A Chicago police detective alleges the department retaliated against her after she reported being threatened and attacked by another cop she had dated.
The detective contends in a lawsuit that she was removed from her job in a homicide unit and told to seek a new assignment after reporting the allegations to senior officials and the Bureau of Internal Affairs.
The detective was warned “not to cite a hostile work environment as the reason” for the transfer because it “would upset the department,” according to the suit, which was filed in October and identifies the officer only as Jane Doe.
She said her former boyfriend, also a detective, hit her and threatened to kill her. Despite producing emails and other messages containing the threats, the city “took no action to impose any consequence whatsoever,” the suit states.
His gun wasn’t taken away until a judge issued a protection order against him a month before the lawsuit was filed. He was then stripped of police powers.
He is challenging the order. The Sun-Times is not naming the officer because he has not been charged with a crime. His attorney declined to comment.
The detective joined the police department in 2013 and became involved in a relationship with the other cop around April 2022, according to her lawsuit.
She said she attempted to end the relationship on “numerous occasions” after he turned “violent and abusive,” including striking and choking her and forcing her to turn on her phone’s location notifications so he could track her movements.
“Why do you always want my location on you don’t believe me,” the detective asked him on Snapchat in September. He allegedly replied, “Bcuz u belong to me it’s my responsibility to know where u are OK.”
In another message exchange, he allegedly told her, “I want you crying... red faced... all while telling me u love me... do understand bitch?”
He also threatened to kill her with her own gun, which he said would make it look like a suicide if she left him, according to the suit. “I’ll kill u if we ever break up,” he allegedly wrote the detective on Snapchat.
He emailed her from his police department account in November 2022 and threatened to kill himself if she didn’t see him, the suit states. She agreed to meet with him, but when she did, “He became physically abusive and committed additional criminal acts against her,” according to the suit.
The detective said she reported the incidents to the internal affairs bureau chief, Yolanda Talley, who “didn’t even bother to respond,” the suit states.
She said she allowed internal affairs investigators to photograph her bruises, and she turned over “extensive materials to the department from her phone,” the suit says.
She said she also gave police permission to search her Snapchat account for more threats. The suit alleges the city never sought the documentation and didn’t conduct a meaningful investigation.
“Instead, the city only opened a sham investigation into one instance of criminal sexual assault, but interviewed no witnesses, gathered no evidence from [the fellow officer] or any third parties, and immediately closed the investigation with no criminal charges being brought,” according to the court filings.
“The city has also chosen to retaliate against Detective Doe by dumping her from her prestigious position with the homicide team and requiring that she move units, instructing her to cite ‘personal reasons’ rather than a hostile work environment, warning that reporting a hostile work environment would upset the department,” the suit states.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
A source told the Sun-Times the detective’s allegations are being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and internal affairs. A case had not been brought to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for charging consideration as of Thursday.
Meanwhile, the detective is seeking a two-year extension on the order of protection against her former boyfriend.
An emergency order was first issued Sept. 7 and included a requirement that he turn over his firearm owners identification card and any weapons in his possession.
In a court filing, his attorney wrote the detective had turned in his firearms and badge to Chicago police and was subsequently placed on “no-pay status.”
“The suspension and no pay status will cause financial hardship to the respondent and his family,” the attorney wrote.
A spokesperson for the department said the officer has been relieved of his police powers but was still listed as an active employee because he’s being paid for compensatory time he has accrued.
His filing also contended he had no contact with the detective in nearly a year. But the detective has said in court filings her former boyfriend had reached out to a fellow detective and “requested that she not testify.”
