Bordentown man's jailhouse searches now a case for the Supreme Court

One minute Albert Florence was riding in an SUV alongside his wife, his 4-year-old son in the back, heading to dinner. The next, he was handcuffed, hauled off to jail and strip-searched twice - all based on a warrant for a traffic fine that Florence had, in fact, paid.

Florence talked with reporters Tuesday about his seven days in jail in 2005, which included strip searches that his lawyer argues were unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Florence's case later this year.

Florence, 35, a father of four who lives in Bordentown, said he was puzzled when he arrived at the Burlington County jail and an officer ordered him to strip behind a half-open curtain.

"It's almost like I was in third person: I could see myself from the outside in," he told reporters during a news conference at a Newark law office.

Naked, Florence was ordered to spread his arms and turn around. Then the officer sent him to the showers to wash up with delousing soap.

After three days in jail, Florence, a finance manager at an auto dealership, approached an officer in tears, begging to call his wife, April, who was then six months' pregnant. After five days in jail, Florence was transferred to Essex County jail, where incoming prisoners were strip-searched in groups.

Florence stands over 6 feet tall, so he could see over the partition that separated the prisoners waiting in line from those being stripped naked. He watched the officers line the men up four at a time, tell them to spread their arms, turn around, squat, lift their genitals, and cough.

"You're looking at this and you're like, 'Wow . . . in another five minutes, that's going to be me. In another two minutes, that's going to be me,' " Florence said. "It lasted forever; it was horrible. I can even remember looking at a couple of the officers and one of them had a grin on his face . . . It's disgusting, really disgusting."

Florence had been in Essex about a day when a judge agreed that he shouldn't be there and released him.