A Rialto woman backed by the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against San Bernardino County claiming sheriff's deputies violated her First Amendment rights when they forced her to remove her hijab, a head scarf that also covers the neck and shoulders. Jameelah Medina, 29, was arrested June 7, 2005, at the Pomona Metrolink station on suspicion of having an invalid train pass, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday afternoon.
She was taken to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga where her hijab was removed and confiscated for much of the day until her family posted bail. "It's hard to explain how I felt, but the closest words are humiliated, violated, exposed," Medina said at a press conference Thursday at the ACLU Southern California office in Orange County. "I knew that was wrong. I knew I had to fight that."
Medina was on her way to work when she boarded the train in Fontana. When the train reached Claremont, two uniformed officers asked to see her ticket and told her she would have to get off at the Pomona stop, where a sheriff's deputy arrested her, according to the lawsuit.
The deputy, a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Metrolink Bureau, took Medina to West Valley because "he did not want her in his car all the way to Los Angeles," according to the suit. Medina said she feared for her safety as she sat handcuffed in the back of the squad car.
Deputy Craig Roberts subjected her to bigoted statements, railing about how Muslims support terrorism and how Islam is an "evil religion," she said. "That's when I knew it was serious," she said. "I felt he could take the next exit and take me anywhere and who would know about it?"
The suit names Roberts, San Bernardino County, San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod and nine other unidentified individuals.
Medina, a Ph.D. student at Claremont Graduate University, is not suing San Bernardino County for money, she said. Instead, she wants to pressure officials to adopt a policy that is respectful of all religious beliefs and resembles policies implemented at correctional facilities elsewhere in California, in other states and at the federal level, said her lawyer, Hector Villagra, director of the ACLU Orange County office.
Medina said it would have been appropriate for female guards to take her to a private area to remove her head scarf and search for weapons and contraband, as is done when she is detained at airports.
San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller declined to comment on the circumstances of the arrest, though she did say the policy is in place for safety reasons and so accurate photos can be taken for booking. "Anytime anyone is brought into our jail facilities, they are required to take any type of head covering off," she said. "Everyone is asked - whether it's a baseball hat or a scarf."