A lawsuit says a New Mexico corrections officer used a "chemical agent" on a woman's genitals after authorities found a plastic baggie protruding from her vagina.
The federal lawsuit filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico says the Bernalillo County corrections officer sprayed the chemical agents twice on the woman's genitals during a strip search in Nov. 2011.
ACLU officials say the chemical agent was pepper spray and was used to "punish" the woman.
The woman had been brought into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque on a probation violation. She previously had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to drug trafficking.
A Metropolitan Detention Center spokesman did not immediately return an email from The Associated Press.