And finally… bottom line

A court has ruled by a majority that the rectum is “inherently personal and private” after limiting how police can perform body cavity searches.

Guntallwon Brown was arrested in 2015 after he sold an undercover officer crack cocaine then hid a bag of the substance in his backside.

He refused to remove the drugs and was ultimately sedated as a bag containing 2.9 grams of cocaine was removed from his rectum.

He was convicted and sentenced to three years’ probation as well as 90 days’ home detention.

But the Minnesota Supreme Court has reversed the decision in a 5-1 ruling and sent it back to the district court.

Justice Paul Thissen wrote: “If a coerced invasion of one’s anal cavity — an area inherently personal and private — while sedated and in front of strangers is not a serious and substantial intrusion of an individual’s dignitary interest in personal privacy and bodily integrity, we cannot fathom what is.”

Share icon
Share this article: