Held Naked with her Bear, Woman Says

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) - A woman claims federal agents burst into her house while she was naked, and would not let her put on pants or even underwear when she had to walk her bear.

Marion Thompson claims "12 or more" Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents "used a ruse" to get her husband out of their Zanesville home and arrest him on June 18, 2008. She says "as least 14 agents" then "burst through and broke [her] kitchen door ... pointing their guns at her" while she was naked in the kitchen.

They had a warrant, but wouldn't let her see it, Thompson says.

She claims the agents allowed her to cover herself only with a T-shirt while they searched the house for "five to six hours." They would not let her put on pants or underwear during the entire ordeal, she says, but "forced [her] to sit on a metal chair outside in the plain view of the agents naked, except for a T-shirt."

"During the course of the search, plaintiff was only allowed to leave the chair once, when she requested to take a baby bear out of its cage to walk it around the patio."

Thompson says she has no criminal history, and the agents knew it. And she claims that a federal judge found the agents' treatment of her unjustified.

She seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations.

She is represented in Federal Court by Stuart Scott with Spangenberg Shibley & Liber of Cleveland.

The 11-page complaint contains no more information about the bear.

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