A female trooper who conducted invasive body cavity searches on two women during a traffic stop has been suspended, CBS News reports.
Body cavity searches are normally conducted inside jail holding cells or in prisons — not on a roadside in full view of passing motorists.
The two women 38-year-old Angel Dobbs and her niece, 24-year-old Ashley Dobbs, were stopped by Texas State Trooper Kelly Helleson and her partner, David Farrell, on their way to Oklahoma. The women were observed tossing funny-looking cigarettes out of their car windows.
Farrell, who claimed to smell marijuana, ordered Helleson to search the women’s cavities for drugs. The entire sordid ordeal was captured on a patrol unit dash cam.
After the traffic stop, which occurred earlier this year, the two women complained bitterly to Helleson’s superiors to no avail.
No action was taken against Helleson or her male partner until the women hired an attorney and got the media involved.
The attorney for the women, Scott Palmer, said the suspension shows the DPS is taking action, but was still disappointed in the incident. “That shows me they’re being professional, but it’s still unfortunate that it takes a lawsuit to get that that kind of attention, that remedial action to get her off the streets.”
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