Grandmother says she was humiliated during strip search by police who got the wrong woman

A Macomb, OK, grandmother has filed a $250,000 federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City and three of its police officers, alleging she was the victim of false arrest because of shoddy police work.
By RANDY ELLIS
NewsOK.com
Jul. 10, 2010

A Macomb grandmother has filed a $250,000 federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City and three of its police officers, alleging she was the victim of false arrest because of shoddy police work.

Debra Self says Oklahoma City police officers humiliated her in front of her two grandchildren by seizing her from her car in a department store parking lot.

Self said she was subsequently taken to the Oklahoma County jail where she was "completely and utterly humiliated by strip search and derogatory comments by the jail staff.”

Self claims it was all a case of mistaken identity that could have been avoided with a "simple and free check of the Internet” by police detectives.

Oklahoma City police did not respond Thursday to requests for comment.

Gun incident prompted arrest

Self's arrest was sparked by a Dec. 11, 2008, incident at an Oklahoma City home where a woman allegedly pointed a firearm at a Cox Communications employee, Self said in a lawsuit filed this week in Oklahoma City federal court.

Self said she had no connection to the home, but a woman named Donetta Self did have links to the home, and she thinks that may have been the person officers were seeking.

"A simple and free check of the Internet, available to any individual with access to a computer, would have revealed that the individual that they wanted to charge was in fact, Donetta G. Self,” Debra Self states in her lawsuit. "However, the officers did not perform a reasonable check of their information despite the fact that they had access to better Internet investigation tools than the common person.”

Officers provided information to the Oklahoma County district attorney's office, which on Dec. 31, 2008, filed charges against a "Deborah Sue Self,” whom Debra Self thinks is not a real person.

Officers then attached Debra Self's personal information to Deborah Sue Self's name and sought her arrest, she claims.

Before Debra Self's arrest, she said police called her daughter and threatened her with incarceration if she didn't immediately reveal the location of her mother.

Debra Self said she was on her way to meet with agents and discuss the apparent misunderstanding when she was taken from her car and arrested.

Court records show Oklahoma County District Judge Twyla Mason Gray ordered the charges against Self dismissed June 26, 2009, along with a notation that the true suspect had given a false name.

The three Oklahoma City police officers named as defendants in the lawsuit are detectives Arnold Upshaw and Scott Wright, and officer Floyd Lindsey.