Dan Gallagher, Terrence Guolee and Dominick Lanzito recently obtained an order from Federal District Court Judge Amy St. Eve granting all defendants summary judgment in all claims brought by a former guard at the Cook County Jail against the Cook County Sheriff’s office and other defendants alleging racial and sexual discrimination and violation of First Amendment free speech rights.
In the case, detainees in the women’s jail of the Cook County jail complex alleged that the plaintiff and several other male officers were having improper sexual relations with female detainees in the division. Following an extensive investigation by the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, charges were brought by the Cook County State’s Attorney against three of the nearly dozen officers implicated by the detainees.
Following the criminal trial, the guard was acquitted of the criminal charges by the court and filed suit alleging that his prosecution was motivated by retaliation against the plaintiff by a jail supervisor for his complaints of sexual harassment and in an effort to remove male officers from the female jail division. Following extensive discovery, Querrey & Harrow documented that plaintiff’s sexual harassment claims were only brought after the detainee’s complaints surfaced and the plaintiff was de-deputized, that the investigation was properly run by the Sheriff’s Police and the State’s Attorney and that the named defendants were not to blame for the criminal prosecution. Likewise, the court accepted defense arguments that, despite the acquittal, there was more than sufficient evidence to support the prosecution.
