Cop Reached into My Underwear During Terry Search, is That Legal

My question involves police conduct in the State of: West Virginia

Hey guys. I'm sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong forum. I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a normal joe trying to figure out what to do. It's a really long story but I'm going to try to break it down.

I pulled up to a DUI checkpoint with my wife in the car. We were pulled over to secondary and I believe the officer did not suspect me of being intoxicated (he never asked if I had been drinking or anything, and there was never a field sobriety test)

He had me get out of my car. He then asked consent to search the car, and I declined. He then asked if I had anything on my person (setting up asking consent to search me) and I made a mistake and said I was a concealed carry permit holder (we do not have a duty to notify law here in WV). He asked if I was armed and I said yes, so he had me put my hands on the car and he disarmed and searched me. He got very personal with the pat down and I guess he wasn't satisfied because he then reached into my underwear and searched around and under my genitals and then inside of my butt crack. He then handcuffed me and passed me off to another officer who took me to their RV mobile station thing to be arrested ("You are probably going to be arrested"). When I asked what I would be arrested for, I was told they didn't have to tell me.

They lectured me for a bit about drunk driving then stuffed me in a squad car while they ran my license, CCW, and my weapon. The officer that searched me kept sticking his head in the window trying to pick a fight with me, asking me why I hated cops so much (I was very polite through this whole ordeal). They took my wife out of the car and searched her belongings with her consent, but she did not consent to a search of the car. they searched anyway, saying they were checking the VIN number in the door jam. They then asked my consent to put my gun in my trunk and I consented, which was dumb of me because they searched my trunk at that point, even though I explicitly said earlier I did not consent to any searches of my vehicle.

They then released me without charge or citation. I'm obviously not a lawyer but it's my understanding that during a terry search the officer can only search outside of the clothes for weapons, so would the officer reaching into my underwear skin on skin be some kind of sexual assault or something? I put in a FOIA request and was told that no report, dashcam, or anything exists of this ordeal beyond radio recordings of them running my license and gun. Were my rights violated?

It sounds like he was checking you for possession of drugs.

You can file a complaint with the department.

It sounds as if the search for weapons exceeded the scope of a Terry search. The question then becomes: What do you want to do about it? You can complain to the agency ... you can pay an attorney a lot of money to make a claim against the agency and the officer(s) involved (but, without actual damages, it may be tough to even get attorneys' fees even if you were to prevail) ... you can go to the media ... you can post your story to Facebook ... there are a number of options, but none of them are likely to get you whatever it is you want. Your most practical option is to complain to the agency.

It's too bad there are not huge statutory damages for violating people's rights. There is real damage when this happens. I think these violations should be criminalized. There are no repercussions for police.

Statutory, no but that doesn't mean there can't be civil liability. Google Kelley Helleson and Dobbs for one case in progress.
In addition, after exhausting the internal affairs angle on criminal liability there are often ways to pursue criminal complaints separately.

Of course one still has to prove the act occurred and that it was unreasonable and unlawful. As there appears to be no objective witness and likely no admission of the act behind the officer (particularly if he knows he did something wrong and is inclined to be deceptive, anyway) then even a civil prosecution may be unproductive. So, even if it did occur, there may be little that can realistically done about it.

I'd speculate this kind of thing happens all the time, probably happening right now, and then people wonder why there's so much mis-trust for police?

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Quoting NCC 1701

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I'd speculate this kind of thing happens all the time, probably happening right now, and then people wonder why there's so much mis-trust for police?

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Statistically, the police are NOT mistrusted. Yes, there are individuals and small groups that have higher levels of mistrust for the police than some others, but the objective research shows that by-and-large, the police still hold the public trust by a rather substantial margin.

Oh, and I rather doubt that there are a lot of officers reaching into people's undergarments during a pat-down ... first, it's gross and no officer I know really wants to put his hand down there. I worked property and dress in in a jail many moons ago and I never touched anyone there even then! Second, it would be beyond the scope of Terry. Third ... eeew!

Theres the problem right there "Online Research",remember the saying that most statistics are made up on the spot?

There are awesome Police Officers and people who work for the Justice system BUT sadly there are bad ones and even worse some of them are the ones who make the Laws.

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Quoting jcdew67

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Theres the problem right there "Online Research",remember the saying that most statistics are made up on the spot?

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I didn't say "online research" ... but, you are free to search for the various studies yourself. And, I don't mean just polls.