Claims that New York policeman ordered women to strip investigated

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into claims by three Long Island women that they were forced by a Suffolk County police officer to strip.

"The inquiry's goal is to see if any federal statute, civil rights or other laws have been violated," FBI spokesman Joseph Valliquette told CNN in a phone interview.

Among potential federal charges are accusations of ethnic bias.

"It appears that there is some potential profiling here," Long Island attorney Gary Gramer, who represents the three women who came forward, told CNN. Two of the three women are Latino, and the third is Native American, Gramer said.

The Suffolk County district attorney also "is tentatively preparing a case for grand jury for possible criminal complaint," Suffolk County Police Chief John Gallagher said at a news conference on Friday afternoon.

Frank Wright, a 12-year veteran of the Suffolk County police department, was suspended without pay Friday and charged with departmental violations after at least three women claimed that they were forced by an officer in separate incidents to strip after failing field sobriety tests.

"That cannot be tolerated," Gallagher said at the press conference. "He violated our rules of procedures. I consider it the most serious violation of rule and order to place a prisoner in your custody and not inform the dispatcher. You put that person in a vulnerable position."

Gallagher said he takes the charges seriously, and encouraged anyone who suffered such an experience to call police.

Wright, the accused officer, was not identified by the women involved, Suffolk County police Lt. William Rohrer told CNN in a phone interview. The police department identified Wright based on the women's accounts. Wright is the only police officer under suspicion by the department at this time, Rohrer said.

Wright admitted to police that one of the women undressed, but claimed he had not ordered her to do so, Rohrer told CNN.

Gramer said his clients described the police officer as a white male with blond or brown hair. He said all the women were stopped late at night and ordered to perform field sobriety tests.

Two women, Juliana Rubio, 19, and Tracy Deon, 34, spoke about the incidents at a press conference with their lawyer Friday. Angelina Torres, 27, spoke about the incident earlier in the week.

All three women said the officer involved told them they had failed the sobriety tests, and that they could choose either to go to jail or take their clothes off and, in two of the women's cases, walk home unclothed.

Rubio and Torres said they disrobed in order to avoid jail. Deon, who came forward Friday, said that she "refused to strip."

Only Torres and Rubio had been interviewed by the police by Friday, but the investigation continues, Rohrer said.

Torres filed a notice of claim against Suffolk County seeking $15 million in punitive damages. Gramer said Rubio and Deon are filing similar claims.

CNN producers Maureen Madden and Kurt Mack contributed to this report.