A mistaken warrant, six days in jail and two strip searches

The ordeal began with a simple traffic stop.

Albert Florence and his wife were cruising Route 295 in Burlington County when a state trooper pulled them over for speeding.

Although he was a passenger, Florence owned the SUV, and when the trooper ran his identifica tion through the computer, he turned up an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine out of Essex County.

Florence produced documentation to show the trooper that the fine had been paid two years earlier, but to no avail. He was taken to the Burlington County Jail, where he said he was strip- searched and held for six days. When Essex County officials picked him up, he was transported to their jail, where he was again forced to disrobe.

"It was a very degrading experience," Florence, 32, a finance direc tor at an auto dealership who lives in Bordentown, said of the 2005 in cident yesterday. "No human being -- black, white, red or blue -- should be put through that kind of treatment."

To that end, Florence and his lawyer called a news conference in Newark yesterday to announce a class-action lawsuit seeking to end strip searches for prisoners held on nonindictable offenses -- things like traffic violations, loitering and public drunkenness.

Last week, a federal judge in Camden gave Florence's legal claims against the two counties, some of their elected leaders and jail officials a boost by ruling the case can proceed on behalf of an estimated 7,000 plaintiffs.

Susan Chana Lask, Florence's lawyer, said the case started out strictly as a false arrest and unlaw ful imprisonment suit on behalf of Florence. But it was broadened when she realized there were thou sands of other men and women strip-searched at jails in Burlington and Essex counties, even though they were accused of nonindictable offenses with no indication they were carrying drugs, weapons or other contraband.

She conceded that the trooper -- who was simply reacting to what appeared to be a legitimate warrant -- had done nothing wrong. But she denounced jail officials.

"I've never seen two counties fight an obvious wrong like these two," said Lask, whose practice is in New York. "But the law is very clear -- they shouldn't be doing what they're doing."

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