A federal judge won’t let Melrose Park Mayor Frank Serpico or the village fully escape a lawsuit from a family who accused Serpico of orchestrating a harassment campaign that culminated in $30,000 in fines and involved a Serpico tirade — laden with obscenities and racial slurs — captured on video at a Village Board meeting.
Serpico “left his fingerprints, footprints and DNA all over the place,” according to an opinion U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger issued March 21. The case has a long history, but centers on Melrose Park officials issuing “62 tickets to an elderly couple for having lawn chairs in their front yard.” Each citation carried a $500 fine, and the village eventually put a lien on the house of Vincent and Angeline Cozzi.
The Cozzis, along with their live-in caretaker son, Michael, filed their lawsuit in February 2021. The preceding month, when Michael Cozzi tried to speak at a January 2021 meeting, Serpico told him, “Do me a fucking favor and sit down and shut the fuck up.” At a Feb. 4 meeting, Serpico shouted at Michael, calling him a “fucking shine” — an anti-Black slur — and insisting he and his parents lived “like a fucking hillbilly.”
Serpico has been mayor 20 years, and enjoys ties to influential Illinois politicians, including Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and elements of the political machine of former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
According to Seeger, the Cozzis placed chairs in their yard so they could meet safely with relatives during the early days of COVID-19. Vincent since has died after contracting the virus, according to court documents.
Cozzi said the village ramped up citations when he complained about the first two on social media and began attending public meetings. Cozzi then began getting parking tickets and threatening text messages, and police surveilled his home.
The village and Serpico moved to dismiss part of the complaint — a claim of due process violation, part of a claim regarding Christmas decorations related to freedom of religion protections — which the Cozzis agreed to drop — and a First Amendment violation allegation against the village.
“The due process claim fails to the extent that it rests on a mere violation of state procedural rights,” Seeger wrote. Because the Cozzis can pursue relief under the Illinois Administrative Review Act, which they are under a different count of their complaint, they “don’t lack a process to challenge what happened to them” at a hearing about the citations.
However, by “a wide margin,” according to Seeger, the First Amendment claim survives because the complaint adequately alleges government retaliation resulting from Michael Cozzi speaking up about what he considered harassment of his parents.
“There is more than enough in the complaint to allege that the conduct originated with a person with final decision-making power,” Seeger wrote. “Mayor Serpico wielded power on behalf of the village, and he used it to impose a policy and practice of punishing the Cozzis.”
Seeger noted under the village structure, Serpico “wields executive authority,” and noted the Village Board has rejected Serpico’s ordinances only twice in 24 years.
“In short, he runs the town,” Seeger wrote, noting the code enforcement officers who issued the initial two tickets “expressly stated” they came from Serpico, not the officers. “Mayor Serpico personally participated in the surveillance of the Cozzis’ home. And, in one particularly unfortunate episode, the mayor tried to pick a fight with Michael Cozzi outside his home. The mayor told Cozzi to count his blessings for the privilege of not getting beat up: “ ’You’re lucky I don’t get out of this car and beat your ass.’ ”
Seeger then examined “the toxicity” from the public meetings in early 2021, writing “that’s when Mayor Serpico completely lost it. He lost his cool. He lost his temper. And if he has any ability to express himself without using expletives, he lost that too.”
Quoting from the video, Seeger said Serpico told Cozzi: “You little fucking prick. Go on, shake your fucking head. You’re nothing but a fucking punk.”
Seeger’s opinion contained further excerpts, and a concluding characterization: “Even by contemporary standards, such as they are, that outburst was an extraordinary display of profanity and aggression,” Seeger wrote. “It suggests a deep level of personal animus. And it shows a willingness to abuse one’s position as a public servant. It was not the finest hour in the annals of public service.”
Saying the Cozzis’ complaint “paints a picture of state-sanctioned bullying,” Seeger also wrote that “reading the complaint as a whole, it takes a small step — not an inferential leap — to conclude that Mayor Serpico personally orchestrated the campaign of punitive tickets that rained down on the Cozzi family.”
That allegation, Seeger concluded, is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss.
Serpico and Melrose Park are defended by Cynthia Grandfield and K. Austin Zimmer, of Del Galdo Law Group, of Berwyn.
The Cozzis are represented by Gianna Scatchell, Cass T. Casper and Navarrio Wilkerson, of Disparti Law Group, of Chicago.