“Top cop” under scrutiny after missing laptop from DUI arrest allegedly turns up in his possession

An Illinois State Police trooper once recognized for making the most DUI arrests in the state is now under renewed scrutiny after a driver he arrested tracked a missing MacBook to the trooper’s home, according to reporting from ABC 7 Chicago’s Mark Rivera and commentary from attorney Steve Lehto.

Rivera reported that Sherard Holland, a local restaurant executive, was arrested by Illinois State Police Trooper Kevin Bradley on DUI charges in June 2024. After the arrest, Holland said he realized his MacBook was missing from his vehicle, used Apple’s “Find My” feature, and discovered the laptop was not at the tow yard with his car, but instead appeared to be at a home in Tinley Park.

That home, Holland told ABC 7’s I-Team, belonged to the same trooper who had arrested him.

Attorney and legal commentator Steve Lehto, discussing Rivera’s report on his Lehto’s Law podcast, said the story raises serious questions not only about the missing laptop, but also about the original DUI arrest and the larger record of cases tied to Bradley.

A DUI Stop That Ended In An Arrest

Rivera reported that Holland said he had been working overnight and was serving as the designated driver for a co-worker in the early morning hours of June 2, 2024, when he saw police lights behind him.

Holland, the son of a Chicago police officer, told the I-Team that it had been “just a regular, normal day” before the traffic stop.

Dashboard camera footage and the traffic stop report obtained by the I-Team show Bradley telling Holland he pulled him over because he swerved. After speaking with Holland, Bradley wrote in his report that he could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from the vehicle.

Bradley then asked Holland to drive farther down the road to a gas station in Worth Township, passing through several intersections and traffic lights along the way.

At the gas station, Bradley accused Holland of driving under the influence. When asked to perform field sobriety tests, Holland calmly refused.

“No, thank you,” Holland said in the footage, according to Rivera’s report.

Bradley arrested him for felony DUI, and the dashboard video later showed the trooper searching through Holland’s vehicle before it was towed.

Lehto noted that police often conduct inventory searches when a vehicle is being towed, but he said items taken from a vehicle should be properly listed and accounted for. That is where, in this case, the story became far more unusual.

The MacBook Was Not At The Tow Yard

Rivera reported that later that day, Holland needed his MacBook and noticed it was not listed on the inventory slip from his vehicle. At first, Holland said he assumed the laptop was still with the car at the tow yard.

Then he used Apple’s tracking feature.

“I decided to ping my MacBook,” Holland told the I-Team, “and it pinged to an address.”

According to Holland, the laptop was not showing up at the tow yard. It was pinging from a Tinley Park home.

Holland told Rivera he was nervous about going to retrieve it, but eventually decided he had to try.

“I was fearful of going to retrieve my item,” Holland said. “And I just had to motivate myself and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get it.’”

After arriving at the address and knocking on the front door, Holland said he was met by Trooper Bradley. According to Holland, Bradley initially denied having the laptop and argued with him.

That is when Holland called 911.

The 911 Call And The Porch Video

Rivera reported that the I-Team obtained the 911 call through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Tinley Park Police Department.

In the recording, Holland can be heard telling a dispatcher that his MacBook had been stolen. When the dispatcher asked what happened when he confronted the person at the address, Holland was still at Bradley’s home.

Holland told ABC 7 that while he was on the phone with the dispatcher, Bradley told him to end the call. On the 911 recording, Holland can be heard saying, “How else would I have your address? OK, I’ll hang up. I’ll hang up,” before the call ends.

Holland and his attorney later provided the I-Team with a cellphone video recorded by Holland’s wife, who was waiting in the car outside the home. In that video, Bradley is seen walking out and handing Holland the MacBook.

Bradley then opened his garage door to show his Illinois State Police vehicle parked inside, telling Holland the laptop had been accidentally left in the state vehicle.

“It was a very traumatic interaction with him,” Holland told Rivera.

Lehto said this part of the story was especially troubling because the situation appeared to change only after Holland called police. The attorney said that if the laptop had truly been kept by accident, Bradley could have simply explained that when Holland first came to the door and returned it immediately.

Instead, according to Holland’s account, the trooper initially denied it and the laptop was returned after the 911 call began.

Internal Investigation Found Policy Violations

Rivera reported that after the incident, Holland filed a complaint with the Illinois State Police, and the I-Team obtained a copy of the internal investigation.

According to the findings, investigators determined that Bradley did not report the interaction with Holland over the MacBook to his supervisors, and he did not note it in his reports.

In a transcript from Bradley’s interview with internal investigators, the trooper said he had kept the laptop as a courtesy.

“I kept it for his courtesy, like I said with his phone, key and wallet,” Bradley told investigators. “It’s my mistake. I forgot to give him his stuff back and he tracked it.”

The internal report found that Bradley violated Illinois State Police policies. He was suspended for one day.

When Rivera shared that outcome with Holland, he said he felt let down by people who should be trusted and held accountable.

“I feel disheartened by that,” Holland told the I-Team.

Holland’s attorney, Brandon Brown, was more direct.

“I’m outraged,” Brown said. “Outraged as a fellow Cook County resident to think that something like that could happen.”

Brown asked what might have happened if Holland had not called 911 or if he had not had Apple’s tracking feature available.

That question is hard to dismiss. Many people who believe property has gone missing after an arrest or tow have little way to prove where it went. In this case, the tracking data, the 911 call, and the cellphone video gave Holland a record most people would not have.

Holland Was Found Not Guilty

Rivera reported that after months of court hearings, Holland went to a bench trial and was found not guilty of the DUI charge.

Holland is now suing the state and Trooper Bradley, alleging that his civil rights were violated. Bradley did not respond to ABC 7’s repeated requests for comment, according to Rivera.

In court filings, attorneys for the state and Bradley have argued that Holland’s lawsuit should be dismissed, saying the trooper has sovereign immunity as a member of law enforcement and that the traffic stop was lawful.

Lehto said the sovereign immunity argument raises an obvious question: should a police officer know it is wrong to take a laptop from an arrested person’s car, bring it home, and fail to properly document what happened?

His commentary did not claim to know Bradley’s intent, but he argued that the facts create a bad appearance and deserved more than a one-day suspension if the internal findings were correct.

Lehto said law enforcement officers should be held to a high standard because public trust is essential to their work. When an officer is accused of mishandling property, especially during an arrest that later ends in a not-guilty verdict, it can damage confidence far beyond one case.

A “Top Cop” Record Now Under A Microscope

Rivera reported that Bradley had been named the state’s “Top Cop” for three years by a nonprofit, a title given to the law enforcement officer who made the most DUI arrests statewide.

Over that period, Bradley arrested hundreds of drivers for DUI in Cook and DuPage counties.

But the I-Team’s reporting found that public defenders and civil rights attorneys have accused Bradley of fabricating evidence and violating drivers’ civil rights, arguing that many of the cases were later dismissed before adjudication or ended in not-guilty verdicts.

ABC 7’s analysis of Cook County court records found that out of 319 DUI prosecutions tied to Bradley’s arrests since 2023, 174 were dismissed or ended with drivers being found not guilty. Court records showed 105 drivers were found guilty, with 96 of them accepting plea deals for lesser charges, while 40 cases were still pending as of last month.

Lehto said that number matters because making arrests is not the same thing as securing convictions. In his view, the public should look carefully at whether the arrests were justified, especially when more than half of the cases were dismissed or ended without guilty findings.

Brown asked how many other people may have faced similar arrests but lacked the money, time, or legal support to fight them.

“How many other people like Sherard, who maybe couldn’t afford a lawyer?” Brown said, according to Rivera’s report.

State Police Defend Oversight And DUI Enforcement

A spokesperson for Illinois State Police told the I-Team that the agency has strong oversight of its officers and addresses discrepancies or complaints when they are identified.

The agency also told ABC 7 that it would be irresponsible not to arrest and remove a person from the road when they are suspected of impaired driving, while noting that securing a DUI conviction in court is a separate process from the role of law enforcement.

“A trooper makes an arrest when there is probable cause,” the ISP statement said, adding that prosecutors ultimately decide whether they can meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

That is true as a legal matter, and DUI enforcement is important because impaired drivers can kill people. But Rivera’s reporting and Lehto’s commentary both point to a different concern: when an officer becomes known for a huge number of arrests, the quality of those arrests and the handling of people’s property should be examined closely, not waved away because the original purpose is public safety.

Rivera also reported that Bradley nearly tripled his salary in 2024 through court overtime tied to DUI arrests, earning nearly $250,000, more than the salary of the Illinois State Police director.

For every DUI arrest, troopers must appear in court, and attorneys have argued in evidence motions that those appearances led to a significant amount of overtime pay for Bradley.

A Case About Trust

Lehto said the laptop episode is the kind of story that can make people more skeptical of law enforcement, even if most officers never do anything similar.

He said that when someone is arrested and their vehicle is towed, the property inside should still be there, and if an officer is found to have mishandled property, the response should be serious enough to show that the agency understands the damage done to public trust.

Rivera’s reporting leaves the case with several unresolved questions. Bradley said he kept the laptop as a courtesy and forgot to return it. Holland says the laptop was missing, tracked it to the trooper’s home, called 911, and only then got it back.

The internal investigation found policy violations, but the discipline was a one-day suspension.

For Holland and his attorney, that was not enough. For Lehto, the story remains troubling because of what the small details suggest: the missing inventory listing, the laptop’s location, the 911 call, the porch video, and the not-guilty DUI verdict that followed months later.

Holland’s lawsuit is still pending, and Bradley is currently on medical leave after being injured in an accident while working, according to the Illinois State Police.

For now, the “Top Cop” title that once reflected a high number of DUI arrests is being viewed through a very different lens, as drivers, attorneys, and the public ask what happened in this case and how many others deserve another look.