"I had to be searched over 10 times," says Farkarlun. "And that's no exaggeration."
But the officers found nothing. Still not satisfied, they brought her to the jail to be strip-searched. A video of the incident documents what happened next.
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
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After the strip search was over and Farkarlun had changed into jail scrubs, the deputies put Farkarlun's clothes in a gray bin. They told her to take the bin down to the jail's property room to be inventoried.
When she arrived, the jailer working in the property room took a quick glance at the bin and pulled out an eighth of marijuana—roughly $50 worth.
WHEN FARKARLUN WAS finally allowed her one phone call, she rang Clark, the lawyer from the false complaint suit, to tell her she'd been arrested.
Farkarlun was released from jail in the early afternoon and met with Clark that day.
Clark requested the footage of the strip search as well as the surveillance cameras that had recorded the alleged drug dealing. She received the footage of the strip search right away, but was told there was a technical malfunction and the alleged drug dealing had not been recorded.
The video of the strip search clearly shows that the officers didn't follow the rules, Clark argues. The footage shows both men and women peeling off Farkarlun's pants, long johns, and shirt, in violation of the procedure manual, which states: "Strip searches shall be conducted only by custody staff of the same gender."
The number of people present during the search is also not common procedure, says Christie Needleman, a criminal defense attorney from Baltimore who has tried similar cases.
"Normally it would be a one-on-one situation," says Needleman. "Or no more people there than is necessary for security."
In February, Clark filed a federal lawsuit against Hennepin County alleging that Farkarlun was illegally strip-searched. The suit also accuses the deputies of planting drugs on her clothes.
Farkarlun says she overhead officers at the First Precinct talking about her false complaint trial.
"I just knew something was funny," she says. "I thought they were just going to take me in the alley or something."
THE POLICE AND JAILERS give a starkly different account of what happened on September 30. In official reports, Officers Lanasa and Lee say they saw a suspicious group of people crowded around the intersection of Fifth Street and Hennepin Avenue.
They went to the nearby First Precinct to get a better look through the surveillance cameras aimed at the intersection. Through the monitor, they saw a woman—later identified as Farkarlun—drop something on the ground. Then a stranger picked it up and made "hand-to-hand contact" with her.
The officers reported that they saw this same sequence repeated several times before Farkarlun and Gardner headed to the dark Neon. That's why the officers pulled them over.
"She wasn't arrested because she was targeted," says Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia. "She was arrested because of her behavior."
On February 17, assistant Hennepin County Attorney Toni Beitz submitted an answer to Farkarlun's civil suit. If Farkarlun was injured during the search, the response argues, it was a result of her resisting orders. Beitz also says that there was nothing improper about the strip search, though she would not elaborate. Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kevin Lindsey also filed an answer denying the allegations on behalf of some of the deputies. None of the officers or jailers involved would comment.
Garcia says that Farkarlun has already proven herself to be an unreliable witness, which is why no one should believe her now.
"She has absolutely no credibility," Garcia says. "I spent some time in the court watching, and I stand by this: She has no credibility."
AFTER HER ARREST, Farkarlun was charged with a misdemeanor for loitering with intent to commit a crime. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office dropped those charges late last year.
Clark offered Hennepin County and the deputies a chance to settle the strip-search case out of court, but they declined. Clark and the county attorneys are scheduled to meet with a judge later this month for a pretrial hearing.
Before the rape allegation, Farkarlun was enrolled at the Minnesota School of Business studying law enforcement. She has since dropped out. Now she has no permanent address. She flinches whenever she sees police cars drive by.
"I'll never have my life back," she says.
