CHICAGO (CBS) — After one woman accused deputies of an illegal strip search at a county jail, more women are coming forward claiming that they, too, were subjected to similar conduct.
Terry Ekl, who had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a 33-year-old Coal City woman, said on Tuesday that five more women are claiming they also were stripped naked and searched for no legal reason.
Ekl appeared in federal court in Chicago and was granted a motion that requires LaSalle County to preserve all video recordings from inside the jail.
He said he still must vet the additional claims of illegal searches, but he said he has reason to believe their claims are true.
“Dana holmes in my opinion was not an isolated case,” Ekl said.
The woman at the center of the original lawsuit is Dana Holmes.
Her lawsuit says deputies violated her civil rights and caused her emotional harm for conducting the search without a legal basis.
A video from the jail’s security system shows four deputies, three men and a woman, pulling her to the floor, carrying her into a cell where they quickly and with great force stripped Holmes and walked out with her clothing, the lawsuit alleges.
Police say Holmes, who had been arrested in May for drunk driving, had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit of .08.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiwYWgN7Zws .... video