Cop ordered couple to strip, officials say
Trooper charged, suspended with pay
By Lisa Black, Tribune staff reporter.
June 18, 2005
An Illinois State Police trooper confessed Friday that he ordered a couple to strip and urinate during a traffic stop on Interstate Highway 94 near Northbrook, authorities said.
Trooper Jeremy M. Dozier, 31, of Beach Park, was charged with four counts of official misconduct, authorities said.
The couple had undressed to their underwear at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday when they managed to drive away and call 911, authorities said. A dispatcher told them to meet an officer at the Lake Forest I-94 oasis for help.
"Guess who the officer is?" asked Robert Podlasek, a Cook County assistant state's attorney. "It's him ... It's like a bad movie."
Dozier was released after he posted $5,000 bail Friday in the courtroom of Judge Karen Thompson Tobin in Rolling Meadows.
Dozier, a 10-year state police employee, has been suspended with pay, said department spokesman Lincoln Hampton.
Authorities identified the couple as a 22-year-old Wauconda man and an 18-year-old Vernon Hills woman. They had left a party and were on their way home in the man's 2003 Jaguar when they pulled over to talk, Podlasek said.
Dozier arrived and ordered the man to take a Breathalyzer test in the squad car, Podlasek said. Dozier gave the woman a Breathalyzer test in the Jaguar, he said.
After telling the man his girlfriend failed the test, the trooper asked them what they thought he should do, refusing their suggestions that he ticket them, Podlasek said.
"He says, `What can we do that's embarrassing to punish you so you get the message that underage people shouldn't be drinking?'" Podlasek said. "He's creating his own little system of punishment."
The trooper ordered the two to take off their clothes, run to a ditch, urinate and run back, Podlasek said. "The male victim is down to his boxer shorts. She's down to her underwear," Podlasek said. "The officer steps back to get a better look at the girl. They take off."