Updated, 6:26 p.m. | An Occupy Wall Street protester who said she had been held in custody by the police longer than was normal because she did not allow officers to photograph the irises of her eyes, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, claiming her constitutional rights had been violated.
The protester, Claire Lebowitz, 29, was arrested in January while lying on a granite bench in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. She was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. Ms. Lebowitz's suit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, described events that she said took place after she was taken to Central Booking to await arraignment.
“When it came time to be arraigned, police asked her if she would cooperate in having her inner eye scanned and photographed,†the complaint says. “She did not give consent for that, and, as a punishment, they kept her locked up for an extra 14 hou rs.â€
The New York Police Department began taking iris scans of people arrested in Manhattan in 2010, saying that the images, which function like fingerprints, would help prevent suspects from escaping by posing as prisoners facing lesser charges - something that happened at least twice that year. Iris scanning spread to the other four boroughs.
A law mandating the iris photos was never passed, and high-ranking police officials have said that compliance is not compulsory. But early this year, Ms. Lebowitz and other people who had been arrested i n Manhattan complained that they were held longer than usual after they refused to allow the iris photographs â€" in effect, they said, they were punished without due process for refusing to participate in a voluntary program.
Ms. Lebowitz's lawsuit appears to be the first in the city to make this claim. Around 5:45 p.m. on Jan. 11, “when in the ordinary course of events she would otherwise have been arraigned,†the lawsuit says, she declined to let officers photograph her eyes and was told that she had no choice in the matter.
The says she spent the night in the Manhattan Detention Complex, then was released on Jan. 12 without agreeing to the photograph, after more than 30 hours in custody.
“The police cannot deprive you of your personal liberty and detain you as a form of punishment,†said Ms. Lebowitz's lawyer, Paul Mills. “And that is exactly what they were doing.â€
The chief of the city Law Department's special federal litigation divi sion, Muriel Goode-Trufant, said she was still awaiting service of
Ms. Lebowitz's papers and added, “We will review the case thoroughly.â€
Ms. Lebowitz said she had filed the suit partly in the hope of examining the iris photographing program more closely.
“I'm concerned about the way the police are using this technology,†she said.
