NEW YORK — A proposed $28 million class settlement over strip searches of people taken from Rikers Island to Manhattan Criminal Court is now in its final weeks for claims: anyone who wants a share must submit a claim form online or have it postmarked by November 26, 2026, and doing nothing means no payment at all. The same November 26 date is also the deadline to opt out of the settlement or object to it.
Source: NY Weekly Record / Michele Evans News
The case is Lewis, et al. v. City of New York, et al., No. 23 Civ. 2600 (CM), in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, brought by Raymond Lewis and Frederick Ortiz. The plaintiffs allege that the City of New York, its Department of Correction (DOC) and former Correction Commissioner Louis Molina violated people's constitutional protections by requiring them to be strip-searched again at the Manhattan Court Division at 100 Centre Street after they had already been searched before leaving Rikers Island. The allegations have not been proven at trial, the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, and the city denies liability.
Source: OpenClassActions — NYC Strip Search Settlement
How the double search worked, according to the complaint
The complaint describes a routine on court days. A person leaving Rikers Island for a Manhattan court date was pat-frisked, had his clothing searched, passed through a metal detector or body scanner and a Body Orifice Screening System (BOSS) chair — and, at an officer's discretion, could be told to pull his pants down, squat and cough. He was then handcuffed to another detainee and locked in a caged DOC bus. On arrival at the Baxter Street entrance of 100 Centre Street, he was walked to the third floor and told to do it again, because it was, in the complaint's word, 'procedure.'
Raymond Lewis, one of the two named plaintiffs, says that happened to him eight times between November 24, 2022, and March 7, 2023, according to a summary of the complaint. The lawsuit, filed in March 2023, alleges violations of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 12 of the New York State Constitution — the provisions that protect against unreasonable searches.
Who can claim — and who cannot
Eligibility depends on a person's custody classification, the timing of the searches and whether an earlier settlement or release already resolved the same claims. The class period runs from March 28, 2020, through February 29, 2024, for people DOC classified as Enhanced Security. For everyone else in custody, the period runs from October 1, 2022, through February 29, 2024. Three groups are excluded: people who already settled a strip-search claim with a City of New York entity for the class period; the individual plaintiffs in a separate matter identified in an exhibit to the settlement agreement; and anyone whose claims are barred by a valid release signed with the city.
There is no fixed payment per claimant. Under paragraph 54 of the agreement, each approved claimant's share is the number of times that person was strip-searched on arrival at the Manhattan Court Division after already being searched before leaving Rikers, divided by the total number of such searches claimed by all approved claimants combined. Settlement analysts illustrate what that means: if claimants together submit 20,000 qualifying searches, each search is worth about $1,400; at 50,000 searches, about $560; at 100,000, about $280. The real figure cannot be known until claims are counted after November 26.
On top of the $28 million distribution amount, the city agreed to pay $37,500 to each of the two class representatives and $500,000 in administrative costs — none of it taken out of the $28 million class fund. The settlement was preliminarily approved on June 29, 2026; notice has gone out to the class and the claim portal is live.
How to claim before the deadline
Claims and the full notice are available at the official settlement site, NYStripSearchSettlement.com, and the settlement administrator can be reached at 1-888-808-6084. A claim form must be submitted online or postmarked no later than November 26, 2026. Anyone who wants to exclude themselves from the settlement — keeping the right to sue separately — or to object to its terms must also act by November 26.
New York City has been here before. The city previously paid $33 million to settle an earlier class case over strip searches of people charged with misdemeanors, and $12.5 million in 2019 to settle a class action over invasive searches of jail visitors. Those cases are part of the background against which the Lewis settlement — and its per-search formula — was negotiated.
What happens next
The final approval hearing is scheduled for January 29, 2027, at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, in Courtroom 24A at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan. The court has not yet decided whether to give final approval, and no payment date has been announced: money can only flow after approval, after the November 26 claims are counted, and after each claimant's qualifying searches are matched against the city's own transport records. For anyone who was searched twice on a Rikers-to-court run between 2020 and 2024, the practical step is this month, not next year — file by November 26, or the claim is gone.