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S.F. Doctors Object to Performing Body Cavity Searches

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Wed Jan 28, 2004 at 06:33:15 PM EST
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There was a stand-off at San Francisco General Hospital yesterday, as a doctor refused a police request to search a female suspect's private body parts for cocaine.

San Francisco has had some touchy police standoffs -- but nothing quite like the 10-hour showdown that came to a head in the San Francisco General emergency room between cops, doctors and a female drug suspect who refused to surrender several rocks of crack cocaine she was concealing in her very private parts.

Before it was all over, a doctor was herself being threatened with arrest -- and the head of the city's Health Department was on his way down to do the search himself.

The police obtained a "body cavity" search warrant. The doctor refused to perform it, stating it wasn't a medical emergency.

Eventually, the suspect removed the cocaine herself.

End of crisis -- but hardly the end of the story. Hospital staffers are still fuming over their treatment by the cops, with one insider telling us Hettrich's behavior "was out of line, and his job should be reviewed.''

"There needs to be confidence in us, and if the emergency room becomes known as a place where you get body cavity-searched and strip-searched, then patients are not going to trust us,'' said Dr. Alan Gelb, chief of the Department of Emergency Services. [Thanks to Martha of Demisemiblog for the link]

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