Sep 30, 2023 By Mike Jones newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

The federal civil trial is expected to begin next week for the Bentleyville woman who accused a state police trooper and North Strabane sergeant of an invasive strip search on the side of Interstate 70 in Washington County in 2021.

A jury is scheduled to be empaneled Monday morning in the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh to weigh the case of Holly Elish, who claims she was stopped by Trooper Brian Rousseau and subjected to a “degrading roadside strip search” at his direction on May 27, 2021.

According to the federal lawsuit filed in November 2021, Rousseau followed Elish for several miles on I-70 before pulling her over for a “minor traffic violation” of driving about 5 mph over the speed limit near an unnamed interchange in South Strabane Township.

Rousseau is accused of demanding that he be permitted to search Elish’s vehicle, and she eventually allowed him to do so when more police officers arrived at the traffic stop. Rousseau didn’t find anything suspicious during the vehicle search, prompting him to have a private conversation with the three other police officers at the scene.

Elish was then required to stand near a state police vehicle along the side of the highway as a female police officer patted down her body and then asked her to remove her pants and underwear to perform a more invasive search, the lawsuit claims.

The original lawsuit did not name that officer, but subsequent documents and transcripts filed recently identified her as North Strabane police Sgt. Abigail France. France, who was named as a co-defendant in December, is accused of performing the “pat-down” and strip search of Elish.

Township solicitor Gary Sweat declined comment on the case except to say the lawsuit was turned over to North Strabane’s insurance carrier. Sweat told a reporter Friday he was unaware the trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

It’s not clear why France was named as a defendant in the lawsuit more than a year after it was filed, considering Elish’s attorney, Alec Wright, previously said in a newspaper interview that he was “thankful” that the female police officer at the scene stopped the search after she “realized what was happening was degradation” by the other police officers.

“I’m sorry. This is the worst part of my job,” France allegedly told Elish, according to the lawsuit. “Do you know why they want me to do this?”

Elish, 36, eventually received a traffic citation for driving 5 mph over the 55 mph speed limit. But Rousseau did not show up for her hearing in July 2021, prompting District Judge Michael Manfredi to find Elish not guilty of the citation.

The lawsuit contends that police did not have a warrant to perform such an invasive search on Elish along the side of the highway. It also claims Elish faced humiliation and mental anguish, among other issues, and accuses the police officers of violating her Fourth Amendment rights by illegally detaining her and searching her vehicle and body. The lawsuit requests unspecified compensation and legal fees.

Wright said Thursday that he did not foresee a settlement in the case and expected it will go to trial. If the jury is selected Monday morning, opening statements and testimony could begin in the afternoon, with the trial expected to last up to five days, according to the federal court schedule.

Rosseau is being represented by an attorney in the state Attorney General’s litigation section, as is typical with lawsuits involving state police, while France has legal representation from the state police’s Office of Chief Counsel, according to online court documents. A state police spokesman in Harrisburg declined comment, citing pending litigation.