Woman Arrested For DUI In LaSalle County Files Lawsuit, Claiming Illegal Strip Search

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 1, 2013 6:20PM

A woman from Coal City, Ill. who was arrested on DUI charges in LaSalle County is suing the county, claiming she was illegally strip searched in an incident caught on videotape in the county jail.

Dana Holmes was in Marseilles in LaSalle County to attend a wedding when she was arrested in May on DUI charges. Holmes’s blood-alcohol level was nearly three times above the legal limit when she was arrested and transported to the LaSalle County Sheriff’s office. In the video below, sheriff’s deputies can be seen forcibly restraining Holmes after she moves her leg. Three male deputies and a female deputy carry Holmes to a holding cell, strip her of her clothes and later toss her some blankets. Deputies later processed and fingerprinted Holmes, who struggled to keep one of the blankets over her shoulders while taking her mugshot.

The federal lawsuit filed by Holmes Monday claims there was no legal justification for being stripped and that the incident violated her civil rights. Holmes’s attorney, Terry Ekl, wants to meet with the LaSalle County state's attorney to discuss bringing official misconduct charges against the officers.

LaSalle County Sheriff Thomas Templeton was unaware of the incident until the Tribune contacted him for a story they were writing and said the county likely couldn’t comment now that the lawsuit was filed. The official report indicated Holmes struggled and was stripped and thrown into the cell until she sobered up and was willing to cooperate.