It started when Syracuse police officers pulled over a man last year because “he didn’t signal in time,” a man they knew very well from confrontations in the past.
Police said Torrence Jackson, 42, did not have a valid drivers license as well as a baggie of marijuana in his waistband, so they took him to jail on October 16, 2017, according to Syracuse.com.
At the jail, cops claim that Jackson taunted them by telling them he had cocaine in his rectum, an accusation he denies.
But police used that claim as a justification for beating and pepper spraying him as well as breaking his arm where he then had to be transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center.
An x-ray found no drug’s in Jackson’s abdomen found but the cops were insistent he had drugs in his rectum, so they asked the doctors to probe his rectum.
But they refused because Jackson was not consenting.
So one cop drafted a warrant and drove it to Judge Rory McMahon’s house, who wasted no time in signing it.
When the cop returned to the hospital with the signed warrant, the hospital’s lawyer reviewed it and told doctors they must abide by it.
That was when eight cops held Jackson down as he was sedated, allowing hospital staff members to insert an 8-inch flexible tube into his rectum.
The search came up empty. There were no drugs in Jackson’s body. And he was released the following day, feeling violated, finding blood on his underwear, not really sure what had happened.
He checked into the emergency room of another hospital where he was told somebody had performed a colonoscopy on him.
He then received a bill for the unwanted colonoscopy from St. Joseph’s Medical Hospital Medical Center for $4,595.12, which he refused to pay.
The hospital threatened to send a collections agency after him before forgiving the debt.
The marijuana charge was thrown out and he pleaded guilty to the traffic charge.
The city of Syracuse has defended its officers, claiming they were just “concerned” about Jackson in case the baggie enclosing the cocaine his body “ruptured.”
But the warrant makes no mention of any of that, which states the following:
“…St. Joseph’s Hospital to utilize any/all medicines and/or medical/surgical procedures to assist in said removal to include, but not limited to, anesthesia, IV, X-ray/sonogram and/or physical manipulation, and any and all other medical procedures determined by said medical staff to be necessary and prudent to assist in the retrieval/removal of said illicit/illegal substances (evidence) located within the anal cavity of Torrence L. Jackson.”
But doctors still insist it was not necessary to probe his rectum unless it was medically necessary because anything he had hidden in there would eventually come out.
