Pa. State Police settle Washington County woman's strip-search lawsuit for $250K

Pennsylvania State Police will pay $250,000 to settle a federal lawsuit by a Washington County woman who claims she was wrongfully strip-searched on the side of Interstate 70 in 2021 after being stopped for speeding.

The details of what happened after a trooper pulled over Holly Elish remain in dispute, though her lawyer, Alec Wright, said the fact that the state police settled is telling.

“A roadside strip search should never happen. Full stop,” Wright said Friday.

“We should be afraid that it happened in this case because that means it could happen to any one of us. No one can take away the pain that the [state police] caused Ms. Elish, but this settlement sets the tone that this misconduct will not be tolerated in the future.”

State police said the agreement “does not constitute an admission of liability or fault on the part of the defendants.”

Elish, 37, of Bentleyville, filed the complaint alleging unlawful search and false imprisonment against Trooper Brian Rousseau and North Strabane Sgt. Abigail France stemming from a traffic stop on May 27, 2021.

The state police defended the case for both individual officers.

Rousseau is now assigned to the Pittsburgh barracks.

Lt. Adam Reed, a state police spokesman, did not respond when asked what Rousseau’s current assignment is.

Elish, a mother of two, was in her SUV heading to pick up her children around 3:15 p.m. when Rousseau pulled her over on I-70 in South Strabane. He claimed that she was driving 5 mph over the speed limit.

Elish claimed that the trooper said that her hands were red, which could indicate drug use, and that small rubber bands in the vehicle could have been used to package drugs.

Wright said the rubber bands were hair ties for Elish’s daughter.

While writing her a ticket, the trooper claimed that he saw Elish making “furtive movements” inside her Ford Escape. She let him search the vehicle, but he found nothing, according to court documents.

Rousseau contacted Washington County 911 and asked for a female officer to search Elish. North Strabane Sgt. Abigail France responded.

From there, according to court filings, the stories diverge.

Three stories

Elish claimed that France touched her breasts to search and made Elish pull down her pants before looking at her genitals.

Elish said she was menstruating at the time and that she “begged them not to do this to her.”

Elish also claimed that Rousseau had already patted her down before France arrived. She said that when France got there, she noted Elish’s tight athletic wear and asked the trooper, “’What am I supposed to search that you cannot already see?’”

France denied conducting a strip search. She claimed that Elish pulled her pants down on her own, and the officer told her to pull them back up.

The sergeant said that when she arrived, Rousseau told her he found drug paraphernalia in the SUV and that he suspected Elish was hiding drugs on her body.

France claimed that she patted Elish’s upper body, and when she asked if Elish was wearing a bra, Elish lifted her shirt. She said she then patted down Elish’s legs.

Rousseau claimed that he requested only a “pat search” of Elish and did not ask for a strip search or body cavity search.

France said that the search was conducted on the passenger side of Rousseau’s vehicle. The trooper said it occurred between two open passenger side doors to shield Elish from passing motorists.

Police found nothing on Elish. Rousseau wrote her a speeding ticket and let her leave. The traffic stop had lasted about an hour.

The citation was thrown out when Rousseau didn’t appear for the hearing.

Elish said that she immediately sought counseling and quit her job as a home-health aide because she became fearful of driving.

Video evidence destroyed

According to a deposition in the case, Rousseau that afternoon warned his supervisor, Cpl. Thomas Kapolka, that he might get a complaint about the search. A short time later, Elish’s boyfriend called, angry about what happened to her.

Kapolka said in his deposition he watched video of the stop that day from the dashboard camera in Rousseau’s cruiser.

“I did watch the video, and I didn’t see anything that would indicate that anything unconstitutional or illegal occurred,” he said according to the deposition transcript.

Kapolka said he wasn’t sure if he watched the whole incident.

But Kapolka said that because he didn’t see any wrongdoing, he did not download or preserve the video. And because the recording system overwrites every 60 days, the video from the incident was destroyed, Wright said.

North Strabane said they did not have any video footage, Wright said.

It was not clear whether Rousseau was following departmental guidelines during the search of Elish.

Reed, the state police spokesman, refused to release any strip-search policy that the department might have.

But Wright said state police don’t have one at all.

By contrast, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, one of the largest police forces in the state, has a policy addressing strip and body cavity searches. It is posted online.

Pittsburgh police have specific rules governing such searches, particularly when conducted in the field. People pulled over for traffic violations can be strip searched only if officers have probable cause to do so and fear that they are hiding weapons or contraband that poses an “imminent threat,” according to the policy.

Strip searches in the field, the policy says, are limited to “exigent circumstances,” such as when an officer’s life is at risk.