Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Douglas Lee, 54, of Tinley Park was ordered held in custody Saturday pending trial by Cook County Judge Shauna Boliker after being charged with sexual assault, according to court records.
The charges stem from an encounter in the early morning Aug. 2, 2025, and involved a woman who was unable to give knowing consent, according to a Tinley Park news release.
The Illinois State Police said Monday that Lee is on administrative leave without pay, and that state police are conducting an internal investigation.
Tinley Park detectives investigated Lee and presented evidence to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, which approved the felony charge, according to the village.
Boliker wrote in her order that Lee “poses a real and present threat to the safety of any person, and woman in the community.”
The woman was a bartender in Tinley Park at the time of the encounter, while Lee was a regular patron, prosecutors said. After her shift ended, the woman remained at work and continued to drink with regulars, prosecutors said.
Later, the woman decided to walk with other women to a bar down the street, and Lee asked to come with them, prosecutors said.
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The woman told investigators she remembered Lee buying her a shot and seltzer at the bar, and then going to the dance floor, which prosecutors said was the last thing she remembered before waking up confused in her car the next morning.
When she went to the bathroom, she noticed what appeared to be semen, which panicked her because she had no memory of having sex, prosecutors said.
Video from the night shows Lee and the woman leaving the bar together at 1:30 a.m., with the woman visibly unsteady, falling when trying to sit down, prosecutors said. Lee then took her to a hotel in Midlothian, according to prosecutors.
In text messages between Lee and the woman, Lee acknowledged having sex with her and recognized the “state” she was in, being unable to drive, prosecutors said.
Lee appeared again in court Tuesday at the Cook County courthouse in Bridgeview before Judge Linzey Jones, where his attorney, Jayne Ingles, asked that he be released from custody, emphasizing his lack of any violent or criminal history.
“It is the position of the defense that the court erred in finding that my client is a danger to the community, and/or to the alleged victim in this case,” Ingles said.
Ingles said Lee has known about and cooperated with the investigation for nearly a year and surrendered himself voluntarily to the Tinley Park Police Department.
“What we are left with is a man that’s 54 years old, who’s never once stepped outside the law, who is now sitting in the Cook County jail,” Ingles said.
Jones rejected the request, saying it was inappropriate for his court and should be taken to the appeals court instead.
“I am not here to review that decision,” Jones said. “What we generally look at in a motion for relief is whether there’s been a material change in circumstance. We don’t have that here.”
Lee’s next court date was set for Aug. 26 at the Bridgeview courthouse.