It seems that TSA agents did violate agency policy when they strip searched two elderly women at JFK airport late last year.
Lenore Zimmerman, 85, accused the TSA in December of taking her into a private room and removing her clothes. Days later, Ruth Sherman, 88 came forward with the charge that over the Thanksgiving holiday, TSA agents made her remove her clothes so they could inspect her colostomy bag.
In Zimmerman's case, officials insisted proper procedures were followed but issued an apology for the inconvenience.
A letter obtained by the Daily News, however, shows the Department of Homeland Security admitting that standard procedures were violated.
"It is not standard operating procedure for colostomy devices to be visually inspected, and [the Transportation Security Administration] apologizes for this employee's action," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Betsy Markey wrote in the letter.
The agency still insists, however, that Sherman was not made to remove her clothes.
"They asked me to pull my sweatpants down, and now they're not telling you the truth," she told the paper.
An apology was also issued to Zimmerman for the policy violation that was scanning her back brace. Likewise, the accusation that she was strip searched was denied.
Zimmerman also accuses the DHS of lying, and insists her clothes were removed.