CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: As many as 60,000 people arrested for minor crimes and illegally strip-searched by jail guards could be getting a check from the city of New York. That's thanks to a proposed $50 million settlement. CNN's Maria Hinojosa has that story.</s>MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were arrested for minor offenses -- Danni Tyson for disorderly conduct; Vivian Williams for selling shoes on the street without a license; Carlos Morales for driving with a broken tail light -- all first-time offenders. But they say they were treated like common criminals, subjected to strip searches.</s>VIVIAN WILLIAMS, PLAINTIFF: I had two officers facing me and telling me to take off my clothes. I did what they asked, and not only it was bad enough I was told to strip, but I was told to lift up my breast.</s>HINOJOSA: As many as 60,000 people were strip-searched when they were arrested in 1996 and 1997. Many of them, lawyers say, were treated in a similar way.</s>CARLOS MORALES, PLAINTIFF: I was strip-searched against a wall in front of everyone. All the inmates were watching me.</s>HINOJOSA: Strip-searching people arrested for minor offenses was ruled illegal by a federal appellate court in 1986. Mayor Rudy Giuliani said police officers knew that, but jail guards who took people to holding cells did not.</s>MYR. RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK CITY: If people aren't searched effectively, and they're all being held for arraignment, and one person pulls out a razor blade and starts killing people, then you'll find out that there's another side to this.</s>HINOJOSA (on camera): Lawyers for the plaintiffs say people who were strip-searched during that time could claim anywhere from $250 to $22,000 in damages in what may turn out to be one of the largest civil rights cash settlements ever. Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
Thousands Arrested, Illegally Strip-Searched Could Get Check from New York City