Lawyer Calls For Special Prosecutor In LaSalle County Illegal Strip-Search Case

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 22, 2013 9:10PM

Image via WGN video screengrab.

The attorney for a Coal City woman who has accused LaSalle County Sheriff’s authorities of illegally strip searching her during an videotaped incident in the county jail is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the department.

Terry Ekl, who is representing Dana Holmes and is himself a former prosecutor, filed the request in LaSalle County Court last Friday. Ekl said the state’s attorney has "an inherent conflict of interest in the investigation and special prosecution of officers."

Holmes was arrested in Marseilles on DUI charges in May. Her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit and she was forcibly restrained at the county jail, stripped of her clothes and had her mugshot taken while covered in blankets provided by sheriff’s deputies. Holmes’s lawsuit claims there was no legal justification for being stripped and that the incident violated her civil rights.

LaSalle County officials claim the officers did nothing wrong during the incident.