The Smoking Gun printed the following article on January 13, 2011 about Lynsie Murley’s hellacious experience with TSA in Corpus Cristi back in 2008.
TSA Pays Off In Breast Exposure Suit
Texas woman, 24, receives “nominal” settlement
The settlement was disclosed in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, where Lynsie Murley last year filed a lawsuit accusing the TSA of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with the May 2008 incident at the Corpus Christi airport.
Murley’s lawyer, Jerry McLaughlin, declined to disclose the exact amount of money that his client is receiving, but termed the payout a “nominal settlement.” Asked if the amount hit six figures, McLaughlin laughed loudly and said the negotiated payment was “way less than that. It wasn’t a whole lot of money.” Murley, he said, “was never interested in the money,” and would not have filed a lawsuit if TSA officials had simply sent her a letter of apology.
Murley is pictured above in a photo from her Facebook page.
The 24 year old Murley alleged that after being “singled out for extended search procedures,” a TSA agent frisked her and “pulled Plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing Plaintiff’s reasts to everyone in the area.” Her complaint noted that, “as would be expected,” Murley was “extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
Murley charged that TSA employees “joked and laughed about the incident for an extended period of time.” After leaving the security line to be “consoled by an acquaintance who had brought her to the airport,” Murley returned to the line, where a male TSA worker said that he had wished he was there when she first passed through. The employee, Murley recalled, added that “he would just have to watch the video.”
The court settlement was reached shortly after government lawyers deposed Murley. The agreement, McLaughlin said, “got her some justice.”
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Smoking Gun printed the following article on January 13, 2011 about Lynsie Murley’s hellacious experience with TSA in Corpus Cristi back in 2008.
TSA Pays Off In Breast Exposure Suit
Texas woman, 24, receives “nominal” settlement
The settlement was disclosed in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, where Lynsie Murley last year filed a lawsuit accusing the TSA of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with the May 2008 incident at the Corpus Christi airport.
Murley’s lawyer, Jerry McLaughlin, declined to disclose the exact amount of money that his client is receiving, but termed the payout a “nominal settlement.” Asked if the amount hit six figures, McLaughlin laughed loudly and said the negotiated payment was “way less than that. It wasn’t a whole lot of money.” Murley, he said, “was never interested in the money,” and would not have filed a lawsuit if TSA officials had simply sent her a letter of apology.
Murley is pictured above in a photo from her Facebook page.
The 24 year old Murley alleged that after being “singled out for extended search procedures,” a TSA agent frisked her and “pulled Plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing Plaintiff’s reasts to everyone in the area.” Her complaint noted that, “as would be expected,” Murley was “extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
Murley charged that TSA employees “joked and laughed about the incident for an extended period of time.” After leaving the security line to be “consoled by an acquaintance who had brought her to the airport,” Murley returned to the line, where a male TSA worker said that he had wished he was there when she first passed through. The employee, Murley recalled, added that “he would just have to watch the video.”
The court settlement was reached shortly after government lawyers deposed Murley. The agreement, McLaughlin said, “got her some justice.”
TSA Pays Off In Breast Exposure Suit
Texas woman, 24, receives “nominal” settlement
The settlement was disclosed in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, where Lynsie Murley last year filed a lawsuit accusing the TSA of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in connection with the May 2008 incident at the Corpus Christi airport.
Murley’s lawyer, Jerry McLaughlin, declined to disclose the exact amount of money that his client is receiving, but termed the payout a “nominal settlement.” Asked if the amount hit six figures, McLaughlin laughed loudly and said the negotiated payment was “way less than that. It wasn’t a whole lot of money.” Murley, he said, “was never interested in the money,” and would not have filed a lawsuit if TSA officials had simply sent her a letter of apology.
Murley is pictured above in a photo from her Facebook page.
The 24 year old Murley alleged that after being “singled out for extended search procedures,” a TSA agent frisked her and “pulled Plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing Plaintiff’s reasts to everyone in the area.” Her complaint noted that, “as would be expected,” Murley was “extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
Murley charged that TSA employees “joked and laughed about the incident for an extended period of time.” After leaving the security line to be “consoled by an acquaintance who had brought her to the airport,” Murley returned to the line, where a male TSA worker said that he had wished he was there when she first passed through. The employee, Murley recalled, added that “he would just have to watch the video.”
The court settlement was reached shortly after government lawyers deposed Murley. The agreement, McLaughlin said, “got her some justice.”
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Eliana Sutherland
On November 24, 2010 Christopher Collette, a reporter for WKMG, Local 6, wrote the following article on Eliana Sutherland. The original article can be found at the following site:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/story.aspx?storyid=158458&catid=250
Eliana Sutherland Says TSA Agents Singled Her Out For Her Breasts
ORLANDO, Florida --The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked a woman for additional screening because of her breasts.
Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told our sister station WKMG Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.
"It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling."
Experiences like Sutherland's have been reported across the country. Whether it's pat-downs or full-body scans, the changes are making some people question who gets chosen and why.
But it appears out of the tens of thousands going through security, only a small part of them may have to deal with this controversial checkpoint.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/story.aspx?storyid=158458&catid=250
Eliana Sutherland Says TSA Agents Singled Her Out For Her Breasts
ORLANDO, Florida --The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked a woman for additional screening because of her breasts.
Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told our sister station WKMG Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.
"It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling."
Experiences like Sutherland's have been reported across the country. Whether it's pat-downs or full-body scans, the changes are making some people question who gets chosen and why.
But it appears out of the tens of thousands going through security, only a small part of them may have to deal with this controversial checkpoint.
Friday, November 19, 2010
TSA Abuse Videos
I wish I were more adept at blogs and videos on the internet. Until I become more familiar with how this all works, I will simply post sites one may go to in order to see some of the TSA abuse videos.
Someone has done a great job compiling the TV interviews that have been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5AlfFCMKk
Someone has done a great job compiling the TV interviews that have been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5AlfFCMKk
A Nightmare for Prosthetic Users: Sharon Kiss, Marlene McCarthy, Musa Mayers, and Cathy Bossi
For Americans who wear prosthetics — either because they are cancer survivors or have lost a limb — or who have undergone hip replacements or have a pacemaker, the humiliation of the TSA's new security procedures — choosing between a body scan or body search — can be a real nightmare.
SHARON KISS - MENDOCINO, CA:
Sharon Kiss, 66, has a pacemaker, but also has to fly often for her work.
"During a recent enhanced pat-down, a screener cupped my breasts and felt my genitals," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com "To 'clear my waistband' she put her hands down my pants and groped for the waistband of my underwear.
"I expressed humiliation and was told 'You have the choice not to fly.' "
The remark infuriated Kiss, who lives in Mendocino, Calif. "Extrapolate this to we should not provide curb cuts and ramps for people confined to wheelchairs because they can choose to stay home ... This a violation of civil rights. And because I have a disability, I should not be subjected to what is government-sanctioned sexual assault in order to board a plane."
MARLENE MC CARTHY - RHODE ISLAND:
Marlene McCarthy of Rhode Island said she went through the body scanner and was told by a TSA agent to step aside. In "full view of everyone," McCarthy said in an e-mail, the agent "immediately put the back of her hand on my right side chest and I explained I wore a prosthesis.
"Then, she put her full hands ... one on top and one on the bottom of my 'breast' and moved the prosthesis left, right, up, down and said 'OK.' I was so humiliated.
"I went to the desk area and complained," McCarthy wrote. "The woman there was very nice and I asked her if the training included an understanding of how prosthetics are captured on the scanner and told her the pat-down is embarrassing. She said, 'We have never even had that discussion and I do the training for the TSA employees here, following the standard manual provided.' She said she will bring it up at their next meeting."
If she has to go through the scanner again, McCarthy said, "I am determined to put the prosthesis in the gray bucket," provided to travelers at the security check-ins for items such as jewelry. "Let the TSA scanners be embarrassed .... not me anymore!" she wrote.
MUSA MAYER:
Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the "invasive and embarrassing" experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
Here are a few more details regarding her story:
”In response to a request from Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News last evening, I wrote the following report of a recent airport security experience I found very disturbing. I have already complained to the Transportation Security Administration about this incident. I wonder if any of you have ideas about what else could be done. In the early morning of November 6, 2010, I arrived at Dulles Airport in DC for JetBlue flight 1304 to JFK, where I was to meet my family and fly on to Florida for a cruise. I had been in suburban Washington teaching fellow breast cancer advocates at a science training seminar run by the National Breast Cancer Coalition. After checking in, I went to security, where I was instructed to enter a full body scanner. It was my first time in one of these machines. It was immediately clear that there was a problem. I was taken aside, to an unused security line, with a male and female security officer carrying over the bins which held my possessions. The male officer searched my bag and purse, and I was patted down and examined by the female officer. A few feet away, people on the security line I’d just left began staring curiously at me. The female officer then told me she was going to examine my chest area, and touch me directly with her fingers, not with the backs of her hands. She felt all around and between my breasts. As I was in a public area, standing with my arms outstretched, in full view of other passengers passing through security, this felt invasive and embarrassing. By then, as a breast cancer survivor, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: the body scanner had seen the breast prosthesis I've worn for 21 years since my mastectomy, and had sounded some sort of alarm. I was then asked to wait while they called a female supervisor, who took at least 15 minutes to come from another part of the terminal. When she finally did arrive, I was escorted some distance away, still barefoot, to an enclosed area that was obviously being used to store construction tools and materials--the whole area was very dirty and my socks were by then filthy. In this area my breasts were again examined by this supervisor. I finally said to her: "Look, I'm wearing a prosthesis, do you need to see it?" She said yes, and I unbuttoned my blouse enough to lift my bra and show her the edge of my prosthesis. By then I was feeling quite humiliated by the whole process, and had spent over 45 minutes in security. I was determined not to undress for them, or take out my prosthesis and show it to them. I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are three million women who have had breast cancer in the US, many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners? Of course, she had no answer for me. Finally, after nearly an hour, I was allowed to go to my gate, where fortunately my flight had not yet departed. Thinking back on the incident, I am outraged that I will now be forced to show my prosthesis to strangers, remove it and put in the x-ray bin for screening, or not wear it at all whenever I fly. To me, this seems unfairly discriminatory and embarrassing for me, and for all breast cancer survivors.”
CATHY BOSSI - CHARLOTTE, N.C.:
Cathy Bossi from Charlotte, N.C. is a longtime flight attendant and cancer survivor. She told a local television station that she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns. The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.' "
Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, "because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."
SHARON KISS - MENDOCINO, CA:
Sharon Kiss, 66, has a pacemaker, but also has to fly often for her work.
"During a recent enhanced pat-down, a screener cupped my breasts and felt my genitals," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com "To 'clear my waistband' she put her hands down my pants and groped for the waistband of my underwear.
"I expressed humiliation and was told 'You have the choice not to fly.' "
The remark infuriated Kiss, who lives in Mendocino, Calif. "Extrapolate this to we should not provide curb cuts and ramps for people confined to wheelchairs because they can choose to stay home ... This a violation of civil rights. And because I have a disability, I should not be subjected to what is government-sanctioned sexual assault in order to board a plane."
MARLENE MC CARTHY - RHODE ISLAND:
Marlene McCarthy of Rhode Island said she went through the body scanner and was told by a TSA agent to step aside. In "full view of everyone," McCarthy said in an e-mail, the agent "immediately put the back of her hand on my right side chest and I explained I wore a prosthesis.
"Then, she put her full hands ... one on top and one on the bottom of my 'breast' and moved the prosthesis left, right, up, down and said 'OK.' I was so humiliated.
"I went to the desk area and complained," McCarthy wrote. "The woman there was very nice and I asked her if the training included an understanding of how prosthetics are captured on the scanner and told her the pat-down is embarrassing. She said, 'We have never even had that discussion and I do the training for the TSA employees here, following the standard manual provided.' She said she will bring it up at their next meeting."
If she has to go through the scanner again, McCarthy said, "I am determined to put the prosthesis in the gray bucket," provided to travelers at the security check-ins for items such as jewelry. "Let the TSA scanners be embarrassed .... not me anymore!" she wrote.
MUSA MAYER:
Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the "invasive and embarrassing" experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
Here are a few more details regarding her story:
”In response to a request from Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News last evening, I wrote the following report of a recent airport security experience I found very disturbing. I have already complained to the Transportation Security Administration about this incident. I wonder if any of you have ideas about what else could be done. In the early morning of November 6, 2010, I arrived at Dulles Airport in DC for JetBlue flight 1304 to JFK, where I was to meet my family and fly on to Florida for a cruise. I had been in suburban Washington teaching fellow breast cancer advocates at a science training seminar run by the National Breast Cancer Coalition. After checking in, I went to security, where I was instructed to enter a full body scanner. It was my first time in one of these machines. It was immediately clear that there was a problem. I was taken aside, to an unused security line, with a male and female security officer carrying over the bins which held my possessions. The male officer searched my bag and purse, and I was patted down and examined by the female officer. A few feet away, people on the security line I’d just left began staring curiously at me. The female officer then told me she was going to examine my chest area, and touch me directly with her fingers, not with the backs of her hands. She felt all around and between my breasts. As I was in a public area, standing with my arms outstretched, in full view of other passengers passing through security, this felt invasive and embarrassing. By then, as a breast cancer survivor, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: the body scanner had seen the breast prosthesis I've worn for 21 years since my mastectomy, and had sounded some sort of alarm. I was then asked to wait while they called a female supervisor, who took at least 15 minutes to come from another part of the terminal. When she finally did arrive, I was escorted some distance away, still barefoot, to an enclosed area that was obviously being used to store construction tools and materials--the whole area was very dirty and my socks were by then filthy. In this area my breasts were again examined by this supervisor. I finally said to her: "Look, I'm wearing a prosthesis, do you need to see it?" She said yes, and I unbuttoned my blouse enough to lift my bra and show her the edge of my prosthesis. By then I was feeling quite humiliated by the whole process, and had spent over 45 minutes in security. I was determined not to undress for them, or take out my prosthesis and show it to them. I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are three million women who have had breast cancer in the US, many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners? Of course, she had no answer for me. Finally, after nearly an hour, I was allowed to go to my gate, where fortunately my flight had not yet departed. Thinking back on the incident, I am outraged that I will now be forced to show my prosthesis to strangers, remove it and put in the x-ray bin for screening, or not wear it at all whenever I fly. To me, this seems unfairly discriminatory and embarrassing for me, and for all breast cancer survivors.”
CATHY BOSSI - CHARLOTTE, N.C.:
Cathy Bossi from Charlotte, N.C. is a longtime flight attendant and cancer survivor. She told a local television station that she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns. The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.' "
Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, "because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Nadine Pellegrino - Philadelphia Airport
Nadine Pellegrino wrote to following about her encounter with the TSA at the Philadelphia airport.
In 2006 Nadine Pellegrino was traveling home to Florida with her husband via the Philadelphia International Airport. During a provocative and abusive property damaging search, she told two TSA screeners she intended to report their conduct to TSA authorities. During the search Nuryiah Abdul Malik twice insisted to her supervisor who Malik wanted to witness the search to call the police to arrest Pellegrino for speaking about their abuse and damage to her property. After the search ended the two TSA officers falsely accused her of assaulting them with her suitcase as she was leaving the search closet. Neither were touched by Pellegrino or her suitcases. Either one or both of the TSA officers threw articles of Pellegrino personal property into the trashcan while Pellegrino was out of the closet.
After the search TSA TSO Nuryiah Abdul Malik insisted to STSO Laura Labbee that Pellegrino be arrested. Labbee re-detained her and marginalized Pellegrino at a table on the checkpoint and confiscated her drivers license, asked her husband invasive questions about her private health information without Pellegrino's knowledge or permission. Both Pellegrino and her husband repeatedly requested to speak to the TSA Official in Charge at the airport while re-detained. Labbee ignored their requests. Labbee and Malik told TSA Officials and the Phila. Police who were called to the checkpoint that Pellegrino assaulted them and they wanted her arrested. Abdul Malik adamantly insisted on "pressing charges" against Pellegrino. Once Labbee knew Abdul Malik was following through on "pressing charges" Labbee also said she would file a complaint. Both falsely incriminated Pellegrino. Pellegrino was arrested for fictitious crimes and became a TSA crime victim. The Phila Police obliged frisked and tightly handcuff Pellegrino not telling her the reason she was being arrested as her husband watched in disbelief, shock, and horror. Her husband was not told why she was arrested. Pellegrino was locked up in horrific, filthy conditions in Phila jail cells until the next afternoon --no food 1/2 pint of foul smelling water. Over the course of approximately 20 months, the ten criminal counts disappeared from the charge sheet, were discharged for lack of evidence, and were acquitted at trial.
According to the pronouncement of Preliminary Hearing Judge Deleon, Pellegrino, the Crime victim of the TSA, was to stand trial for treating the TSA Officers as handmaidens. During a court ordered hearing, TSA Asst. Field Counsel Lisa Eckl, Esq. fessed up to another Phila. Municipal Court judge that TSA Aviation Inspectors made a deliberate decision to have the digitally recorded video evidence destroyed while Pellegrino, her husband and her defense attorneys were requesting copies of the surveillance evidence for a proper defense. Matters changed at another hearing, testimony was suppressed for trial after TSA Field Counsel, Patrice Scully, tried to put the blame for the destruction of the best factual evidence on the Phila. Airport. The judge didn't buy it. At trial the last of the charges were acquitted after the TSA and the Phila Asst. District Attorney Andre Martino presented a feeble, incoherent, and unsubstantiated prosecution with Labbee and her false witness, Denice Kissinger directly contradicting each other's testimony. No substantial evidence was presented, only contradictory testimony. Pellegrino was not required to defend herself at trial. The cases ended after the Prosecutor embarrassed himself. The judged named the TSA responsible for violation of Pellegrino's civil rights to a fair trial and delivered quick verdicts of Not Guilty. Not Guilty.
The TSA had admitted on court records that the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors made a thoughtful deliberate decision to have what the judge referred to as The Best Factual Evidence destroyed thus violating Pellegrino rights to a fair trial. The TSA denies any liability in the 20 month costly nightmare they created for Pellegrino and her husband. Instead they have demonized and maligned Pellegrino. Pellegrino and her husband have filed a federal civil rights violations lawsuit against the USA, the TSA, Abdul Malik, Labbee, Kissinger, the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors and TSA Officials who covered up the deliberate destruction of best factual evidence and also intended to withhold discoverable exculpatory evidence from her attorneys during due process proceedings. Their website www.pellegrinovstsa.com provides more details and will keep people posted regarding the proceedings as a public service. The transcript of the TSA admission of deliberate destruction is posted on the website as well as other documents.
In 2006 Nadine Pellegrino was traveling home to Florida with her husband via the Philadelphia International Airport. During a provocative and abusive property damaging search, she told two TSA screeners she intended to report their conduct to TSA authorities. During the search Nuryiah Abdul Malik twice insisted to her supervisor who Malik wanted to witness the search to call the police to arrest Pellegrino for speaking about their abuse and damage to her property. After the search ended the two TSA officers falsely accused her of assaulting them with her suitcase as she was leaving the search closet. Neither were touched by Pellegrino or her suitcases. Either one or both of the TSA officers threw articles of Pellegrino personal property into the trashcan while Pellegrino was out of the closet.
After the search TSA TSO Nuryiah Abdul Malik insisted to STSO Laura Labbee that Pellegrino be arrested. Labbee re-detained her and marginalized Pellegrino at a table on the checkpoint and confiscated her drivers license, asked her husband invasive questions about her private health information without Pellegrino's knowledge or permission. Both Pellegrino and her husband repeatedly requested to speak to the TSA Official in Charge at the airport while re-detained. Labbee ignored their requests. Labbee and Malik told TSA Officials and the Phila. Police who were called to the checkpoint that Pellegrino assaulted them and they wanted her arrested. Abdul Malik adamantly insisted on "pressing charges" against Pellegrino. Once Labbee knew Abdul Malik was following through on "pressing charges" Labbee also said she would file a complaint. Both falsely incriminated Pellegrino. Pellegrino was arrested for fictitious crimes and became a TSA crime victim. The Phila Police obliged frisked and tightly handcuff Pellegrino not telling her the reason she was being arrested as her husband watched in disbelief, shock, and horror. Her husband was not told why she was arrested. Pellegrino was locked up in horrific, filthy conditions in Phila jail cells until the next afternoon --no food 1/2 pint of foul smelling water. Over the course of approximately 20 months, the ten criminal counts disappeared from the charge sheet, were discharged for lack of evidence, and were acquitted at trial.
According to the pronouncement of Preliminary Hearing Judge Deleon, Pellegrino, the Crime victim of the TSA, was to stand trial for treating the TSA Officers as handmaidens. During a court ordered hearing, TSA Asst. Field Counsel Lisa Eckl, Esq. fessed up to another Phila. Municipal Court judge that TSA Aviation Inspectors made a deliberate decision to have the digitally recorded video evidence destroyed while Pellegrino, her husband and her defense attorneys were requesting copies of the surveillance evidence for a proper defense. Matters changed at another hearing, testimony was suppressed for trial after TSA Field Counsel, Patrice Scully, tried to put the blame for the destruction of the best factual evidence on the Phila. Airport. The judge didn't buy it. At trial the last of the charges were acquitted after the TSA and the Phila Asst. District Attorney Andre Martino presented a feeble, incoherent, and unsubstantiated prosecution with Labbee and her false witness, Denice Kissinger directly contradicting each other's testimony. No substantial evidence was presented, only contradictory testimony. Pellegrino was not required to defend herself at trial. The cases ended after the Prosecutor embarrassed himself. The judged named the TSA responsible for violation of Pellegrino's civil rights to a fair trial and delivered quick verdicts of Not Guilty. Not Guilty.
The TSA had admitted on court records that the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors made a thoughtful deliberate decision to have what the judge referred to as The Best Factual Evidence destroyed thus violating Pellegrino rights to a fair trial. The TSA denies any liability in the 20 month costly nightmare they created for Pellegrino and her husband. Instead they have demonized and maligned Pellegrino. Pellegrino and her husband have filed a federal civil rights violations lawsuit against the USA, the TSA, Abdul Malik, Labbee, Kissinger, the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors and TSA Officials who covered up the deliberate destruction of best factual evidence and also intended to withhold discoverable exculpatory evidence from her attorneys during due process proceedings. Their website www.pellegrinovstsa.com provides more details and will keep people posted regarding the proceedings as a public service. The transcript of the TSA admission of deliberate destruction is posted on the website as well as other documents.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Quality Quinn, Fayette Veverka, Lynne Lechter - Philadelphia International Airport
On June 21, 2010 Daniel Rubin, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article about the experiences of Quality Quinn, Fayette Veverka, and Lynne Lechter. These woman had similar humiliating experiences when flying out of Philadelphia International Airport.
Is it a Philly thing?
Are complaints about strange security screenings at the airport something you'll find across the country, or is there a particular problem here?
I can't give you statistical certainty on this. But when you listen to frequent fliers like Quality Quinn, you have to wonder.
"There is something wrong with the culture at this airport," Quinn, a 55-year-old educational consultant, told me last week.
For 20 years she has flown around the country, giving talks on literacy, and in January she moved from Austin, Texas, to Philadelphia.
"Never in my life have I experienced what I go through almost every other week at the Philadelphia airport," she said. "I have had the most excruciating, embarrassing [screenings] there."
She called me after my column last Monday about retired professor Nancy Anne Phillips, who complained that before an April flight an airport screener's wand made contact with her crotch.
The TSA has reviewed a tape of that encounter and concluded its security officer did nothing inappropriate. The agency has since erased the tape.
Quinn said she, too, had endured a recent wanding that went too far.
So did Fayette Veverka, a Villanova University theology professor.
And Lynne Lechter, a King of Prussia lawyer who has run for the state House.
"I cannot stress enough that this behavior has not been encountered in any of the other cities from which I have gone through security," Lechter wrote last week to US Airways CEO Doug Parker.
Lechter was complaining about an April 19 flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. She isn't sure why, after she went through the metal detector, she was selected for a secondary screening.
But she said in an interview that the woman holding the wand had run it up and down the inside of her legs - Lechter was wearing a skirt - and that Lechter had found it "sexually suggestive."
Worse, she said, "a leering man watched the entire search." When she complained to a supervisor at a desk, he investigated, but the man was gone, Lechter said.
Like Phillips, she declined a private screening. "The last thing I wanted to do was go in a private room," Lechter said. "I'd rather have the public humiliation."
Veverka said she was heading for an early-morning flight to Cleveland on June 11 when her metal replacement knees set off the alarms.
"I had on a loose skirt," the professor said, and when the female screener wanded her, "I just jumped. I was like, 'Excuse me?' . . . I just found it very invasive."
She said the screener had put her hands under and between her breasts, presumably because Veverka's bra contained metal.
"The press was too hard for what they're looking for," she said. "I felt groped."
Quinn's most recent adventure at the airport was on May 28 as she was heading to Charleston, S.C. She's had two hip replacements, and her back and knee are girded with metal. After the detector sounded, she walked to a glass enclosure for a secondary inspection.
She had to stop the screener who wanded her.
"I just said, 'Too invasive.' The person examining me slapped her hands at her side. A supervisor dismissed her and sent someone else over."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she couldn't address the specifics of the women's complaints, but recommended that anyone uncomfortable with a screening should approach the agency's customer-service representative.
"We want to treat every passenger with dignity and respect," she said, "and if they feel that isn't happening, we want to hear about it so we can give the screeners remedial training in standard operating procedures."
When I told Quinn that I'd heard from two other women who complained about screenings after my column about Phillips ran, she offered a theory about why these incidents involved professional women.
It wasn't what I expected. I had written in the spring about Deirdre Walker, a former Maryland police official who has concluded from personal experience that the TSA likes to select those who look least likely to put up a fuss.
Quinn ventured that she and other multitasking businesswomen had a super-focused look that screeners could take for haughtiness.
"We always just look like our hair is on fire," she said. "I'm sure we have that look that says, 'Make it snappy.' "
Is it a Philly thing?
Are complaints about strange security screenings at the airport something you'll find across the country, or is there a particular problem here?
I can't give you statistical certainty on this. But when you listen to frequent fliers like Quality Quinn, you have to wonder.
"There is something wrong with the culture at this airport," Quinn, a 55-year-old educational consultant, told me last week.
For 20 years she has flown around the country, giving talks on literacy, and in January she moved from Austin, Texas, to Philadelphia.
"Never in my life have I experienced what I go through almost every other week at the Philadelphia airport," she said. "I have had the most excruciating, embarrassing [screenings] there."
She called me after my column last Monday about retired professor Nancy Anne Phillips, who complained that before an April flight an airport screener's wand made contact with her crotch.
The TSA has reviewed a tape of that encounter and concluded its security officer did nothing inappropriate. The agency has since erased the tape.
Quinn said she, too, had endured a recent wanding that went too far.
So did Fayette Veverka, a Villanova University theology professor.
And Lynne Lechter, a King of Prussia lawyer who has run for the state House.
"I cannot stress enough that this behavior has not been encountered in any of the other cities from which I have gone through security," Lechter wrote last week to US Airways CEO Doug Parker.
Lechter was complaining about an April 19 flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. She isn't sure why, after she went through the metal detector, she was selected for a secondary screening.
But she said in an interview that the woman holding the wand had run it up and down the inside of her legs - Lechter was wearing a skirt - and that Lechter had found it "sexually suggestive."
Worse, she said, "a leering man watched the entire search." When she complained to a supervisor at a desk, he investigated, but the man was gone, Lechter said.
Like Phillips, she declined a private screening. "The last thing I wanted to do was go in a private room," Lechter said. "I'd rather have the public humiliation."
Veverka said she was heading for an early-morning flight to Cleveland on June 11 when her metal replacement knees set off the alarms.
"I had on a loose skirt," the professor said, and when the female screener wanded her, "I just jumped. I was like, 'Excuse me?' . . . I just found it very invasive."
She said the screener had put her hands under and between her breasts, presumably because Veverka's bra contained metal.
"The press was too hard for what they're looking for," she said. "I felt groped."
Quinn's most recent adventure at the airport was on May 28 as she was heading to Charleston, S.C. She's had two hip replacements, and her back and knee are girded with metal. After the detector sounded, she walked to a glass enclosure for a secondary inspection.
She had to stop the screener who wanded her.
"I just said, 'Too invasive.' The person examining me slapped her hands at her side. A supervisor dismissed her and sent someone else over."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she couldn't address the specifics of the women's complaints, but recommended that anyone uncomfortable with a screening should approach the agency's customer-service representative.
"We want to treat every passenger with dignity and respect," she said, "and if they feel that isn't happening, we want to hear about it so we can give the screeners remedial training in standard operating procedures."
When I told Quinn that I'd heard from two other women who complained about screenings after my column about Phillips ran, she offered a theory about why these incidents involved professional women.
It wasn't what I expected. I had written in the spring about Deirdre Walker, a former Maryland police official who has concluded from personal experience that the TSA likes to select those who look least likely to put up a fuss.
Quinn ventured that she and other multitasking businesswomen had a super-focused look that screeners could take for haughtiness.
"We always just look like our hair is on fire," she said. "I'm sure we have that look that says, 'Make it snappy.' "
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