Trooper Dozier Guilty of Forcing Couple to Strip

[WaTcHeR]

01/31/2006 - ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. - A state trooper has been convicted of forcing a couple to strip after he found them in a parked car along a Cook County highway last June.

A jury on Monday found Jeremy Dozier, 32, guilty of four counts of bribery and four counts of misconduct, all felonies. He was immediately taken into custody after Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta ordered his bail revoked.

The couple said they were relieved by the verdicts, delivered after four hours of deliberation.

"We're just glad it's done and now we can live our lives not in fear," said Dimitry Baum, 23, who was with his fiance, Maria "Masha" Boyko, 19, when confronted by Dozier.

Baum and Boyko both testified during the trial that Dozier, a a 10-year state police veteran, gave them Breathalyzer tests and then ordered them to disrobe and urinate in a roadside ditch. Boyko said they took off their clothes but sped away when Dozier stepped away from the car.

Dozier claimed that Baum and Boyko stripped on their own. He testified that he ordered them to stop before he returned, embarrassed, to his squad car.

Dozier's attorneys were "bitterly disappointed" and considered the jury's decision an "unjust verdict," said defense attorney Ralph Meczyk.

Prosecutors said they were pleased with the trial's outcome.

"He violated his oath (as a police officer)," said Assistant State's Attorney William Merritt.

Dozier was suspended from his job during the trial and faces dismissal proceedings, state police said. He could receive probation to up to seven years in prison when he is returns to court to be sentenced March 1.

Dozier also faces felony charges in Lake County related to a similar incident April 29 in Gurnee, when he allegedly confronted a couple in a parked car and told them to take off their clothes and run around a construction site.

[KC]

Couple sue state trooper for traffic-stop conduct

June 13, 2006 - CHICAGO -- A Wauconda couple forced by an Illinois state trooper to strip to their underwear during a traffic stop sued the former officer Monday in federal court, seeking unspecified damages.

The suit alleges that Jeremy Dozier, 32, of Beach Park drove up behind Maria Boyko and Dimitry Baum while they were parked on the shoulder of Interstate Highway 94 near Northbrook in June 2005 and ordered them to disrobe.

The couple managed to escape and dialed 911. But the dispatcher and her supervisor, also named as defendants in the suit, sent Dozier to meet them at the Lake Forest Oasis, the suit alleges.

Dozier was convicted Jan. 30 of bribery and official misconduct and sentenced to 6 months in Cook County Jail and 30 months of probation. He faces similar charges in Lake County.

Dozier has been suspended without pay from the state police and faces dismissal proceedings, according to Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Lincoln Hampton.

[WaTcHeR]

11.04.2006 - A Beach Park man who used his Illinois State Police patrol job to humiliate young couples pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lake County Circuit Court to forcing one couple to make snow angels while naked.

Officer Jeremy Dozier, 33, entered a negotiated plea to official misconduct and was sentenced by Judge Victoria Rossetti to 30 months probation, paying $500 each to Lake County CrimeStoppers and LaCASA, perform 200 hours of public service work, and consume no drugs or alcohol. Rossetti also sentenced Dozier to 12 months of periodic imprisonment, but stayed that pending successful completion of the remainder of the sentence.

The conviction carries a maximum of five years in prison.
The recommended plea and sentence were negotiated by prosecutor Kenneth LaRue and defense attorney Michael Melius. Rossetti accepted both recommendations.

Dozier previously was convicted in Cook County Court for a similar, unrelated case and sentenced to six months in jail. A Cook County judge described Dozier as "smug, not sorry," but did not choose a prison sentence because Dozier had a strong record as a trooper, earning several commendations and awards.
Dozier has been suspended by state police and is facing possible termination.

According to police, in the incident on Feb. 4, 2005, shortly before midnight, a young couple was in a car parked behind an antique store in Gurnee, just south of Grand Avenue and east of the Tri-State Tollway.

The 19-year-old woman, a student at Ball State University in Indiana, and her boyfriend, a sailor, had just had sex, according to the police report, when a flashlight was shined in the window and the car door pulled open.

The couple said that outside was a uniformed state trooper who ordered them, while they were still naked, to lie on the ground and make snow angels.

The Sun-Times reported that the Cook County conviction was based on an incident along the Tri-State Spur near Northbrook, when Dozier approached a parked car and ordered two young people inside to strip, run to a ditch, urinate and come back. Instead, the couple ran into their car, thinking Dozier was an imposter, and drove to the Lake Forest Oasis for help.
They called State Police and the dispatcher sent Dozier, not knowing he had been involved. The couple fled and from the man's Wauconda home and called local police.

They have since filed a civil lawsuit against Dozier, according to the published report.

[WaTcHeR]

Judge Victoria Rossetti needs to be pulled off the bench, she apparently cares more for dirty cops then she does about the general public.