lawsuit against both the department and Detective Angela Hawkins. According to reports, Robinson was studying criminal justice at the time in hopes of becoming a police officer. After experiencing a sexual battery at the hands of those she hoped to one day emulate, she has decided that police work isn’t for her.
The incident began as a traffic stop. After making a U-turn, the vehicle Robinson was riding in with two friends, was pulled over. Hawkins was under the impression that because the vehicle made a U-turn, they were avoiding law enforcement, and because they were black, it must be because they had dope and guns in the car. After a search of the vehicle and after Robinson turned over a small amount of marijuana, Hawkins demanded to know where the crack and guns were. She then walked Robinson to a nearby tractor-trailer yard and against her will, proceeded to probe Robinson’s vagina.
Robinson’s lawsuit alleges that Hawkins was searching for marijuana in her vagina and crack in her left shoe. The lawsuit also revealed that Hawkins had to call on the radio to ask for a pair of gloves to conduct the search. A male officer arrived, who then stood by and witnessed Robinson’s molestation. Of course, Hawkins found neither a bag of weed or crack on Robinson’s person. Robinson acknowledged that she was going to jail and begged to be searched at the jail, not in a dirt yard full of farm equipment. After being arrested, Robinson filed a complaint with the department. Even though she had been arrested and sexually assaulted, the District Attorney never filed any charges.
Robinson was informed by letter almost a year later, that the allegations against the officer had been “sustained” and that the officer was disciplined. The letter itself is suspicious, as an accusation of that magnitude would have demanded an internal affairs investigation. An official investigation would not have been resolved without a recorded interview with the victim. This reeks of internal cover-up. When the department was asked for Hawkins’ disciplinary records, they responded to the media, stating that her records were not available to the public. This is contrary to the vast majority of public records policies at most police departments. As public servants, all police reports and personnel files are public record, and thus open to public scrutiny.
According to Robinson’s attorney Jeremy Hollingshead, the St Louis PD is the most corrupt agency in the country. “This is indicative of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. They do it every single day. They target African-Americans, oftentimes from northern areas of the city, and they try to shake them down. They make false allegations, threats against them, and their hope is that somebody is going to be weak enough to roll over and provide information for them.” Hollingshead made his intentions clear, stating, “I know Kayla’s hope is that is that a jury finally hits the city with a big enough number so the city says ‘OK fine. We’re going to stop doing this’”
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