"Damn women tonight," said a sergeant at the Hennepin County jail's intake entrance.
Nick Vlcek
Twin Cities attorney Jill Clark is representing Farkarlun in a suit that accuses Hennepin County jailers of assault, battery, an improper strip search, and planting narcotics
The deputies standing around with him agreed. "They're terrible tonight."
"Who is it? Some newbie or one of the usual?"
"I don't know her," replied a dark-haired female Minneapolis police officer standing with them. "But she says she already has a lawsuit open, or something like that."
"Any tips you want to give?" the officer asked the deputies. "I don't know how to do a strip search really. I've done one."
No one could offer much advice—one said she had only performed two strip searches herself.
"You guys don't even get trained on it?" asked a deputy, surprised.
"No, so we don't get trained on it so I have no idea."
"We'll get her down to one layer of clothing and see what happens."
Deputies led in a stout, dark-skinned woman with short braids, her hands cuffed behind her back. They forced her up against the hard gray wall.
"Are you going to beat me up?" the prisoner asked.
"No," said a female deputy. "You're going to get searched like everybody else."
"I want to speak to my lawyer," the prisoner demanded.
"Face the wall!" the sergeant commanded as the prisoner was shoved against it.
"Down!" demanded the sergeant, as they threw her to the concrete floor and held her. "Now are you going to cooperate or not?"
"Yeah," the prisoner said. "What am I under arrest for?"
"I don't know. That's not our concern."
The deputies untied her shoes, whipped off her socks, and yanked down her jeans.
"I request females on me—not no males," the prisoner pleaded.
"You got females on you," one of the male officers said.
Two of the deputies were women, and the other four were men. Three Minneapolis police officers stood in the doorway of the intake room watching the action.
The deputies stripped off the prisoner's long johns. Then they uncuffed her and pulled her shirt over her head, briefly exposing part of her butt and leaving her in only a pair of boxers and an undershirt.
Some of the deputies frisked her. The others searched through her mislaid clothes. No one found anything. Then the two female deputies and the female officer took her away to finish the strip search.
A few minutes later, the three female officers came out of the room with the search's yield: a breath mint.
"A mint?" asked the sergeant. The room erupted in laughter.
"You know, they put a mint on the pillow, you know, at a hotel," the sergeant joked. "You know where the mint was, right? Did you get that one?"
The deputies brought the prisoner a set of orange jail scrubs. While she changed, a few of them walked off the adrenaline from tackling her.
"I love that floor," the sergeant said. "That floor makes it all worthwhile."
JUST AFTER BAR CLOSE in late July 2007, Trisha Farkarlun and her girlfriend, Tracy Winters, were driving back from the Gay '90s nightclub to Winters's house in north Minneapolis. Farkarlun asked Winters to give her friend a ride somewhere. When Winters told her she didn't feel like it, the two started bickering.
"It was a petty argument," Winters admits.
The spat continued after they got home. By the time the sun started to rise, they were loudly squabbling in the yard. Someone called 911.
Minneapolis police officers Paul Gillies and his rookie partner MiQuel Barnes responded to the scene at 6:19 a.m.
Still hot from the argument, Farkarlun started giving lip to Barnes. The officers cuffed Farkarlun and put her in the back of the squad car to run her driver's license. When it came back with no warrants, they uncuffed her and let her go. Farkarlun walked down Vincent Avenue North toward Golden Valley Road to catch a bus.
Farkarlun would later claim that the officers caught up with her a few blocks down Vincent Avenue and dragged her into a nearby alley, where she says she was held down and raped.
Winters went looking for Farkarlun and found her on the ground in tears. Farkarlun told Winters that the officers had raped her. By 6:59 a.m.—just under a half-hour after the police left Winters's house—Farkarlun and Winters were at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale seeking treatment. When Farkarlun said she was raped by police officers, the hospital called Internal Affairs.
Internal Affairs Officer Sgt. Troy Schoenberger and his partner showed up to visit Farkarlun in the hospital a few hours later.
"I understand you went through a traumatic incident this morning, and we want to ask you a few questions about it," Schoenberger said in the hospital room. "I know some of these questions are going to be uncomfortable, but it's important that we get as much information as we can to make sure that we can find out what exactly happened and hold anyone that might have done this accountable."
"No," screeched Farkarlun through tears. "I don't want to do this.... They said they're going to hurt me and they got my name and address."
My comment on Clark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyadlNZnDY&feature=related
John Hoff 06/03/2010 11:36:00 PM
If Farkalun is a victim, she's a victim of her own attorney putting her up to this madness. Farkalun should file a complaint with the Board of Professional Responsibility for lawyers in MInnesota and/or a malpractice lawsuit against her attorney. Attorneys have malpractice insurance. This would be a more lucrative path with a greater chance of success for Farkalun.
I mean, check out what happened to "the other Jill" who is closely associated with Jill Clark, the way "peas in a pod" are closely associated.
http://www.mncourts.gov/opinions/sc/current/OPA0820970603.pdf
Neither of the Jills are lawyers you'd want to entrust with your case. Farkalun just has a really, really, really bad lawyer.
Gene Barry 04/15/2010 1:49:00 AM
Minneapolis' finest...NOT
j_k 04/10/2010 10:14:00 AM
for a good read regarding how this woman has been unjustly criminalized and traumatized please read this article:
http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/jul/false-reporting-law-entraps-woman-rapist-officers-barnes-gillies-go-free
anonymous 04/10/2010 9:25:00 AM
Trisha Farkalun does not have "drug and alcohol problems", as these comments suggest. She is an amazing person who has survived instances of sexual assault and police brutality. She is not at fault for anything that has happened to her. It is upsetting to me that we live in a society where we are taught to disbelieve and/or question survivors of sexual assault.
This article and some comments rely on Trisha's charges as a way to discredit her as a person. What the article fails to recognize is the way in which people of color are disproportionately targeted and mistreated by police. Innocent people are convicted of crimes every day, and, indeed, Farkalun was convicted of falsely reporting rape. Her conviction says nothing about her character--her compassion, strength, and ability to persevere despite adversity. I'm disappointed in CityPages for publishing such a slanderous article!
Scot R 04/09/2010 11:15:00 PM
According to the article, Ms. Farkarlun did not make a complaint of police officer abuse; she was coerced, while at the hospital, by a nurse and MPD Internal Affairs officers (called by the nurse) into telling what happened to her. Then the MPD charged Ms. Farkarlun for her "crime" of speaking (against her will) about the truth of what she had just experienced...however implausible it may have seemed. The defense was able to prove that the officers were not excluded as possible perpetrators through DNA evidence, and show how the officers could have committed the crime, GPS or no. Too much, perhaps, for an uninitiated jury to grasp--but Ms. Farkarlun should not have to suffer for that, as she clearly is.
James 04/09/2010 2:22:00 AM
MeganG- I completely agree! This is not news worthy. Ms. Farkarlun and Jill Clark do not deserve the time or energy that went into this investigation- nor the tax payer dollars. Perhaps Ms. Farkarlun needs to stay out of trouble so she doesn't get herself into these situations. I'm assuming the police arrested her because she was rude and out of control. The police and Jailers need to take these precautions- This is their livelihood, they see violent unstable people everyday and their safety should not be compromised! From previous self defense courses, Ms. Farkarlun was aggressive and not following directives, they had to take control of the situation, which in my opinion they did well, and no one was hurt! We should be congratulating these officers and Jailers.
Megan 04/09/2010 1:34:00 AM
Regardless of the situation, I find this utterly astonishing:
"Garcia says that Farkarlun has already proven herself to be an unreliable witness, which is why no one should believe her now."
"No one should believe her now"? Regardless of the case, the situation, the crime, EVERYONE has right to a trial. Just because this is a case of 'woman crying wolf' doesn't mean there is absolutely NO WAY that she could tell the truth in the future. That is a horrible statement for a sergeant police officer to make! He, above most, should understand the importance of justice, not to mention the way justice works in this country (of which, judging by this article, there isn't much). This story, among many others, is just another reason to have no faith in American law enforcement.
MeganG. 04/08/2010 10:23:00 PM
Jill Clark is just as detrimental to our society as her clients, such as Ms. Farkarlun. Clark is notorious for these obsurd, frivolous lawsuits against our municipalities. She makes tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars even on losing cases! She is a conspiracy nut and it sort of appears that she helps to shape and form her client's next complaint/lawsuit by coaching and instructing them what to do.
Skug 04/08/2010 9:21:00 PM
Are you seriously running a story about a dubious lawsuit brought by a woman who has been CONVICTED of falsely accusing two police officers of rape? What's next? A story on the heroin ring in Northfield?
gordon 04/08/2010 3:02:00 AM
Sounds to me like Ms. Farkulan needs help. Bad things happen to people with drug and alcohol problems and obviously she must have a problem. Hope she gets some help!
frank 04/07/2010 10:26:00 PM
So did Jill Clark have to pay standard adverstising rates for this story? Or does City Pages give discounts for advertising that appears as a news story?
