A federal judge found that Beaufort County was legally responsible for five years of strip searches that disproportionately affected female inmates at its jail, a practice currently being challenged as unconstitutional in a class-action lawsuit that could cost taxpayers millions.
David Norton, a U.S. District judge for South Carolina, ruled March 31 that the county could be held liable in the lawsuit because former Col. Quandara Grant — who implemented the strip search policy in 2015 as director of the Beaufort County Detention Center — had been the “final policymaker” over the jail’s operations.
A trial will determine whether the strip searches were unconstitutional and what the county may be required to pay in damages. Trial proceedings have not yet been scheduled. Beaufort County Council chose to proceed to a federal trial in early 2025 after failing to reach a settlement with about 5,000 women represented in the lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 and certified as a class action in 2022…