Chicago Police officers may not have constitutional rights to fair and unbiased investigations by the city's civilian police oversight agency when their jobs are imperiled by accusations of official misconduct, a federal judge has ruled.
On April 24, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso dismissed, for now, a lawsuit lodged by the union representing Chicago's rank and file police officers, as well as eight individual officers, against the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and the agency's former director, Andrea Kersten.
The lawsuit also named as defendants the Chicago Police Department, the city of Chicago and other individual defendants associated with COPA and CPD.
In the decision, Alonso said the officers and their union, Chicago John Dineen Lodge #7, hadn't done enough to back their contention that the officers' rights to due process and equal treatment under the law had been violated by allegedly flawed investigations conducted by investigators allegedly tainted by anti-police bias.
Alonso particularly said the officers and their union had not established their claim COPA's allegedly biased investigations had resulted in deprivation of a constitutional "property right," as the officers had not, to this point, lost their jobs or been suspended from their jobs.
"... The mere risk that deprivation of a property interest may occur does not itself constitute deprivation," Alonso wrote.
Alonso further declared police officers are not a "protected class" under either state or federal law, which could trigger protection against alleged anti-police discrimination or bias from government agents, like COPA.
The officers and Lodge 7 had filed the lawsuit in 2024.
In the suit, the officers and their union accused Kersten and COPA, in particular, of conducting "unconstitutional, biased and untimely investigations" against police officers accused of professional misconduct.
The complaint accused COPA and Kersten of ignoring official reports, dragging out investigations, waiting years to interview officers, and in some cases allegedly "fabricating facts to support its findings," when investigating officers accused of conducting alleged improper searches; allegedly improperly pointing weapons at suspects when responding to calls; improperly pursuing suspects against department policy and procedures, resulting in suspect's deaths; domestic incidents involving spouses and estranged spouses; and other alleged misconduct.
The investigations allegedly resulted in recommendations for overly harsh suspensions from duty for the accused officers, ranging from 10 days to a full year.
However, according to court documents, the union has contested the suspension recommendations, sending them to arbitration. There, arbitrators have reportedly overturned five of the eight suspension recommendations.
The other three are currently pending in arbitration, according to court documents.
None of the officers have suffered any job losses or suspensions, court documents said.
Kersten and COPA have clashed with Chicago Police and the police union for years.
Kersten, for instance, was accused in a lawsuit filed by a COPA deputy investigator of allegedly conducting "self-serving" investigations launched to push an anti-police narrative, allegedly regardless of the actual facts.
That lawsuit, from former COPA deputy administrator Matthew Haynam, had come in the wake of COPA's acrimonious preliminary handling of the investigation into the death of Dexter Reed amid a shootout with police that reportedly began when Reed fired at police from inside his vehicle during a traffic stop.
Despite evidence showing Reed likely fired first and no investigation completed, Kersten and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson moved quickly to fault police for the traffic stop and everything that happened after, including their decision to collectively fire at and kill Reed after he opened fire on them.
In Haynam's lawsuit, he asserted Kersten improperly intervened in the investigation of Reed's death and made public comments about the incident she knew were "unsupported by the actual evidence adduced in the investigatory file," including comments asserting officers had "fabricated" a reason for initiating the traffic stop.
Kersten then "publicly demanded" Chicago Police "immediately relieve the officers involved in the Reed traffic stop of their police powers."
Officers had not yet even been interviewed by COPA at the time Kersten made the statements, the lawsuit asserts.
Kersten also sent a letter to Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling about Reed's death in which Kersten said her initial review of video of the incident raised concerns over the officers' justification for the traffic stop and officers' actions up to and including their decision to collectively fire at and kill Reed that day after he fired at them.
The letter was obtained and made public by WTTW News. It then served as the centerpiece of a lawsuit Reed's mother filed against the city of Chicago over Reed's death.
An attempt by the Johnson administration to settle the lawsuit and pay Reed's mother and her lawyers $1.25 million was rejected by the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee, amid public outrage over the appearance of paying city money to the family of people killed while shooting at police, in the name of apparent racial justice.
Reed's mother's lawsuit remains pending in federal court.
Kersten resigned her post as head of COPA in February. Published reports indicated she faced a no-confidence vote from a COPA panel.
Haynam's lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on March 25, according to court records.
Meanwhile, Chicago police officers and their union have persisted in their claims against the city, the police department and COPA, asserting their rights have been violated by similar allegedly unfair and biased investigations.
While Alonso dismissed their lawsuit, he did so without prejudice, meaning the officers and the union have an opportunity to amend their lawsuit to attempt to address the perceived shortcomings and try again to press their claims.
The police officers and their union are represented by attorney Pasquale A. Fioretto and others with the firm of Baum Sigman Auerbach & Neuman, of Chicago.
The officers are seeking unspecified money damages from the defendants, including "the value of compensation and benefits lost" as a result of the investigations; damages for "emotional distress;" and punitive damages, plus attorney fees.