Attorneys claimed in court documents filed Wednesday that deputy Scott R. Womack pulled over Talia S. Buck while she was driving near Brigham City and forced her to show her back and lower abdomen to prove she had no tattoos.
Womack claimed a woman with Buck’s name was wanted on an Arizona arrest warrant and said Buck could prove her identity by letting him compare their physical descriptions and look for tattoos, they alleged.
Buck showed him her two tattoos — on her collarbone and foot — and told him she had never been to Arizona, the lawsuit stated.
"Womack was persistent, and indicated that according to policy, Ms. Buck had two options. She could either pull down or ‘low-ride’ her pants to show Womack, or take the ‘hard’ way’ and be arrested and fingerprinted at the police station," the lawsuit states.
Court papers said Womack repeatedly told Buck "we should just make this fast and easy."
Womack abruptly ended the interaction on Nov. 26, 2010, after Buck began crying and said her mother was on her cell phone and she needed to talk to her, lawyers claimed. They alleged that before leaving, the deputy said Buck should "pretend this never happened."
The woman accused the deputy of violating her civil rights and leaving her emotionally distressed. She was seeking a trial by jury and unspecified financial damages. No hearing dates were set.
A telephone message left Thursday for Womack’s attorney, Kathleen Liuzzi, was not immediately returned.
The claims are similar to those in an August lawsuit filed against the deputy in federal court by Tamsen Reid, who claimed she was pulled over by Womack and told to remove her clothes inside his patrol car or face arrest on an alleged Arizona arrest warrant involving heroin.
According to court documents, Reid said she had never been to Arizona nor used heroin, but she reluctantly agreed to be searched for tattoos and piercings rather than go to jail.
Womack denied those allegations in court papers filed Monday.
Both lawsuits also name the county and Sheriff J. Lynn Yeates as defendants, arguing that county officials should have known that Womack had been accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct.
Womack has not worked for Box Elder County since March, Frank Mylar, an attorney representing the county, has said. County officials said a criminal misconduct report filed against Womack by Reid in July was being investigated by an outside police agency.
SALT LAKE CITY — A former Box Elder County sheriff’s deputy is facing a second federal lawsuit claiming he illegally strip-searched a woman he pulled over in a traffic stop.
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