'THIS IS RAPE!' woman screams while allegedly forcibly catheterized in front of male cop

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

An Oregon woman, said to have a disability and post-traumatic stress disorder, is suing the city of Ashland and its police force after she was forced to undergo catheterization. The suit alleges that because Liese Behringer refused to provide a urine sample in front of a male officer, Behringer was stripped and forcibly catheterized in front of that officer, NBC affiliate KOBI5 reports. Behringer’s lawyers claim the hospital took the sample without consent while she shouted, “THIS IS RAPE! THIS IS RAPE!”

After the incident, Behringer was billed $1,100.24, her attorneys said in the suit. They accused state agents and law enforcement officers on 10 counts, including battery, assault, excessive force, and inflicting emotional distress, as well as conspiring to violate Behringer’s civil rights. “I will be interested to see if more people come forward to say this has happened to them now that this lawsuit’s been brought,” Joy Bertrand, one of the attorneys representing Behringer, told NBC-affiliated KOBI-TV.

Link to tweet

Ashland police officer Justin McCreadie stopped 62-year-old Behringer on Oct. 19, 2019, on suspicion of driving impaired, Behringer’s attorneys allege in the lawsuit. Her handicapped parking decal and oxygen regulator were visible in her vehicle at the time of the stop, the suit claims. Still, McCreadie took Behringer to the police station and demanded she submit to a breathalyzer test, which her attorneys said she tried to complete, but ultimately explained that she couldn’t due to her health conditions. McCreadie, in turn, obtained a warrant for blood and urine samples, and took Behringer to Providence Medford Medical Center, which is also named in the lawsuit.

-snip-

Behringer was then stripped in front of McCreadie, with hospital staff making no attempt to protect her privacy, attorneys said in the suit. They also said McCreadie’s warrant did not include forced catheterization, which according to the lawsuit, the hospital admitted it is “often asked to do.” Attorneys cited a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2017 that law enforcement’s “forceful use of a catheter is a ‘gross personal indignity’ far exceeding that involved in a simple blood test.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/25/2060120/--THIS-IS-RAPE-woman-screams-while-allegedly-forcibly-catheterized-in-front-of-male-cop

[Ohio Joe]

1. ummm yeah... That is rape

Everyone involved in doing this should be charged.

[Horse with no Name]

2. As an RN, I would not have complied with this request

And anyone that did should lose their license. You would never not protect the privacy of a patient.

[Runningdawg]

13. Same

[PatSeg]

26. That was probably the most shocking part

She did not give consent, yet they did it anyway. Surely some hospital staff must be equally liable along with the police. What the hell were these people thinking? This is horrifying.

[Volaris]

48. Yeah as soon as she said no, the cops needed a warrant. If they proceeded

WITHOUT ONE, everyone in the process was in the wrong and are gonna end up getting rightly sued. Theres a lot OTHER wrong with this seems to me...refusing a breathalyzer usually results in a request for blood not urine wth that's wierd..

[PatSeg]

56. Yes AND she did not refuse the breathalyzer test

Due to a medical condition, she was unable to complete the test satisfactorily. Apparently she has a medical condition that affected her breathing so she tried to comply. Her objection to the urine sample was not wanting to do so in front of a male officer. There is certainly a whole lot of blame to go around. Even if they did get a warrant for the urine sample, they still would not be able to legally do so in front of a male officer.

[gldstwmn]

41. I had a nurse threaten to do this to me

because I wasn't able to pee. This same hospital violated my HIPAA rights because a woman I worked with, her ex husband was a doctor who ran the ER and she knew things she should not have about me. I couldn't prove it though.

[Horse with no Name]

51. Report them to the appropriate board

These types need to be sent home from the bedside. It is always crazy when I see deference given to nurses, docs, cops, etc simply due to their profession. There are people out there that do not deserve to be in the business of caring for the public.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. Holy crap

That's appalling. And a gross violation of a human being. If a nurse participated in this, they should lose their license.

[berni_mccoy]

10. Why didn't the hospital staff refuse?

[Torchlight]

11. Fear of arrest is my guess.

Three or four years ago, a Utah nurse was arrested for not drawing the blood of a man brought in by law enforcement suspected to be drunk. She refused because there was no warrant, so she was forced outside, roughly cuffed and arrested.



Maybe not so much a guess on my part as it is hoping for the best from people.

[Jilly_in_VA]

24. And IIRC

she was later exonerated by a judge, since there was no warrant.

[Torchlight]

27. I dunno if she was or not... but I kinda think her arrest sent a message-of-the-day.

"Comply with law enforcement or we'll disrupt the hell out of your life."

Arrest, court, hearings, etc., regardless of eventual innocence/exoneration is a hell of a disruption to a lot of people.

I have a really high degree of sympathy for RNs and (unfairly or not) assume the best of motives in their cases. But it's all a guess on my part, and I honestly don't know one way or the other.

[Horse with no Name]

52. I don't and I am an RN

They would have had to take me to jail.
Our boundaries are clear here.

[whopis01]

12. The hospital said that they are often asked to do it

The article seemed to imply that it was normal for the hospital to comply with it.

Medical staff members even said “Do you know what they do to you if you don’t urinate?” to her.

Apparently even when the warrant does not include forced catheterization.

Unbelievable.

[berni_mccoy]

14. Insane.

[Hortensis]

20. Authoritarian. They have the "right" to obey.

[whathehell]

37. The hospital staff should NOT be complying..

Fascism wins when cowards comply.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. There are a *lot* of cultural parallels between law enforcement and the healthcare industry.

[Blue Owl]

4. What is wrong with those sick fuck cops?

[Mike Nelson]

5. Yikes!

... even if it was in front of a female officer, it's wrong. You should be able to decline a catheter in a suspected DUI stop!

[gldstwmn]

42. They will take your license if you decline.

[Crunchy Frog]

44. That happened to a friend of mine. They didn't forcibly catheterize her though.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. FTP. Abolition now.

[Lunabell]

7. Omg!! This is rape!

As a nurse in a urology clinic, I was once ordered by a PA to physically restrain a female patient with dementia so he could catheterize her for a possible urinary tract infection. (At the family's insistance!)

I absolutely refused to do it and my nurse manager later backed me up 100%. Then I heard that the PA got someone else to do it. The patient kicked him in the face and everyone who was involved in the assault was written up by the MD's who owned the place. I think they should have had criminal charges.

[Silent3]

9. I'm curious what the proper procedure would be for a case such as you bring up.

The OP is a lot different, in that both the need for a urine sample was hardly urgent, and the method of obtaining it was horrifyingly over the top.

But what you say should be done in a circumstance (which might not apply to your particular example) where there is a solid medical need for catheterization, and the patient is mentally incompetent to make their own medical decisions?

[Lunabell]

22. Sedation with medication.

[TNNurse]

28. Are you saying she should have been sedated for this???

Because if you are that is also illegal and criminal assault. Kind of like date rape.

[Lunabell]

32. You obviously know nothing about how that works.

You can sedate someone with a doctor's order and the proper documentation. Stay in your lane.

[TNNurse]

33. As a hospital nurse with 37 years of experience,

I am saying that any doctor involved with that would be committing malpractice.
That would have called for a warrant or court order.

[Lunabell]

34. Not a legitimate order for sedation.

[gldstwmn]

43. Like what they did to Elijah McClain?

[Lunabell]

45. Totally different.

Also, stay in your lane.

You're obviously ignorant of the difference between a diagnosis of dementia, with a family member having power of attorney and what happened to Elijah McClain. Apples and oranges.

[gldstwmn]

57. You don't know what I know and don't know

Toots so the only one here that needs to keep their hands on the wheel is you.

[Lunabell]

58. Come back to me when you graduate from nursing school or from another legitimate medical training.

And have worked in the field over thirty years like I have. If you have some new information or laws that I'm not aware of, please cite your source of information. Until then, leave this to the professionals.

[gldstwmn]

59. Well here I am again to tell you

that this is not legal everywhere. You should take a deep breath and realize that you can never really be certain who you are talking to here. While you certainly have your own experiences you most certainly realize that they are not absolute.

[whathehell]

60. How about you "stay in your lane"

before ordering others to do so..Just a thought.

[Mariana]

53. What would YOU recommend when a patient with dementia

violently resists tests or treatments that have been legitimately ordered for her?

[Wingus Dingus]

55. The doctors will write orders for restraints, with next of kin permission,

and sedation and pain relief as needed, to do pretty much any procedure that's medically necessary for dementia or other not-competent patients. Restraint protocol is STRICT in every facility I've been in. But pretty much every ventilator patient is restrained in ICU's, restraints are pretty common in hospitals overall.

[Lunabell]

61. I would never restrain a patient without proper documentation and legal permission.

Some of these DU members are reacting on an emotional level, comparing the violent and illegal chemical restraint of Elijah McClain to a legal neccessary sedation of someone who is unable to make rational and competent decisions about their healthcare.

I don't know how to make it clearer. The two situations are NOT the same at all. Dementia is a horrible disease. Sometimes even personal care like showering and oral care is refused and to a point, they have that right to refuse even most medication. We document and move on. But when it comes down to life and death situations like urinary tract infections that could turn into sepsis and death, the family has the decision making process to do what is necessary to save their life.

[Wingus Dingus]

62. All three situations: the McClain case, this forced catheterization case, and a hypothetical

dementia/unconscious/incompetent patient with serious medical needs--are very different as you say. First two cases are a clear violation of rights. The third type of case is pretty common in health care but all personnel must tread cautiously and stick to policy and protocol to maintain patients' rights and still deliver necessary care.

[Bev54]

8. WTF is wrong with these people, of course it is rape, when a simple blood test would suffice

Everyday I shake my head about the most reprehensible actions taken by so many and that people think this is ok.

[Jilly_in_VA]

25. Nurses can also refuse

to do the blood test. And they have.

[ProfessorGAC]

30. More Than Merely Suffice

Urine & breath tests are secondary methods to infer alcohol (or other intoxicant) level in blood.
If you have a blood sample, the tests used are primary methods.
A secondary method can only be less accurate & precise than a primary method, since the result of the former is compared to the latter.
Whatever the P&A of the primary method, the secondary method P&A is that plus the statistical spread around the primary.
With professionals in blood draw present, the catheterization was wholly unnecessary.
Finally, I don't know about Oregon, but here in Illinois, refusal of an intoxication test is considered a self-implication of guilt.
So here, no test was needed at all in a situation like this.

[Bev54]

31. Yes same in our province in Canada, may be across the country, not sure.

[niyad]

15. May everyone involved in this travesty receive everything they deserve.

[Lonestarblue]

16. How much of this country is already living in a police state?

The treatment of this woman is appalling and another example of why we need serious police reform.

[Scalded Nun]

21. This country is, and has been, living in a police state for quite some time now.

Does not matter if the state is red or blue. This example is nothing more than the thuggery continuously exercised by the state-sanctioned gangs we warmly refer to as out 'Protect and Serve' police force.

[whathehell]

38. Please..If we were living in a real "police state" we wouldn't

even be permitted this board.

[bringthePaine]

18. every participant should be held personally liable for breaking both criminal and civil laws; the

hospital hierarchy should also be prosecuted and sued individually; the institution should lose
all standing and certificatiions, the board replaced entire, while subject to continuing oversight under total new administration

[Ray Bruns]

19. Welcome to AmeriKKKa. The freest country in the world

.

[Scrivener7]

23. Yes, it is.

[yardwork]

29. Sue the hospital and police department into bankruptcy.

[cannabis_flower]

35. If her only objection was ....

That the male police officer would be watching, couldn’t they have brought in a female officer.

If she objected to anyone watching, couldn’t she have been put in an empty room with a bedpan? There’s much less invasive ways than to force someone to be catheterized.

[marble falls]

36. Shocked. A hospital forcing a needless and invasive procedure is shocking all by itself.

[Celerity]

39. fuck the police and the hospital------- what a fucked up society the US has

[Bayard]

40. Holy Crap!!

No words.

[uponit7771]

46. "...hospital admitted it is "often asked to do." .." .... And the hospital is going to get bent !!

[qzwv8j]

47. Apparently, this is pretty common...

At least, done more often than I would have ever thought. Apparently, it’s a preferred method for police because it is less precise — which is something I found a bit difficult to understand until I read that a blood sample (definately a much less invasive procedure) only shows what is in the system “now” where as a urine sample will show what was used for several days, which allows justification for a stop and/or prosecution for DUI when you’re not really under the influence….


Lawsuits are in federal court now trying to have this declared/codified this is a violation of a person’s 4th amendment rights….

[Volaris]

49. It absolutely should be considered a 4th violation.

Have the balls to wake up a judge to get a warrant, or gtfo. As others have stated, a non-consensual medical procedure WITHOUT a warrant is all kinds of an efficient way to get your hospital sued, and if I were that nurse I'd have told that cop to go get fucked, and arrest me I promise my lawyer will love this one!

[Dawson Leery]

50. F that pig and F the hospitial.

[LuckyCharms]

63. This is terrible and depressing.

Kick and Rec for bringing it to our attention though.

This is something that should never happen anywhere.