Fired suburban Chicago police chief files racial discrimination lawsuit
FLOSSMOOR, Ill. (CBS) -- Former Flossmoor Police Chief Jerel Jones on Monday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, accusing the village of racial discrimination, just days after he was ousted.
On Thursday, Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said the village was "parting ways" with Jones because of his performance, but Jones' lawsuit accuses the village of a pattern of racially discriminatory behavior.
Days earlier, hundreds of Jones' supporters packed the Flossmoor Village Hall last week, demanding answers over the possibility of his ouster.
Nelson has said Jones was not meeting expectations, citing performance issues. She didn't give specifics, but in a letter regarding his ouster, wrote that the issue with Jones was "strictly about performance."
"When a leader of a critical department is not meeting expectations, the ripple effect can adversely impact the entire department, and the organization, and even the community," Nelson wrote.
But Jones' attorneys said the situation was not handled properly, claiming Jones was set up to fail. They have filed a civil rights anti-discrimination lawsuit in federal court against the Village of Flossmoor and Village Manager Bridget Wachtel, calling his termination "act of race discrimination and retaliation."
"Folks, this is race based animus through and through," said attorney Cass Casper of the Disparti Law Group. "This is a Black department head and not meeting up to the expectations of a white administration because he's Black."
Flossmoor Police Chief Lawsuit on Scribd
According to the lawsuit, in October, Jones – the village's first Black police chief – complained to Nelson about "disparate treatment" from Wachtel, claiming "he was being treated more severely and held to a higher standard of performance" than the village's White and Hispanic department heads.
"Village Manager Wachtel was engaging him in overbearing scrutiny, micromanagement, baseless criticism, personally attacking criticisms, and generally holding him to a standard of performance that would be unachievable by anyone," the lawsuit states.
Jones said the critiques came in a series of performance reviews issued by Wachtel. One criticism was about the way Jones spoke.
"You do not speak plainly or answer questions directly," a quoted portion of the review reads in the lawsuit filed Monday.
"This is a white administration complaining about how Black Chief Jones talks," Casper said. "There's no bona fide criticism that he said anything inappropriate here. This entire criticism from Village Manager Wachtold is about the manner in which the chief talks."
The lawsuit claims Wacthel responded to Jones' complaints "with a campaign of retaliation culminating in his termination."
"Wachtel imposed a master-slave dynamic between her and Jerel and, if he did not fit himself into that expected dynamic, he could not be Police Chief," the lawsuit states.
The performance reviews in their entirety were not included the lawsuit. Jones' attorneys -- who include Casper and former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti -- say this was because they worry the village will claim that releasing the reviews would mean releasing sensitive information about policing.
But attorneys invite the village to release the reviews in full.
Neither Village Manager Wachtel nor Mayor Nelson responded to CBS 2's request for comment, and a visit to the Flossmoor Village Hall resulted in being told that no one could speak to CBS 2.
Jones and his attorneys said they will drop the lawsuit if the village apologizes.
"Bring him back as police chief. Remove him from the campaign of hyper-critical, race-based criticism that he endured, and give him a fair chance to be police chief - free from that double standard," Casper said.
Chief Jones said at a news conference with his attorneys Monday that he did not sign a contract of any specific length of employment when he took the job last March. He explained that he was the only Black department head in the Village of Flossmoor during that period.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, including back pay and benefits for Jones.
