Syracuse, NY — Syracuse police, a city court judge and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center worked together last year to conduct a highly unusual drug search.
They collaborated to sedate a suspect and thread an 8-inch flexible tube into his rectum in a search for illegal drugs. The suspect, who police said had taunted them that he’d hidden drugs there, refused consent for the procedure.
At least two doctors resisted the police request. An X-ray already had indicated no drugs. They saw no medical need to perform an invasive procedure on someone against his will.
The notes from police and doctors suggest some tension, a standoff. At one point, eight police officers were at the hospital. A doctor remembers telling officers: “We would not be doing that.”
The hospital’s top lawyer got pulled in. He talked with the judge who signed the search warrant, which was written by police and signed at the judge’s home.
When they were done, the hospital lawyer overruled its doctors. The lawyer told his doctors that a search warrant required the doctors to use “any means” to retrieve the drugs, records show.
So St. Joe’s medical staff knocked out the suspect and performed the sigmoidoscopy, in search of evidence of a misdemeanor or low-level felony charge, records show.
The idea of a government-ordered medical procedure for such a common offense surprised defense lawyers here and national experts in medical and legal ethics.
“It’s crazy. It’s over the top, by far,” said Hermann Walz, a longtime criminal attorney and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “You’re looking for marijuana and cocaine? It’s extreme. If they wanted to cut him open and look at his stomach, that would be OK, too?”
Critics say the cops, the judge and hospital may have violated the civil rights of the suspect, subjected him to medical risk, and exposed the city and the hospital to a lawsuit.
“The whole thing is cuckoo nuts to me,” said the suspect’s defense lawyer, Charles Keller. “What country are we living in?”
So, was it worth the risk? The X-ray was right. The scope found no drugs.
And when they were done, St. Joe’s sent the suspect a bill for $4,595.12.
4.6 K for anal. Unreal.
I know cops can be liars but I’m just taking this story for its word and if they guy said he hid drugs up his ass then to me he said he hid drugs up his ass until I hear otherwise. But that’s just crazy. I don’t know the steps that proceeded but I imagine he was taken in cuffs and next thing you know he’s blacked out with one of those SWAT light cameras in your asshole searching around for hidden treasure all for nothing. Was this a diversion tactic maybe? Spend the time searching in the asshole when its really hidden in the car bumper? And an 8 incher too? That’s impressive. Sometimes I think Drug dealers and those of that ilk are just scumbags that are good for nothing and then I think about the degrading things they have to go through in their line of work and the resilience it requires just to put food on their table and then I remember i don’t have to do that. I mean how many criminals have had to stash drugs up their ass before? You see it all the time in movies I think. Cops still asking to squat and cough right? It’s a ballsy move of this guy for whatever reason. Maybe he was fucked in the head and thought he stashed his drugs up his rectum. Maybe he just got his jollies off getting his b-hole touches and probed. What i can guarantee is no matter if you like the feeling or not, if you got your poop shoot messed with either intentional for pleasure or against your will, it is ABSURD to be charged over FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS for it.