A new lawsuit filed by the D.C. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU of D.C.) is claiming that a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer conducted an unlawful search of a man last year.
“This case marks another example of a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer probing an individual’s most sensitive body parts without any basis for doing so,” ACLU of D.C. said in a written statement about the case.
The incident took place on January 15, 2019. Mbalaminwe Mwimanzi was at a friend’s apartment, when two MPD officers came to their door and carried out body search on him, even though their warrant authorized them to only search the apartment for drugs, not individuals found at that address.
The officers searched Mwimanzi three times, despite the fact that they didn’t find any contraband, weapons, or evidence of a crime in the first two searches, according to the lawsuit.
During the third search, one of the officers allegedly pushed his hand into Mwimaniz’s buttocks, causing severe pain and also applied pressure onto his testicles multiple times as he cried out. The officers did not find any illegal items at the apartment, either.
The District is also a defendant in the lawsuit.
ACLU of D.C. added in its statement that it has filed three lawsuits of the same nature in the past few years.
“In Mwimanzi v. Wilson, the ACLU-DC is taking up this issue once again and, in doing so, making clear to the District that its tolerance for sexually invasive searches must end,” the statement said.