A federal judge has rejected, for now, an attempt by two Dixmoor village trustees to sue their village government for intimidation and mistreatment they claim they suffered at the hands of the village’s police department as political retaliation amid an alleged “top-down conspiracy” involving the village’s mayor.
On Jan. 4, U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras dismissed a portion of the lawsuit brought by Dixmoor village trustees Toni Mitchell and Fitzgerald Roberts against the south suburban village, and several Dixmoor Police officers.
Named defendants include Dixmoor Police Chief Ronald Burge Sr; Burge’s son, Dixmoor Police Commander Ronald Burge Jr.; and Dixmoor Police officers Jose Villegas, Hashi Jaco, Keith Willoughby, Marquise Day and Billy Moore.
Davis is not named as a defendant in the action.
Specifically, the complaint has accused the officers of following and surveilling Mitchell and Roberts, and improperly arresting Roberts, Mitchell, Mitchell’s son, and her attorney, Deidre Baumann. The complaint also accuses Chief Burge and the officers of making intimidating comments to the two trustees, and writing them citations that were later dismissed.
For instance, Roberts accused Chief Burge of telling him at a village board meeting that Roberts “would ‘need bail money’” if he continued to speak poorly of the village’s police.
Roberts further accused Burge of distributing documents falsely claiming Roberts was under FBI investigation and was “assisting criminals with the sale of drugs” and “was engaged in other acts of corruption.”
According to the complaint, Burge Sr. had been fired by a previous mayor for alleged misconduct, but was rehired in 2017 by new Mayor Davis.
The two trustees’ lawsuit included claims of violations of equal protection under the law; false arrest; malicious prosecution; defamation; and federal racketeering allegations against all the alleged conspirators.
The lawsuit also included a claim, seeking to hold the village liable for the alleged misconduct by the police officers.
The village, in response, asked Kocoras to dismiss that claim, asserting the Mitchell and Roberts could not demonstrate what village policy or “custom” would have allowed the officers to carry out their alleged conduct in the name of the village of Dixmoor.
Judge Kocoras agreed with the village’s position, saying the trustees need to bring more proof to bear in the case, cementing their claims that the officers were engaged in a conspiracy, and were not merely rogue officers acting on their own.
“Here, Plaintiffs have not pled that the Officer Defendants acted under the color of any broad-based institutional custom,” Kocoras wrote in his Jan. 4 opinion. “Instead, Plaintiffs have relied on the conclusory allegations that there has been a top-down conspiracy to retaliate against (them.)"
The judge said Mitchell and Roberts also cannot use Davis' decision to rehire Burge Sr. to establish their conspiracy claims.
“… At this stage, the best the Court can surmise is that the problematic custom is merely that the Village generally condoned illegal acts. Indeed, Plaintiffs’ (sic) themselves ascribe the applicable custom as a ‘culture of lawlessness,’” the judge said.
But if a “culture of lawlessness” could be used as a standard, then any city or village government could be held liable for every illegal act committed by police or other official, Kocoras wrote.
“… A ‘custom’ cannot be just illegality in general,” the judge wrote.
Kocoras dismissed the count against the village of Dixmoor without prejudice, and gave the trustees three weeks to submit an amended complaint that addresses the shortcomings identified by the judge in their complaint.
Mitchell and Roberts are represented by attorney Richard Dvorak, of Willowbrook.
The village of Dixmoor is represented by attorneys Christopher Wunder, Dean Gournis and Eric D. Kaplan, with the firm of Kaplan Papdakis & Gournis LLP, of Chicago.