An Indiana State Police Trooper is being sued by a woman who claims he pulled her over for an alleged traffic violation and then proceeded to ask her about her faith.
Ellen Bogan has filed a lawsuit in a federal court against trooper Brian Hamilton after the alleged incident in Union County in August, The Indianapolis Star reports.
She claims that after he pulled her over on U.S. 27 and handed her a warning ticket, Hamilton then asked her whether she had a home church and accepted Jesus as her savior.
Hamilton then gave her a pamphlet from the First Baptist Church in Cambridge City which asked the recipient to acknowledge they were a sinner.
Bogan, 60, told The Indianapolis Star: "It's completely out of line and it just - it took me aback."
She said that she had felt unable to refuse the questioning because he was a trooper and his police car was parked behind hers.
"The whole time, his lights were on," Bogan said. "I had no reason to believe I could just pull away at that point, even though I had my warning."
She added that she is not affiliated to a church and does not attend but "felt compelled" to say she did "just because I had a state trooper standing at the passenger-side window".
"It was just weird," she said.
The lawsuit alleges Hamilton's actions violated Bogan's First and Fourth Amendment rights.
