In a complaint filed in August, but removed to federal court Tuesday, Corbin Quinn Franks said that on March 3, 2023, when he was 17, he called the police following a road rage incident in which the other person pulled a firearm and fired rounds into Franks' vehicle.
The City of Hollis Police Department and the Harmon County Sheriff's Office responded, including individual defendants Kevin Kent Mills and Ronald Best, and arrested Franks before bringing him to a hospital, according to the complaint, actions that Franks alleges were at the behest of Harmon County Commissioner Rance Tillman.
While there, law enforcement asked the hospital staff to forcibly catheterize Franks and obtain a urine sample, according to the complaint, which alleges that he was never asked to voluntarily give a urine sample, and there was no cause to obtain a sample or even do a drug screening, as Franks was the victim of a crime and had called the police in the first place.
Franks further alleges that the police neither sought nor obtained a search warrant, and the drug screening came back negative. Franks said his father — who had been at the traffic stop and followed Franks to the hospital — was not allowed to see Franks or the medical personnel while there, and his parents were not contacted, nor did they consent to the procedure.
According to the complaint, the following day, Franks went to Comanche County Memorial Hospital for shoulder pain from struggling against the catheterization and pain while urinating, adding that the forced catheterization has caused him humiliation, degradation, unnecessary pain and emotional distress.
In addition, he told the court that urinary catheterization has only a marginal advantage over blood draw to detect prior use of some drugs, and the public's interest in obtaining a drug screening in this situation does not justify his treatment. Franks alleged violations of the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth amendments for the unreasonable search and seizure, use of force and infliction of physical and emotional distress.
An attorney for Mills declined to comment Wednesday.
Representatives for the other parties could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Franks is represented by Laura L Hamilton and Lawrence R Murphy Jr. of Hamilton Murphy Law.
Harmon County Board of County Commissioners, the Harmon County Sheriff's Office and Tillman are represented by Robert S. Lafferrandre, Jessica L. Dark and Jessica James Curtis of Pierce Couch Hendrickson Baysinger & Green LLP.
The City of Hollis and the Hollis Police Department are represented by John J. Love and Margaret McMorrow-Love of The Love Law Firm.
Mills is represented by Stan Koop and Elise Horne Brookover of Goolsby Proctor.
The case is Franks v. Mills et al., case number 5:25-cv-00129, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
--Editing by Andrew Cohen.
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