Muslim woman sues Kent County over forced hijab removal for arrest booking photo
Jakkar AimeryA Muslim woman from Grand Rapids is suing Kent County officials over the "forcible removal" of her religious head covering for an booking photo and releasing it to the public after her arrest in May.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court on behalf of Jannah Hague. Kent County, Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young and her office were named as defendants, court records showed.
Hague, 23, and the advocacy group are seeking more than $75,000 in punitive damages for the alleged "insurmountable amount of humiliation and trauma" she endured when her Islamic headscarf was removed for a booking photo, which was subsequently released to the public and revealed her person in a "state of undress" following her arrest last year, said Amy Doukoure, CAIR-Michigan's staff attorney. The suit claims Hague's First Amendment rights as well as other federal and state laws were violated by the Kent County Sheriff's Office.
The lawsuit, additionally, seeks an injunction to prevent the Kent County Sheriff's Office from removing hijabs for future booking photos, describing the practice as a "substantial burden on religious practice" against Muslim women.
On April 8, Hague and her husband were arrested at their home in connection with a domestic violence dispute, according to the lawsuit. While she was being processed at the Kent County Sheriff's Office, she was told she had to remove her hijab, a religious head covering, for at least one booking photo and that the hijab could remain for another photo, the suit said.
When Hague was "forced" to remove her hijab, according to the suit, two male sheriff's officials were allegedly in the room with their backs turned to her, but was "within her view, for the duration of the time her hijab was removed for a booking photograph."
A photo of Hague barring her head covering, according to Doukoure, was then uploaded and published to the sheriff's public detainee website and a Michigan State Police database as a public record. She was later released from the Kent County jail without charge, CAIR-Michigan officials said in a news release.
Doukoure said the photo of her client was "shared around" and resulted in Hague's "emotional harm." She said the photo was removed from the Kent County Sheriff's Office website, but was not recalled from the MSP database after the advocacy group requested the department to remove the photo and enact a policy change that allowed Muslim women to maintain their hijabs while booking photos were taken.
Reached Wednesday, the sheriff's office in a statement said during Hague's processing, a "female corrections officer took (Hague) out of view of all male officers and inmates and asked her to remove the head covering to inspect it for weapons or other restricted material," adding that she was allowed to restore the hijab to her head before entering the booking area.
"At the end of the booking process, it is required by law to take a photograph of the arrestee," said Lt. Eric Brunner, public information officer for the Kent County Sheriff's Office. "When this photograph was taken our female corrections officer ensured that no male officers or inmates were able to view Ms. Hague without the head covering. There is a video and audio recording of this booking process in its entirety."
An internal investigation was conducted and a violation of Hague's rights "was not substantiated," Brunner added.
But Doukoure said a Muslim woman's hijab removal in public is a "defilement" of her religious beliefs and traditions that stem from the Quran, the primary holy book of the Muslim faith.
"For Muslim women, this is very, very offensive," Doukoure told The News. "Muslim women wear their hijab at all times when they're in public or when they're in the presence of men who are not close family relatives, which means they would have to be your husband, or your brother, or your father, your grandparent — in order to see you without your hijab.
"Being stripped of that while you're out in public, and then having a picture released of you for public consumption is akin to having a photo taken and released in a state of undress," Doukoure said.
CAIR-Michigan has represented women in similar cases over forced hijab removal in Metro Detroit.
In May 2022, the city of Ferndale reached "a full and satisfactory settlement" with Helana Bowe, who filed a federal lawsuit in October 2021 after the city's police forced her to remove her hijab for a booking photo in June in front a male officer.
In another case, a 36-year-old woman sued the city of Detroit and the Michigan Department of Corrections in federal court, alleging she was forced to remove her hijab while a booking photo was taken in 2019 at the Detroit Detention Center.
The Michigan Department of Corrections, in their operation of the Detroit Detention Center along with the Detroit Police Department, abolished policies requiring the removal of religious head coverings for booking photos, according to the Hague lawsuit.
In the same year, Ferndale and the Genesee County jail also terminated their policies requiring that women remove their hijab for booking photos, "even those that are uploaded to the Michigan State Police department’s database," the lawsuit said.
In July 2015, the Dearborn Heights Police Department changed its booking procedures after a woman was forced to remove her hijab in the presence of men during her booking photo and while in custody. Following a lawsuit, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that "releasing the booking photograph of a Muslim woman without her hijab would be a clear unwarranted invasion of the woman’s privacy," the Hague lawsuit noted.
jaimery@detroitnews.com