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Indiana Woman Sues US Customs Over Detention
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of CBS Cleveland
Posted: March 17th, 2014
http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2014/02/20/indiana-woman-sues-...
An Indiana University faculty member has sued two U.S. customs agents for detaining her after the government eavesdropped on emails she exchanged with a Greek friend. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal lawsuit [on February 19] alleging the customs agents violated Christine Von Der Haars constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. This case raises troubling issues about the power of the government to detain and question citizens, said Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana legal director who represents Von Der Haar. The lawsuit alleges Von Der Haar, a senior lecturer in the sociology department at Indiana University in Bloomington, was confined in a guarded room at Indianapolis International Airport for more than 20 minutes on June 8, 2012, while she was questioned about her relationship with her friend. The lawsuit alleges the questioning was based on surreptitious monitoring of communications between Von Der Haar and her friend, Dimitris Papatheodoropoulus. The two communicated frequently through emails. Some of these emails were flirtatious and romantic in nature, the lawsuit said. Von Der Haar felt she had no choice but to answer questions from the agents, whom she believed to be armed, and did not believe she could leave until they released her, the lawsuit said. The detention of Dr. Von Der Haar was without cause or justification, the complaint said, and caused her anxiety, concern, distress and other damages. The lawsuit names the two customs agents as defendants and seeks damages.
Note: For more on government abuses of civil liberties, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
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