Minnehaha County has reached a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit by teens who were strip-searched at the Juvenile Detention Center in Sioux Falls.

According to a document, the agreement has been signed but not approved by a judge. When that happens, notice will go out to the potential plaintiffs, a hearing will be held and they can accept the deal or sue on their own.

A lawyer says an estimated 5,000 teens were taken to the JDC between November 1997 and December 2003 when the search policy was in place.

Not all of them will qualify for part of the dollar amount agreed to in the settlement - only those who certify that they were searched while fully nude.

The search policy changed in 2004 to exclude minor offenses.

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