On April 14, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against Illinois’ Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office and Winnebago County State’s Attorney for illegally seizing and indefinitely holding—for 15 months so far—the property of First Supply, LLC, simply because it was an innocent bystander to an auto accident.
First Supply, LLC is a family-owned plumbing and HVAC distributor that services the Midwest. In January 2024, an alleged drunk driver ran a red light and crashed his car into a First Supply delivery truck while it was lawfully stopped at the light. Tragically, the driver’s passenger was killed on impact. First Supply was in no way responsible for the accident—but the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office seized First Supply’s truck from the scene as evidence, without a warrant, and without any exigent circumstances justifying the warrantless seizure.
In the months following the accident, First Supply complied fully with law enforcement’s investigation of the crash. By March 2024, a sergeant informed First Supply that the Sheriff’s Office was “done with the truck” and that he would contact the State’s Attorney’s Office to begin the process of releasing First Supply’s truck. But the Sheriff’s Office did not release the truck, nor did the State’s Attorney’s office. Then in July of 2024 the State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed the traffic case against the driver but didn’t tell First Supply or return the truck. Then over two months later, in October 2024, the State’s Attorney’s Office filed a new criminal felony case against the driver, but to date a trial date has not been set. During this entire process, neither the Sheriff’s Office nor the State’s Attorney’s Office contacted First Supply to return the truck. In fact, at no point during this entire ordeal has either office provided First Supply a process, procedure, or even a timeline as to when it can get its truck back.
For the last fifteen months First Supply has not only had to pay for a truck it can’t use, but also has had to pay for a replacement truck. First Supply has been forced to pay thousands per month for a delivery truck that is currently rusting in an impound lot. Every day that the seized truck sits in an open-air impound lot it deteriorates even more, which will cost First Supply even more money to repair. To rectify this ongoing injury—and the violation of First Supply’s constitutional rights to due process and to protection against unreasonable search and seizure—the Liberty Justice Center has filed a lawsuit against the Winnebago Sheriff and State’s Attorney on First Supply’s behalf, arguing that the seizure of First Supply’s truck violates the Fourth Amendment.
First Supply v. Caruana was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division, on April 14, 2025.
Loren A. Seehase is a Senior Counsel at Liberty Justice Center where she litigates cases to protect the rights to free speech, economic liberty, private property, and other Constitutional rights in both federal and state courts across the country.