A woman said that she was strip-searched on the side of Interstate 70 in South Strabane by the state police this summer after being pulled over for traveling 5 mph over the speed limit.

Holly Elish, 34, of Bentleyville, said in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that she was heading home from work on June 27 when she was pulled over for speeding.

Trooper Brian Rousseau pulled behind Elish’s vehicle and was following her at a close distance, prompting her to put on her hazard lights — to notify the trooper she intended to pull over, according to the complaint.

However, Rousseau did not immediately attempt to stop Elish, the lawsuit continued, so she turned off her flashers and attempted to take the next exit. It was then, it continued, that Rousseau activated his emergency lights. Elish pulled over, and when the trooper approached her car, she gave him her identification, the complaint said.

Rousseua returned to his vehicle for a few minutes, and then walked back to Elish’s passenger side window, the lawsuit said, where he asked her consent to search the vehicle.

Elish refused, and Rousseau replied “something like ‘he had the right to search her vehicle,’” the complaint said.

Around the same time, another trooper, who is unnamed in the complaint, arrived and spoke with Rousseau outside of Elish’s hearing.

The troopers then asked Elish to exit her vehicle and again asked for permission to search it.

“Fearing for her safety and knowing that the police did not have justification to search her vehicle, yet were insistent and intimidating in attempting to do so, Ms. Elish allowed the vehicle search to occur under duress and coercion,” the complaint said.

Nothing was found in the search, and after at least 15 minutes, two more troopers arrived, including a woman.

It was then that she was strip searched.

The female trooper directed Elish to stand beside a state police SUV on the side of the road and began to strip search her.

First, the trooper physically and visually inspected Elish’s breasts, the lawsuit said, then she directed Elish to pull down her pants and underwear to her ankles and “‘squat’ to the ground, during which she bent down to the ground with one knee and performed a visual cavity inspection.”

The trooper then put gloves on her hands and said, according to the complaint, “‘I’m sorry. This is the worst part of my job.’”

Just before the trooper was to start the physical cavity search, she asked Elish if she knew why Rousseau and the other trooper wanted the search done, according to the lawsuit.

“In response, Ms. Elish stated that she did not know, that she did not have any contraband, and that she was simply on her way home from work to pick up her child,” the complaint said.

The female trooper then refused to carry out the cavity search and told Elish she was free to leave, according to the lawsuit.

No criminal charges were ever filed, the lawsuit said. A traffic citation filed against Elish for driving 60 in a 55 mph speed zone was dismissed at a hearing after Rousseau failed to appear.

The lawsuit names as defendants Rousseau, who it says is assigned to the state police Troop B barracks in Eighty Four, Washington County, as well as three unnamed state troopers. It includes claims for unlawful search and false imprisonment and alleges that Elish suffered mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, emotional pain and suffering.

The lawsuit notes that the troopers never saw or found contraband on Elish, or saw her drive erratically, and that there was nothing that would require “urgent action or a warrantless search.”

A message left with the state police spokesperson was not immediately returned.

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