The Village of Orland Park has reached a settlement agreement with former Police Sgt. Kenneth Kovac to fully resolve his lawsuit against the village and five high-ranking former or current police officers.
Mayor Jim Dodge said he was happy the case was resolved.
“We were determined to clean up all the litigation from the previous administration,” Dodge said, Friday referring to the lawsuit filed under the previous mayor. “This settlement closes the book on this issue. We are actively working to resolve all open litigation held over from the prior administration as quickly as possible.
“This is one of many cases that Village of Orland Park was involved in and our focus is on strengthening trust, improving operations, and ensuring the Village of Orland Park continues to move forward responsibly and transparently for our residents.”
The suit was filed March 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
His attorney said Kovac was suing for violations of free speech and protection from unlawful search and seizure. Kovac made a Facebook page parodying then-Deputy Chief of Police Brian West and the suit claimed West worked to shut down the parody page and enlisted other high-ranking officers to investigate, arrest, and criminally charge Kovac for false personation and disorderly conduct, alleged crimes for which he faced up to one year of imprisonment. A Cook County Circuit Court judge dismissed both criminal charges nine months after they were filed.
A second lawsuit by former Sgt. William Sanchez alleges that the Orland Park Police Department denied him a promotion to lieutenant due to apparent race discrimination. After he formally complained to Chief of Police Eric Rossi and to the Orland Park Human Resources department and filed charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the OPPD fired him in an act of retaliation, according to his lawsuit. Sanchez was a member of the police force for more than 19 years and was on track to be promoted to lieutenant–something other white officers, all who had formerly held his position as a Traffic Safety Unit supervisor, had already achieved.
Sanchez’s complaint also alleges that he had witnessed troubling race-based incidents within his workplace, including a colleague who was promoted even after being photographed wearing blackface and another colleague who the OPPD hired even though he had been recorded making racist remarks against an African-American arrestee. Sanchez said he felt incidents like this were part of a culture of racial bias that extended to his lack of promotion.
After an investigation described as a “sham” in the lawsuit, Orland Park terminated Sanchez’s employment for making discrimination complaints the Village considered “unfounded.”
A neutral arbitrator recently determined that the village lacked good cause to terminate Sanchez.
Under the Kovac settlement agreement, the village and its insurance carrier agreed to pay $175,000 to Kovac in exchange for dismissal of the case.
The agreement also spells out that each party will be responsible for their own legal fees and costs. The village and all named police officers deny all allegations of wrongdoing, and the settlement was made as a cost-of-defense decision by the village and the village’s insurance carrier, not as an admission of liability or fault.
All claims against the village, its employees, and the individual officers are in the process of being dismissed with prejudice pursuant to settlement with the village only, bringing the matter to a full and final resolution.
Mayor Dodge said the village remains committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in serving its residents and ensuring the community continues to move forward.