A former lawyer for the Chicago Park District has sued Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, accusing the mayor of smearing his name and professional reputation, leading to his forced resignation, after a profanity laced tirade, in which the female lesbian mayor claimed to have the “biggest d*** in Chicago,” when Lightfoot learned of a plan by the Chicago Park District to appease Italian Americans in Chicago, amid a court fight over the fate of the city’s statue of Christopher Columbus.
On March 2, George Smyrniotis filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against Lightfoot and the city.
According to the complaint, Smyrniotis had worked for the Chicago Park District since 2007, including serving as one of the district’s top in-house lawyers, since 2018.
The complaint notes he has been a licensed lawyer since 1989.
According to the complaint, Smyrniotis was tapped to represent the park district in 2021 against a lawsuit filed by the Joint Civic Committee of the Italian Americans, over the park district’s refusal to reinstall the statute of Columbus in Arrigo Park in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood on the city’s near West Side.
The Columbus statue, which was created in Italy in 1892, had stood in the park in a plaza built and maintained by Chicago Park District under an agreement with a group of Italian Americans known as the Columbus Statue Committee, and its successor, the JCCIA.
Before making any changes to the plaza, including removal of the statute, the Park District was required by the contract to win the approval of the JCCIA.
However, in the summer of 2020, as riots and often violent protests gripped Chicago in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis earlier that spring, Lightfoot ordered the statue removed, ostensibly to protect it against rioters who were toppling what they perceived to be statues symbolizing white supremacism in many locations across the U.S.
The plaza was the scene of clashes between rioters and Chicago Police.
Under the mayor’s order, the Park District removed and stored the statue.
The JCCIA then sued a year later, saying the Park District had violated its contract, and demanding the return of the statue.
In the months that followed, Smyrniotis said he was directed by the Park District’s leadership, which he asserts is separate from City Hall, to negotiate a settlement.
Smyrniotis said that settlement was to include turning the statue over to the JCCIA, to allow them to display the statue wherever they like outside Chicago.
As that settlement was being negotiated, Smyrniotis said the Park District, as a show of good will, agreed to allow the JCCIA to display the statue on a float at the conclusion of the annual Columbus Day Parade in October.
However, when Lightfoot got wind of the settlement, she allegedly flew into a rage, and threatened to revoke the JCCIA’s parade permit, and cancel the Columbus Day Parade altogether, unless they agreed to leave the statue out.
The statue was not used in the parade.
However, Smyrniotis said Lightfoot then summoned him and others from the city and Park District onto a Zoom call, where she allegedly went off on Smyrniotis.
According to the complaint, Lightfoot shouted at him and his then-boss, Park District General Counsel Timothy King, saying:
“You d***s, what the f*** were you thinking? You make some kind of secret agreement with Italians, what you are doing, you are out there measuring your d*** with the Italians seeing whose got the biggest d***, you are out there stroking your d***s over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago Police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot.
“My d*** is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest d*** in Chicago. Where did you go to law school? Did you even go to law school? Do you even have a law license? You have to submit any pleadings to (Chief Chicago Constitutional and Commercial Lawyer) John Hendricks for approval before filing. John told you not to do a f***ing thing with that statute without my approval. Get that f***ing statue back before noon tomorrow or I am going to have you fired.”
Smyrniotis noted in the complaint he did not work for the city, nor was he answerable to neither Lightfoot, nor Hendricks or any other official at City Hall.
Further, he noted the city was not party to the contract between the JCCIA and the Park District, nor was the city named as party in the lawsuit brought by JCCIA.
Smyrniotis said he had been at all times representing his client, the Park District, and following the direction of officials at the Park District.
However, following the mayor’s alleged tirade, Smyrniotis said he was eventually forced to resign in February 2022.
In his complaint, he said the mayor should be made to pay for forcing him out of his job, and for defaming him personally and professionally.
“As a proximate result of the false and malicious statements made by … Lightfoot, Mayor of the City of Chicago, and the City of Chicago, Plaintiff’s reputation was damaged, he was portrayed in a false light, his ability to perform his work was impaired, he was forced to resign on February 2, 2022, and he suffered great emotional distress,” according to the complaint.
Smyrniotis said the mayor’s actions cost him at least $139,000 in salary, and reduced his pension by at least $57,000.
He is seeking unspecified damages of at least $50,000 from the mayor and the city.
Smyrniotis is represented by attorney Edward Moor, of the Moor Law Office, of Chicago.