Sexual harassment lawsuit against Country Club Hills (more)
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Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
According to testimony from a forensic expert, thousands of web searches for pornography were discovered on four computers used by the Country Club Hills Fire Department. The findings emerged during a legal case involving Dena Lewis-Bystrzycki, a female firefighter who is suing the department. Andrew Garrett, the forensic expert who conducted the imaging on January 26, testified that the devices contained extensive traces of pornographic content.
Garrett explained that the hard drives had been wiped and reloaded, but after the computers were reconnected, the servers pushed down old user profiles, including browsing histories related to pornography. This raised questions about the department's digital practices and potential attempts to erase evidence.
Lewis-Bystrzycki, who has been with the department since 1998, claims she faced sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation for reporting misconduct. She also alleges that firefighters regularly watched pornography at the station.
In August 2016, a judge approved a forensic examination of the computers, ruling it was not an improper search. However, the examination didn’t happen until nearly five months later, after the city was sanctioned for non-compliance. The city was ordered to cover the costs of the forensic work as part of the penalties.
After news of the sanctions broke, the city’s lawyers filed an emergency motion seeking a gag order to prevent information from being shared with the media. They argued that without such an order, there could be serious harm to their right to a fair trial, citing past patterns of behavior by the plaintiff’s attorney.
The city also requested that any irrelevant data found on the computers be filtered before being released to the plaintiff. They feared this information could be used in a smear campaign against the department.
Dana Kurtz, Lewis-Bystrzycki’s lawyer, responded by denying the allegations and stating that the media had only reported on publicly available court documents. She pointed out that the city had already faced multiple sanctions, including a default judgment and paying legal fees due to their failure to respond to the lawsuit.
Kurtz accused the city of deliberately destroying evidence and engaging in spoliation. She also indicated that she would file motions related to evidence destruction once the forensic report was finalized.
Despite these serious accusations, legal experts like Dan Kirschner believe it is unlikely that the matter will be investigated by authorities. He suggests that the proper course of action is to bring the issue to the court and seek sanctions, which could include jury instructions or striking pleadings.
A hearing on the city’s protective order motion is scheduled for late next month.