On May 5, 2015, plaintiff Kirsty Powell, 33, was a passenger in a 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille driven by her husband on their way home when their vehicle was pulled over for a traffic stop near Market Street and Long Beach Boulevard, in Long Beach. Powell is a practicing Muslim, who wears a hijab, and she was ultimately arrested by the city of Long Beach police officers for outstanding warrants, which have since been cleared. During the arrest, Powell was told by the officers that she would have to remove her hijab. Powell claimed that she could not remove it because of her religious beliefs. However, she claimed a male officer forcibly removed her hijab in view of other male officers and dozens of inmates. Powell sued Officers Eduardo Saldana and Conrad Penn; Police Chief Robert Luna; and the officers’ employer, the city of Long Beach. Powell alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the First Amendment Free Exercise clause, the California Constitution, and the California Civil Code. Powell claimed that her husband was pulled over for driving in a low-rider vehicle (but the claim did not raise the propriety of the detention or subsequent arrest in this action). She claimed that during her arrest, she and her husband both made several requests for a female officer to search her and to allow her to continue wearing her hijab in custody, but that their requests were denied. She alleged that the officers informed her that she was “not allowed to wear her hijab” and that they were “allowed to touch a woman.” Powell claimed that as a result, her hijab was forcibly removed and she had to spend the night in prison without her headscarf. She further claimed that she was forced to appear in a publicly available booking photo without her religious headwear, depriving her from being able to exercise of her religion., Powell claimed she was forced to spend the entire night in custody exposed without her hijab and described the experience as deeply traumatizing. Thus, she claimed she suffered emotional distress, resulting in a fear of going out in public without her partner and in returning to the city of Long Beach, where the incident occurred.