There will be no change of judges overseeing a politically charged lawsuit brought by the former head of the Illinois State Police’s disciplinary board against a woman he claims used her political connections to Gov. JB Pritzker to get him fired, after a newly appointed federal judge, who had earlier served on the State Police board under Pritzker, recused herself, cutting short a move by Chicago’s chief federal judges to reassign the case to the new judge.
On Oct. 3, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who serves as chief judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, signed an order reassigning the lawsuit filed by Jack Garcia, former director of the Illinois State Police Merit Board, against Jenny Thornley, a former Illinois state worker.
The order would have transferred that lawsuit from U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, to new U.S. District Judge Nancy Maldonado.
Maldonado was appointed this summer to the court by President Joe Biden. Her appointment was hailed as the first of its kind for a Latino woman on Chicago’s federal bench.
As Maldonado assumed her duties, the Executive Committee for the Northern District of Illinois ordered on Sept. 19 to redistribute dozens of cases from other federal judges to Maldonado, as part of her initial docket of cases.
Garcia’s lawsuit against Thornley was one of those cases.
However, that decision was quickly reversed in a new order issued by Judge Pallmeyer on Oct. 13. In that order, Pallmeyer indicated Maldonado recused herself from hearing Garcia’s case, because she had previously served as a member on the State Police Merit Board from 2019-2022.
She had been appointed to that position by Gov. JB Pritzker.
In Garcia’s lawsuit, he claims Thornley used her alleged political and personal connections to Pritzker to attempt to thwart an investigation into allegations of misconduct against her, and then to get him removed from his position as director of the ISP Merit Board.
Thornley had initiated the court fight in April 2021, suing Garcia and the ISP Merit Board. She accused the Merit Board of firing her in retaliation after she accused Garcia of sexual assault.
Thornley had served as the chief fiscal officer and director of personnel at the Merit Board.
Garcia then responded by suing Thornley, asserting Thornley’s claims were fabricated, as she sought to shield herself from an investigation into accusations that she falsified her timesheets and allegedly forged Garcia’s signature to get paid overtime for hours she had allegedly not worked.
Garcia reported his claims to the Office of the Executive Inspector General. That then allegedly led Thornley to launch a campaign against him, accusing him of sexual assault and calling on political allies, allegedly including the governor and his wife, M.K. Pritzker, to get Garcia removed from his post.
Thornley had worked on Pritzker’s 2018 election campaign.
Garcia was later removed, and the investigation into Thornley’s alleged misconduct was temporarily halted.
A later outside investigation into Thornley’s sexual assault claims and Garcia’s fraud and theft claims against Thornley led to criminal charges against Thornley and her termination. The outside investigators found no basis to Thornley’s claims.
Garcia was restored to his former post in July 2020. But in September 2021, Pritzker signed a law enacted by the Democrat-dominated Illinois General Assembly, forbidding anyone who previously worked for the Illinois State Police from holding the top spot at the Merit Board. That again forced Garcia from his job.
Critics have asserted that law was intentionally passed to target and remove Garcia.
Thornley has claimed the investigation that led to criminal charges against her was a sham, conducted by people friendly to Garcia.
However, after she was removed from her job following the investigation, Thornley filed for workers’ comp, based on those unfounded sexual assault claims. Thornley allegedly listed Gov. Pritzker as her supervisor, even though she had worked at the Merit Board. Documents also indicate she sent M.K. Pritzker a text about the issue.
In all, the Chicago Tribune reported in December that Thornley was paid more than $71,000 in workers’ comp and disability benefits from that claim.
At the same time as the lawsuits were filed, prosecutors also are moving ahead with criminal charges against Thornley.
That prompted her to ask Judge Coleman, who had been assigned the case, to put Garcia’s lawsuit on hold until the criminal case was completed.
However, most recently, Judge Coleman had signaled she was willing to consider allowing Garcia’s case to resume. After a hearing on Sept. 9, Coleman directed the parties to present their arguments over why she should continue to pause Garcia’s lawsuit.
Ten days later, the Northern District’s Executive Committee grouped Garcia’s case among the dozens of others to be transferred to Judge Maldonado.
After Maldonado recused herself, Judge Pallmeyer ordered Garcia’s case to be returned to Judge Coleman.
However, Garcia’s case is not likely to resume before the November election, in which Pritzker is seeking reelection against Republican nominee Darren Bailey.
The office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has said they referred the workers’ comp fraud claims against Thornley to the appellate prosecutor’s office, which is also handling the prosecution against Thornley over the overtime fraud and forgery charges.
However, the appellate prosecutor's office has indicated it received no order directing it to investigate, according to reports published by The Center Square. And The Center Square reported that no court order has yet been issued directing an investigation into the workers' comp fraud allegations against Thornley, despite the Attorney General's claims.
Raoul has also asked a court to dismiss a civil lawsuit against Thornley on behalf of state taxpayers to recover the allegedly fraudulent workers' comp payments, claiming they had investigated the matter and determined the state had no interest in continuing to pursue Thornley. That dismissal has been appealed.