New Jersey state troopers are facing a lawsuit after conducting an aggressive cavity search of a driver in Southampton in March of last year. Footage recorded by the officers’ body cameras shows the extent of the search, which the driver, Jack Levine, vocally opposed. The video was recently published after an open government advocate came across the case.
The video begins with Levine in back of state trooper Andrew Whitmore’s car, refusing to speak to them. Whitmore tells him the odor of cannabis gives them probable cause to search the vehicle.
The officer walks over to state trooper Joseph Drew, who is searching Levine’s car.
“Smell anything in here? Negative?” Whitmore says. “Alright, because the dude that I removed, the driver, I moved him, I put him in the back of my vehicle, and my vehicle reeks.”
He adds:
“He does reek, I think he may have something on him, he may have stashed it somewhere.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Drew responds.
Whitmore says he thinks the cannabis is stashed somewhere they can’t easily access. “It’s not in his pockets,” he says.
Shortly after, Drew begins checking Levine’s waistband, and Levine mildly, vocally expresses his disapproval.
“If you think that this is the worst thing I’m gonna do to you right now, you have another thing coming, my friend,” Drew says.
“This is ridiculous. This is like sexual assault. I don’t even have [anything] in my pants, what are you doing?” Levine eventually says.
“Definitely getting the odor when you open his pants. Smell that?” one officer says, as the other affirms.
Levine expresses his desire to resolve the incident:
“Alright, look, do you want me to take my boxers off right here so I don’t have to waste your time and go downtown ‘cause you think I got weed? Like what do you want me to do? Like seriously, I have to go to work. You want me to take my clothes off? I would be more than happy to, officers.”
Shortly after, Levine asks. “Am I free to go?”
“Not at this point, no,” Whitmore responds. “Am I under arrest?” Levine then asks. “Yes, you are,” Whitmore tells him. “For what?” “You are under arrest for the odor of marijuana [inaudible] in your vehicle,” Whitmore says. “So now you can get arrested for somebody smelling something?”
“Yes, yes, you can,” Whitmore declares.
“Come on, I don’t have weed,” Levine says at one point.
“I don’t want you guys fcking doing me like the TSA and sht, fcking sexually assaulting me.”*
Additional body camera footage of Drew in his car before conducting the official search shows him saying, “If it comes down to I have to put on latex gloves and get out here, I will.”
Levine refers to the impending search as “sexual assault,” and eventually, he is informed that they will do a search on the side of the road.
“I don’t know exactly if this is legal or not, but I don’t think it is.”
As they start searching him, he starts to laugh, warning, “You better hope this is legal.”
According to the 2012 Supreme Court ruling Florence v. Burlington, “any person arrested can be subject to a strip search — even for a minor offense or traffic violation — without any reason to suspect that they may be carrying a weapon or contraband,” the ACLU reported at the time of the decision.
As Drew searches him, he continues to heckle the officers, expressing his disapproval of their invasive tactics.
“Did you find it? Yo, you guys are really ridiculous! You might as well ask me on a fcking date.”*
Drew is seen digging extensively into the back of his pants.
“This is disgusting, he’s raping me! Yo, he’s raping me! He’s raping me…Help!” Levine yells half-jokingly.
“I think I’m traumatized, that was really fucking weird,” he says as Drew pats down his legs. Drew goes on to grope inside both the front and back of Levine’s pants multiple times.
“How many times you gonna check?” Levine asks.
“I can’t believe this is happening, just because a fcking cop says he smells weed.”*
The cops do not find weed on Levine or in his vehicle. Drew gives him a ticket for tailgating, instead. He also hands him a complaint form after giving him tailgating ticket. What he says is perhaps the most disturbing of all, as he indicates he saw nothing wrong with the invasive cavity search he conducted:
“If you honestly believe that your rights were violated or that I was unprofessional in any way, I put my name and my badge number, the car I was driving, [and] the license plate of the car. You may fill it out and you may bring it to any state police barracks that you choose to do.”
Footage of the incident was uncovered by John Paff, an open government advocate as he was filing random public records requests. As he told local outlet New Jersey 101.5, he “became aware of the search after the driver filed a motion to extend the 90-day deadline for a tort notice — the notification a person must give a government agency before suing it in New Jersey Superior Court. He then filed records requests for dashcam and body cam videos.”
In his motion filed with the superior court, Levine says:
“It was the most humiliating experience I’ve ever been through, also due to the fact people were driving by very slowly (sic), watching him with his hand down my pants.”
101.5 reported:
“He argues in the motion State Police repeatedly delayed requests from his attorneys for dashcam videos and other recordings — and it wasn’t until months later, when he watched a video as part of an internal affairs investigation, that he realized not just one but both responding officers had violated his rights by searching his intimate areas.”
Paff said he believes Levine’s motion has been denied but this has not been confirmed by the superior court where it was filed. Levine’s lawyer declined to comment on the story.
Watch the edited down version of the roughly 24-minute incident below:
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How is this legal?
Yeah, I saw that. The officer really seems to be going to town on that kid. I'd be interested to see how this turns out. What excuse can he have?
Lmao...this report is damn funny and absurd
It'll be exactly as funny when it happens to your daughter.
This goes far past the normal evil that the boys in blue are always guilty of. This is disgusting. The war on drugs MUST end as it is used to abuse citizens. Every person is due to a social level of respect & dignity. These pigs crossed a line that is deserving of serious punishment. Hopefully, the folks in this community will come together to hold these disgusting pigs accountable for such a horrendous display of the abuse of power. We do not need the state or their agents. We're all adults here & we don't need 'em.
From Protect and Serve to "Frame and maim"....