South Dakota police are forcefully collecting urine samples with catheters

A lawsuit in South Dakota is drawing attention to the state's police practice of acquiring urine samples from uncooperative suspects via catheter and use of force.

Dirk Landon Sparks, the defendant in a case of felony drug ingestion, has asked the judge to throw out evidence gathered from a nonconsensual urine sample, which he argues violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches by law enforcement. Though police did obtain a warrant for the sample, when Sparks refused to comply, he was strapped to a hospital bed as a catheter was forcibly inserted into his bladder through his penis.

The practice is considered legal in South Dakota courts, though Ryan Kolbeck, president of the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he can't pinpoint a law which authorizes it.

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"They don't anesthetize them," said Tim Whalen, a South Dakota lawyer who has represented several clients who were subjected to involuntary catheterization. "There's a lot of screaming and hollering."