After being strip searched by Illinois police, Dana Holmes and her attorney are speaking to INSIDE EDITION about the incident she calls 'dehumanizing.'
INSIDE EDITION is hearing for the first time from the beautiful woman who was stripped naked by deputy sheriffs.
Dana Holmes told INSIDE EDITION, “I was terrified. I laid there on that cold floor of the cell and I cried. And I did pray, I was very scared.”
Holmes' nightmare began when she was stopped for speeding on her way home from a wedding. The police suspected she was drunk and ordered her out of the car. After she failed a field sobriety test, police busted her for driving three times over the legal limit.
She was taken to the LaSalle County Sheriff's Department in Illinois where surveillance video shows things quickly turned ugly when a female deputy started patting her down.
Holmes said, "One minute I was against the wall with my hands up, I was cooperating with everything she asked me to do and the next minute, I’m just being attacked forcibly on the floor.”
Suddenly, deputies pinned her to the floor and then hauled her out of the room.
They dumped her in a cell and that’s when three male deputies and a female deputy pulled off her pants, underwear and bra.
She said, “When they left me in the cell with no clothes, I laid there crying.”
She was left naked on the floor until a blanket was thrown in.
Her attorney Terry Ekl said, “I don’t think any person could look at this video and think this is appropriate conduct by law enforcement.”
Ekl has filed a lawsuit claiming Holmes was "humiliated degraded and dehumanized."
He said, “We’re hopeful the deputies will lose their jobs.”
A police report says Holmes was "mouthy and causing problems." The deputies also say she tried to kick them when she was searched. Dana admits being drunk and pled guilty to DUI, but says she was cooperative the entire time.
She said, “I don’t know why it happened to me. It was terrified.”
