Joliet officials blame each other over cop cases

City Hall and the police department remain at odds over what to do about cop discipline.

Eleven pending discipline cases, including two terminations, have gone unresolved while awaiting hearings before the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.

As happened before, the police chief and city legal department are clashing over what to do about it.

“Here we are a year later in the very same place,” Tamara Cummings, an attorney for the police patrol officer’s union, told the City Council on Tuesday.

Cummings seemed to refer to the Brian Nagra and Lionel Allen cases, two dismissed officers whose cases were in the public eye a year ago as they collected pay without their charges being brought before the police board. The two officers later resigned.

Cummings called into the City Council meeting by phone to speak and said the 11 pending cases include two terminations, one that goes back to 2018.

"I'm not sure where the problem is, and we don't know where else to voice our frustration," Cummings said.

City Attorney Marty Shanahan told the council that the police board rules require the chief to bring charges.

"It's very clear that the chief must file the appropriate charges with the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners," Shanahan said, adding that he has told that to Chief Al Roechner.

Roechner said he's done what police board rules require and has filed disciplinary charges in the cases.

"My job is done," Roechner said. "It's in the hands of the attorneys when they're ready to do the case."

Roechner said Shanahan expects him to handle the case before the police board instead of the city's legal staff.

"That's what he's saying. I have to call the witnesses and everything," Roechner said. "It's never been done that way in the past."

When the Nagra and Allen cases were pending, Shanahan was the interim city manager.

At that time, Assistant City Attorney Chris Regis and Roechner were at odds over why the cases had not been brought to police board within 30 days after the two officers were dismissed.

Regis at a March 2019 police board meeting said the city legal staff had the authority to bring the charges against Nagra and Allen to the board and such cases could take months to prepare. Roechner told the board that he had filed the necessary termination papers in January and had expected a hearing to be held 30 days later, referring to police board rules.

Later in July, after Nagra resigned before a hearing was ever held, Regis blamed the lack of a hearing on the police chief, saying Roechner had filed “filed documents” but not “formal charges,”