State Trooper Sued Over Proselytizing After Traffic Stop

Huffington Post reported yesterday on a federal lawsuit filed last month against an Indiana State Police Trooper for proselytizing a driver after stopping her for a traffic violation. The complaint (full text) in Bogan v. Hamilton, (SD IN, filed 9/23/2014), alleges that after stopping driver Ellen Bogan and issuing her a warning ticket for speeding, Trooper Brian Hamilton asked Bogan whether she had a home church and had accepted Jesus as her savior. He then gave her a pamphlet from a Cambridge City, Indiana Baptist church. The suit asks for damages alleging that the trooper's coercive questioning and proselytizing violated the First Amendment.