A former Los Angeles police officer and U.S. Army veteran is suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for an alleged sexual assault at the hands of border agents while returning to the United States in June 2020.

Janine Bouey, who was 60 at the time of the alleged attack, was traveling to the United States after a dental appointment in Tijuana.

A black CBP officer approached Bouey, who is also black, and asked for her passport and where she had been, according to the lawsuit.

His tone was “flirtatious and insistent, and he pressed her for her home address,” according to the lawsuit. When Bouey refused, the lawsuit claims “the officer pulled her out of the line and took her to the main building.”

A female officer then “intentionally groped Bouey” by inappropriately touching her over her clothes while searching her, according to the lawsuit. Bouey was placed in a “pen with other people”, while repeating that she was an American citizen. If they looked at her information, they would see that she was a retired LAPD officer Bouey was not allowed to call an attorney while in custody, according to the lawsuit.

Bouey was forced to strip down to her bra and underwear and had a flashlight pointed at her private parts.

“The officer who improperly searched me the first two times was behind me with a flashlight,” Bouey said during a virtual press conference on Tuesday. Bouey was then forced to strip completely naked, according to the lawsuit.

“After taking off my clothes, I was made to turn around. I had to bend over, I had to crouch several times in their direction,” Bouey said.

Community organization Alliance San Diego is assisting Bouey with his trial and hosted Tuesday’s virtual press conference.

“Not a single officer hurt Janine. Everyone who came into contact with her was complicit in her degrading treatment,” said Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego. , the officer who penetrated her genitals, the officer who forced her to remove all her clothes and made her bend over while others watched, the officer who took her shoelaces, her jewelry and her belongings, handcuffed her to a bench, rejected her pleas and threw her out the back door.”

After her things were returned to her, Bouey said she approached an officer at the counter on her way out and asked him a question. She said: “How would you feel if your mother suffered the same indignation as I did, and her only response was those three words: ‘These things happen.'”

Bouey “had no drugs, painkillers, contraband or arrest warrants that day. She was the person in the photos of her valid US passport, valid US passport card and license valid Californian driver, all of which she had on her or in her purse, depending on the lawsuit.Also in her purse… police and fire pension pay stubs, and documents showing she was went to the dentist in Tijuana for a root canal treatment that day.

“As a matter of policy, CBP does not comment on disputed cases. The absence of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations,” a CPB spokesperson said in a statement.

NBC 7 has not heard from the Department of Homeland Security.