Joliet cops, city contend with federal lawsuits

Federal lawsuits concerning two Joliet police officers still are pending in court.

Joliet police officer Nicholas Crowley is contending with two lawsuits filed by men who were arrested on criminal charges that prosecutors later dropped.

His fiancée, Cassandra Socha, also a Joliet police officer, is suing the city of Joliet, Detective Edward Grizzle and other unnamed employees for allegedly violating her constitutional rights and privacy.

Neither Crowley nor Socha appear to have been arresting suspects in recent weeks. The Joliet police arrest log shows that before Dec. 17, Crowley and Socha last made arrests in October.

Attempts to reach Socha and Crowley for comment were unsuccessful. In response to questions about the two, Joliet Deputy Police Chief Darrell Gavin recommended filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

Calls to Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner were not returned.

Christopher Simenson, 35, and Milber Waters, 45, both have filed lawsuits against Crowley concerning past arrests.

In 2016, Simenson was arrested and charged with resisting. The case was dropped by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2017 because of no complaining witness. Simenson accused Crowley of severely injuring him and providing false information that led to his arrest.

Attorneys with Hervas, Condon & Bersani, who are representing Crowley and the city, have denied the allegations in Simenson’s lawsuit.

In 2016, Waters was arrested and charged with aggravated driving under the influence and other traffic offenses in connection with the death of Elliot Burks.

The state’s attorney’s office dropped the cases after forensic lab tests showed that Waters had no marijuana present in his blood and a low amount of it in his urine.

Waters filed a lawsuit against Crowley and Joliet police officer Arthur Arellano, accusing them of arresting him without probable cause or legal justification.

The city’s attorneys with Hervas, Condon & Bersani have denied the allegations in Waters’ lawsuit. Waters has since withdrawn two of six claims in his lawsuit that alleged malicious prosecution and false arrest.

Socha’s lawsuit alleges that Grizzle and other city employees retaliated against her for Crowley’s acquittal in a criminal trial where he was charged with recklessly firing his gun in her home while they were arguing.

Grizzle allegedly “seized on a text message” Socha sent to a witness in Crowley’s case, and obtained a search warrant for Socha’s cellphone.

The phone showed no evidence of wrongdoing but did contain private sexual images of Crowley and Socha, according to the suit.

Socha said those images were displayed to other city employees.

City officials and Grizzle have denied the allegations in Socha’s lawsuit. Grizzle denied that he found any images that depicted Socha nude or engaged in sexual acts with Crowley. He also denied that he was “unable to find evidence of any criminal offenses” on Socha’s phone.

A Sept. 27, 2017, internal affairs report concluded that Crowley recklessly discharged a firearm, committed domestic battery against Socha and criminally damaged her property.

In June, Crowley was suspended for 30 days for failure to perform his duties, conduct unbecoming of a police officer and other infractions.

City officials said Crowley’s unpaid suspension would be served intermittently and scheduled as manpower dictates.