Texas cops accused of threatening to break woman's legs during public strip search

A Texas woman says she suffered a nightmare scenario in which Harris County sheriff's deputies sexually assaulted her in public during a traffic stop last month.

Charnesia Corley, 21, said officers with the Harris County Sheriff's Department made her pull her pants down and did a body cavity search without her consent while she was lying in a gas station parking lot, according to ABC13.

Corley was driving to a nearby market when she was stopped by deputies. The department told the station she was pulled over for running a stop sign. After stopping her, the deputy ordered Corley out of her car because he said he smelled weed. He cuffed her and placed her in his patrol vehicle parked at a gas station.

After searching Corley's car and finding nothing, the deputy returned to his car and said he smelled pot there. He called for a female deputy to search Corley, who ordered Corley out of the car and onto the ground.

"Then she tells me to pull my pants down," Corley told ABC13. "I told her, I said, 'well ma'am, I don't have any underwear on.' She says, 'well that doesn't matter. Pull your pants down.'"

While Corley was lying on the ground by her car in the parking lot, the deputy told her, "open your legs." Corley said she responded that she didn't want to.

"So she says, 'well if you don't open them, I'm going to break them,'" Corley said. "All I could do was just lay there. I felt helpless."

Corley was charged with resisting arrest and possession of marijuana after deputies allegedly found .02 ounces of marijuana..

However, the department also argued that Corley consented to the search, which seemingly contradicts the allegation that she resisted.

Corley's attorney, Sam Cammack, said a search in a public place like that is a violation of her civil rights.

"It's undeniable that the search is unconstitutional," he told ABC13.

As of now, Corley plans to file an internal affairs complaint.

Corley isn't the only African-American Texas woman whose treatment by law enforcement has raised concern. Last month, Sandra Bland, 28, was arrested and and found dead in her Waller County jail cell, all because a Texas trooper pulled her over for failing to use her turn signal.

Watch the report, via ABC13, here: