Joliet woman's sex toy suit goes to trial

[WickedTemptress]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/h...LAWSUIT_S1.htm



CHICAGO — The trial for a local woman's lawsuit against 14 police officers for allegedly capering about with her sex toys and modeling her lingerie during a drug raid on her home opened Monday in federal court in Chicago.

Attorneys made opening arguments and eight witnesses testified with the case scheduled to continue today.

Plaintiff Dorothy Campbell filed the lawsuit and accused the officers of conducting an unreasonable search and seizure at her then-Raymond Street home in February 2003. She also sought damages from two of the officers over allegations of obtaining a second search warrant under false pretenses to recover a tape of one of their colleagues apologizing for the initial raid.

Police served the first search warrant with the intent to locate marijuana they believed her son, Brandon, then 18, was selling. Dorothy Campbell was not home when police arrived, but her son and four of his friends were, according to the lawsuit.

Officers handcuffed Brandon Campbell and his friends, then "went into (Dorothy Campbell's) dresser drawers and found (her) personal and private sex toys," the lawsuit said.

The officers "did not and could not have reasonably believed that (her) private and personal sex toys constituted evidence of possession of cannabis ... or any other crime," according to the lawsuit.

Still, the officers took them from the dresser and showed them to Campbell's son, asking him what his mother did with them, the lawsuit states. Then, "the raiding party took (her) personal and private sex toys and used them for their own amusement and left them strewn about the residence," according to the lawsuit.

Officers deposed in connection with the civil action have denied this. No marijuana was recovered during the search, and Brandon Campbell was not arrested.

A sergeant later showed up at Campbell's house and apologized for the incident, the lawsuit states, and his statements were videotaped by Jacob Campbell, another of Dorothy Campbell's sons.

Two days later, an officer made a report claiming there were pornographic images of a 14-year-old girl on a tape in the camera used to record the sergeant's apology. The week after the first raid, police headed to the Campbell home and seized the camera and tape.

Campbell's attorney, John Schrock, called the actions of city police "deplorable." In his opening arguments, he called Joliet the City of Champions and told of their illustrious high school football history, but also called it a "city of soldiers," "who do what they're told," claiming officers blindly followed orders from conspiring superiors. Assistant City Attorney Greg Smith contended that Campbell's allegations are "obviously false." He also contends officers violated no one's civil rights.