A Hackettstown lawyer received $95,000 settlement from the Sussex County Sheriff's Office after her allegations that a sheriff's officer inappropriately used a metal detector between her legs during a screening at the county jail.
According to the suit, Bonita B. Bourke and a male intern entered the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility in Newton in August 2014 to visit a client, and they both set off the metal detector. As a result, Officer Sean Long checked the male intern with the wand without incident.
However, when the wand was used on Bourke, the officer allegedly moved the metal detector wand between her legs and up under her skirt.
The suit also stated that Bourke was "horrified and humiliated," and subsequently refused to be screened that way. Based on the lawsuit, she was ultimately checked three times with the wand during her visit.
The officers reportedly apologized as Bourke left the facility.
The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the defendants, and none of the lawsuit's allegations have been proven or disproven in court.