An East Dundee police officer has sued the village, its former chief of police and a police lieutenant, charging his constitutional rights were violated by the department.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, says detective Dan Duda’s treatment by the department after he had a heart attack in July 2016 breached his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the First Amendment, the suit said.
Duda charges that when he took medical leave to recover from his illness, he was asked to work without pay and was never compensated later, the suit said. He maintains he was later denied a promotion to sergeant in retaliation for taking time off and was unfairly disciplined by then-Police Chief Terry Mee, who retired in January.
The village denies the allegations, Village Administrator Jennifer Johnson said in a prepared statement.
“The village denies the allegations of wrongdoing in the complaint made by Officer Daniel Duda,” Johnsen wrote. “The village has treated Officer Duda fairly and properly at all times. This lawsuit will, in no way, affect the service that the police department provides to the residents and visitors of East Dundee. The village is addressing this matter with the assistance of the village’s insurance carrier.”
The suit says the First Amendment claims are tied to several issues, including the department’s disapproval of a “private association in his home with decades-long friend and also business associate”; Duda’s reporting a potential coverup of an incident involving a handcuffed prisoner at a hospital; and claims of “improper investigation of a juvenile case.”
The friend and business associate was a person Duda hired to do tile work in his home, Duda’s attorney Chris Langone said.
The person was the subject of a civil “stay-away order” brought by another police department employee but was not facing criminal charges, Langone said.
“(Duda) was having tile work done at his house. This person did not have any criminal convictions at the time — this was a civil matter,” he said. Mee and Lt. Michael Governdale, also named as a defendant, met with Duda about the situation. Following an internal investigation, Duda was given a five-day suspension, the suit claims.