FBI decides Henderson Police didn’t violate woman’s rights

Sonya Padgett

Friday, July 23, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

Henderson Police employees were cleared by the FBI of any wrongdoing in the case of a woman who claimed officers violated her civil rights by using excessive force while she was a jail inmate.

The FBI investigated the case after Lisa Ellen Gager filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was unnecessarily pepper-sprayed, beaten and improperly strip-searched on Feb. 13, 1996, while being held at the Henderson Detention Center.

The lawsuit was dismissed in April because the claim was filed outside of the two-year statute of limitations. Gager is appealing.

The investigation yielded no evidence to prove that a federal criminal civil rights violation occurred, FBI Special Agent Grant Ashley said in a letter.

Gager had no medical evidence to support her allegations, and the FBI didn't find any evidence that jail employees used excessive force, Ashley wrote.

Henderson Police Chief Tommy Burns said Gager wasn't strip-searched since the issue was her unwillingness to change voluntarily from civilian clothes into a jail uniform.

Gager, who had been arrested on a child-abuse charge that was later dismissed, didn't complain of mistreatment at the time, and the incident didn't come out until a local television station aired a videotape of it.

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