Under pressure of lawsuit, KCSO deletes mug shot of woman without hijab

July 8, 2025   

(Knoxville News Sentinel) More than a year after the Knox County Sheriff’s Office published online a booking photo of a Muslim woman without her hijab, the agency deleted the mug shot from its internal database under pressure from a pending lawsuit.

Layla Soliz was arrested with 11 other demonstrators at the University of Tennessee campus on charges of criminal trespass on May 15, 2024. During Soliz’s booking, KCSO deputies took her mug shot with and without her hijab, a head covering worn by Muslim women as part of their faith, according to a federal lawsuit Soliz filed against the sheriff’s office on Oct. 7.

The sheriff’s office chose to publish the photo of Soliz without her hijab, violating agency policy not to make public photos showing a person without their religious head covering.

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