Former Justice police chief sues for defamation, wrongful termination

The former police chief for the Village of Justice is suing after losing his job.

Robert Gedville filed a lawsuit on Dec. 12 in the Circuit Court of Cook County against the Village of Justice, Kris Wasowicz, Rich Sparr, Rick Symonds, Ed Rusch, Melanie Kuban and Sue Small, citing wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation, retaliatory discharge, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy-false light.

According to the suit, Gedville became the chief of police of Justice in 2008. In September 2011, the suit states, Justice entered into a contract with a red light camera vendor, SafeSpeed, to have cameras installed at various red light intersections.

In July or August 2012, Gedville and Wasowicz met with SafeSpeed and Gedville told Wasowicz he was going to refer SafeSpeed to other police chiefs, according to the complaint.

Following the meeting, Gedville contends he sent emails to other police chiefs referring them to SafeSpeed, but never received compensation from SafeSpeed.

The complaint alleges that after the meeting, Wasowicz told Gedville to dismiss red light tickets against an employee of the Forest Medical Facility who had eight red light tickets.

Gedville claims Wasowicz ordered him to dismiss seven of the tickets even though he was uncomfortable doing so, according to the complaint.

The suit states that at a Sept. 24, 2012 village board meeting, Gedville was told that he was placed on leave because of the media surrounding the SafeSpeed emails. He asserts that an officer served him on Dec. 13, 2012 with a letter notifying him he was being terminated.

Gedville contends he was terminated without any written charges, without an opportunity to be heard and in retaliation for refusing to dismiss the eight red light tickets. He further claims Wasowicz defamed him, which caused him to lose his job as a Cook County Forest Preserve Police Officer.

He is seeking at least $50,000 in damages, plus costs, and is being represented in the case by Kelly & King P.C.

Circuit Court of Cook County Case No. 2013L014064.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.