Driving back to her New Lenox home after dinner and drinks with a friend in July 2013, Laura Saari crashed her silver Nissan Versa and hit a road sign.
Saari, now 58, said in an interview that she swerved into the sign, about five blocks from her home, after being distracted by a driver who flipped her off.
“I should have stopped, but I didn’t,” she said. “I panicked, and I just wanted to get home.”
Once home, Saari parked her car, let the dog out and started changing into more comfortable clothes when she heard a knock at the door.
A police officer repeatedly told her to step outside, and after she attempted to shut the door, the cop “whipped open the screen door, slammed me against the wall and handcuffed me,” recalled Saari, who filed a federal lawsuit against the department over the incident.
“Was I injured? No,” she said. “But I was humiliated.”
New Lenox paid $7,500 to settle the lawsuit. Records show the Saari case is one of nine settled by New Lenox since 2004 for a combined $994,000 — a much larger total than many nearby communities of comparable or greater size.
In the same time frame, Crest Hill settled one lawsuit for $9,000; Lockport paid out $64,000 in two cases; Mokena settled two for $10,625; Frankfort settled four for $117,000; Orland Park settled one for $7,500; and Tinley Park settled four for $356,700, records show. By contrast, large settlements can skew the amount of police departments’ settlements, such as with one near-fatal officer-involved shooting case Oak Lawn settled in 2014 for $3 million.
New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann, who is a former Chicago Ridge top cop, and police Chief Bob Sterba in an interview defended the department while acknowledging there were problems before their arrival.
Even discounting five incidents since 2006 that occurred before both Baldermann’s and Sterba’s tenures, records show New Lenox has still paid out $402,500 across four settlements since 2008.
Baldermann said the department “wasn’t up to snuff” when he became mayor in 2007, prompting Sterba’s 2008 hire. Since then, the department has become more professional, and officials have gotten rid of several officers who have been involved in incidents, both said.
“Doesn’t make ’em bad people, but it does make us a good police department,” Sterba said.
Sterba also pointed out that a 2014 review of the Police Department’s training programs and policies by an outside firm found it “in the top percentile for best practice and controls.”
Of the nine settlements that the village has paid out, New Lenox officials said they felt three were justified due to improper police behavior.
They defended the actions of the officers named in three other settlements, however, attributing the payouts to “insurance decisions.”
In the remaining three cases, two of which occurred before their tenure, Baldermann and Sterba said they didn’t have enough information to comment.
These are the cases:
DeCarlo
The largest police misconduct settlement paid by New Lenox in the last decade went to Ramona DeCarlo.
DeCarlo filed suit against two New Lenox officers in 2006 alleging they kicked in the door of her home without provocation, swore at her, threw her on the couch and roughly placed a knee in her back while they handcuffed her, causing injuries.
The suit named two officers, but village officials blamed the incident on another cop who no longer works for the department.
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“That’s a bad hire, bad retention — from what I’m gathering, I have enough experience — bad police work,” Baldermann said.
The village settled with DeCarlo for $384,500 in 2008.
“I don’t think we were wronged by having to pay out a lawsuit there,” Baldermann said. DeCarlo could not be reached for comment.
Cerda
In February 2013, three New Lenox police officers pulled over Mark Cerda, who was driving a rental car to his parents’ home in Joliet.
Cerda parked the car in his parent’s driveway, and officers ordered him to step out of his vehicle, the lawsuit said. They first searched Cerda and allegedly slammed him on the hood of a car, used a Taser on him several times and brought him to the ground.
At one point, an officer took his asp — a telescopic metal tool used for striking — and hit the back of Cerda’s hand, breaking it, records and interviews show.
New Lenox settled the case for $25,000, and the officer involved no longer works for the department, officials said.
Sterba and Baldermann said officers are trained to use an asp only on fleshy parts of the body. The officer involved made a mistake but was not a brutal cop, they said.
“He’s involved in a bad situation,” Baldermann said. “Did he make a split-second, poor judgment call on hitting someone in the hand with an asp? I would say, ‘Yeah.’ “
This lawsuit didn’t go on for 10 or 12 years, Baldermann noted, “and the reason it didn’t is because we didn’t find the action by this officer appropriate.”
Cerda could not be reached for comment.
Saari
That same officer was also involved in Saari’s case, records and interviews show.
The officer and his partner refused to let Saari use the restroom and instead took her right to the police station, where she was charged with driving under the influence, Saari said.
It took about a year, but she eventually got the charge dismissed and had the case expunged on the grounds that it was an unreasonable search and seizure.
She received a $7,500 settlement from the village, records show.
After the incident, Saari said, she made sure to drive extremely cautiously in New Lenox, for fear of having another altercation with police.
“It’s a very eye-opening experience to you, it makes you constantly look over your shoulder,” she said. “I was worried about some kind of retribution after I sued them. I figured my name would be on the list — ‘If you see this car with this plate, make sure you pull her over.’ “
“Nothing like that ever happened, but I was always thinking about it,” said Saari, who moved to Schererville, Ind., last year, in part because of stress from the incident.
Baldermann said that case reflected “bad judgment” by the officer and called it a “bad move.”
Herring
Willie Earl Herring, 50, of Gardner, sued the village in 2006 alleging that officers detained him and subjected him to excessive force without probable cause in 2004.
Herring claimed that he suffered a nervous breakdown while staying at the Walona Hotel in New Lenox and took off running down Route 30 eastbound.
His suit alleges that responding New Lenox police officers tackled him to the ground and treated him roughly while attempting to get him back on his feet. One officer punched him in the head, according to the suit.
Herring, who lost consciousness, claims in the suit that he spent days in the intensive care unit at Silver Cross Hospital and was unable to work for the next 18 months. The village settled with him for $7,000 in 2009.
The incident predated both Baldermann’s and Sterba’s tenures.
Herring could not be reached for comment.
Wilhelm
In August 2008, Brian Wilhelm said, he heard a boom outside his house.
Wilhelm, who is an Iraq War veteran with a prosthetic leg, said he thought it was a gun. Two cars had collided down the street, and Wilhelm sprinted to help.
When Wilhelm arrived at the scene, he tore his shirt and made a makeshift bandage to help a young passenger bleeding from the forehead, he said. The driver of that car was missing, Wilhelm said.
Police arrived and believed Wilhelm was the missing driver, he claimed in a lawsuit. By his own admission, Wilhelm had “about eight beers” that night.
As he helped an injured passenger from a car, Wilhelm said, he explained to police that he was only trying to help, but the conversation became heated. Wilhelm said the officers looked shaken and unable to process the trauma. Sterba said Wilhelm was clearly interfering with police.
Tensions rose. During an argument with an officer, where Wilhelm acknowledged touching the cop, the officer’s partner used a Taser on Wilhelm.
Police then handcuffed him, threatened to use the Taser again and forced his head to the ground, Wilhelm said.
The village settled for $150,000. All Wilhelm really wanted was an apology, he said. He’s still waiting.
“I’ve been in crappy situations in war zones, and I get that stuff happens sometimes,” he said. “I totally get that. But they refused to admit they did anything wrong, and that’s the part that’s disturbing.”
In that case, Sterba and Baldermann said New Lenox police did everything right. A tape of the incident proves it, they said. Wilhelm was being confrontational, and the officer used a Taser, avoiding injury. That’s the “beauty of the Taser,” Sterba said.
“Nobody’s got to get their hand broken,” Sterba said. “There’s no wrestling match. There’s none of those accidental injuries that could occur. This is a textbook case where it worked exactly like it’s supposed to.”
Sterba and Baldermann both said the case wasn’t one where they felt they should’ve paid out.
“Not 10 cents,” Sterba said. “What were his injuries? Other than his feelings hurt.”
Baldermann said the case should “infuriate every taxpayer” in town.
“He was not injured, and we paid out $150,000? That’s what’s wrong with society,” Baldermann said.
Degironne
In August 2008, a police officer pulled over Mark Degironne in response to a dispatch that a man driving a red Ford F-150 pickup truck had broken windows at the Gyro Shack.
The officer asked Degironne to search the car for evidence of the crime but found none, according to a lawsuit.
The officer then opened a sunglasses case in the car and found cocaine inside, leading the village to charge Degironne with felony drug possession.
That charge was dropped after a Will County judge ruled that the search of the sunglasses case was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment, court records show.
Degironne sued for unlawful search, and the village paid out $10,000.
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Baldermann and Sterba said the case reflects a gray zone in terms of what constitutes an unlawful search. As a general proposition, Sterba said, if an unlawful search case like this one was brought before several different judges, there would be a diversity of opinions.
Baldermann had a less layered view.
“So you’re telling me that this guy’s upset because someone found cocaine in his car?” Baldermann said. “I mean, c’mon.”
Baldermann said he’d prefer his officers be out aggressively “making sure our town is safe” than not.
Degironne could not be reached for comment.
Hoholik
In October 2011, Laura Hoholik sued New Lenox police, alleging an officer had earlier that year subjected her to excessive force following a stop near the Metra station on Route 30.
It’s not clear when the excessive force occurred, or what it entailed.
Sterba said he and the mayor viewed video of the interaction and didn’t see their officer exhibit any improper behavior.
“We’re watching him effect this arrest — ‘Yes, ma’am. May I help you, ma’am?’ — he couldn’t have been more polite,” Sterba said. “I was prideful watching him.
“He could not have been more courteous or more polite or more professional arresting this woman. Then he turned from this polite person to some sort of jackal in the police station? I don’t believe a word of it. I never did. I think this was another business decision.”
The village paid out $220,000 to settle the case in 2013.
“The insurance company at some point, at some threshold, said ‘Forget it. This thing could drag on for years, it’s going to cost us more in attorney fees,’ ” Baldermann said, adding that he was not pleased with the outcome.
Hoholik could not be reached for comment.
Reyes-Franklin
In September 2004, Blanca Reyes-Franklin was visiting someone in custody at the New Lenox police station when several officers pulled her from a chair and slammed her face-first into the ground, a lawsuit she filed against the village alleges.
Then one officer pulled her by her hair down the hall, slammed her into a wall, swung her around and threw her down on a bench, the lawsuit claimed.
Reyes-Franklin was taken to the hospital with injures and charged with battery and resisting arrest.
The charges were later dismissed, and the case settled for $40,000, according to the lawsuit.
Reyes-Franklin could not be reached for comment. The case predated both Baldermann and Sterba.
Kowalski
A police officer pulled over David Kowalski, allegedly for having a light out on his license plate, court records show.
The police officer said he smelled alcohol on Kowalski’s breath and asked him to take a field sobriety test, which he failed, a lawsuit filed by Kowalski said.
Kowalski’s wife, April, who was in the car with him, told police that her husband had a bad leg that threw off his gait and said he wasn’t drunk, the lawsuit said.
The officer arrested David Kowalski and grabbed a wallet from the passenger seat; the wallet was full of money because the Kowalskis had been out selling Girl Scout cookies for their daughter, the lawsuit claimed.
The cop took Kowalski’s wife to the ground after she told him to stop, the lawsuit claims, and she was hospitalized with facial lacerations and multiple contusions.
David Kowalski subsequently was found not guilty of DUI, according to county court records. His wife found guilty of battery in relation to the incident but was acquitted of resisting a peace officer. She was sentenced to 12 months of supervision and had to complete an anger management class, court records show.
Baldermann said he had been mayor for only a short time and wasn’t intimately familiar with the case. The case predated Sterba.
“There’s a couple where I told you, ‘Yeah, I think we’re wrong all day,’ and there’s a couple where I’ve said, ‘Complete nonsense,’ ” Baldermann said. “This one I don’t know enough about.”
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