On May 14, 2007, a female plaintiff filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, challenging the strip search policy of the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department. Plaintiff alleged that she was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a minor traffic violation (failure to have a child car seat) and then transported to the Winnebago County Jail where she was strip searched pursuant to the Jail's blanket policy of strip searching all arrestees regardless of whether there was any reasonable suspicion that the arrestee possessed contraband or weapons. Plaintiff alleged that the blanket strip search policy violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiff sought compensatory and punitive damages, declaratory and injunctive relief, and class certification. An amended complaint was filed on October 26, 2007.

Defendants answered the plaintiff's complaint by generally denying all allegations.

At the time of this summary, the case was still pending, and the parties were engaged in ongoing discovery.

Dan Dalton - 01/22/2008


compress summary