Woman Awarded Damages Over Customs Search

SAN FRANCISCO — A woman who was strip-searched, X-rayed and forced to defecate in front of airport customs agents was awarded more than $450,000 Tuesday after a jury decided that her civil rights had been violated.

Amanda Buritica, 51 and a school crossing guard from Port Chester, N.Y., was detained and subjected to body searches for about 22 hours Sept. 22, 1994, after she arrived at San Francisco International Airport on a flight from Hong Kong.

Buritica testified that agents of the Customs Service picked her out of the arrivals line, patted her down and then put her through a strip search and an examination by X-ray in an effort to see if she had concealed illegal drugs or swallowed them in packets.

When nothing was found, they took her to a hospital and induced her to ingest a powerful laxative that caused her to have 28 involuntary bowel movements while observed by two customs agents over an eight-hour period. No drugs were found.

Lawyers and officials at the Customs Service had no comment on the verdict.