The lawyer for the 29-year-old Muslim woman who is suing San Bernardino County for violating her religious freedom by forcing her to remove her head scarf said Monday his client’s previous arrest record has nothing to do with the issue at stake in the current case.
Jameelah Medina, a Rialto resident and doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University, was arrested and pleaded guilty to identity theft in 2001, the District Attorney’s Office confirmed Friday. She spent two days in county jail and served three years probation.
“The county is only telling you the piece that is convenient to them,” said Hector Villagra, Medina’s lawyer and the director of the American Civil Liberties Union Orange County office. “It’s a typical tactic on their part to attack the victim. None of this has any bearing.”
Villagra said after she served probation, Medina’s record was expunged, and her guilty plea was changed to not guilty.
Medina has brought a federal lawsuit, which is backed by the national and local chapters of the ACLU, against the county. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Medina claims her First Amendment rights were violated when sheriff’s deputies forced her to remove her hijab, a head scarf covering the neck and shoulders.
The lawsuit stems from a June 7, 2005, arrest at the Pomona Metrolink station on suspicion of having an invalid train pass. Medina was taken to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
But the circumstances surrounding Medina’s arrests remain sketchy.
Medina’s lawyer said he did not know of the details of the first arrest and declined to say whether the arrest for the invalid train pass occurred because it was forged.
“It was altered in some way,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure.”
He added, “We aren’t taking any issue with the arrest. It’s what the county did when they arrested her. That’s where the focus is, and that’s where the focus has been.”
Although Medina was arrested for the invalid train pass in Los Angeles County and booked in San Bernardino County, neither county has pressed charges, her lawyer said.
And it does not appear that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will press charges. Spokeswoman Shiara M. Davila said the office is not tracking the case.
“She is not in our system,” Davila said.
Whether Medina will be charged in San Bernardino County, the jurisdiction in which she was booked, remains unclear. Chief Deputy District Attorney John Kochis did not return calls Friday or Monday.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group is aware of Medina’s situation, but is not directly involved.
Medina’s case “re-emphasizes the need to set up a uniform policy that respects the religious needs of all inmates,” he said.
Ayloush said he has been working with local law enforcement agencies in recent months to develop a policy on head coverings for all faiths, including turbans worn by Sikh men and yarmulkes worn by Jewish men.
He said law enforcement agencies were concerned that head scarves, in particular, pose a threat to inmate safety. He said officials worried that Muslim women would use their head scarves as ropes to hang themselves.
“That’s crazy,” Villagra said. “We know from Jameelah’s experience that she was able to remove a thermal undershirt and use that for a head covering. If she really wanted to hang herself or choke anyone, she could just as easily have used the undershirt.”