Settlement reached in retired Joliet police chief’s federal lawsuit case

A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a retired Joliet police chief who claimed the former city manager drove her out of the police department and defamed her.

On Dec. 7, the attorneys involved in the case filed on Sept. 28, 2022 by retired Joliet Police Chief Dawn Malec agreed to dismiss it following a settlement agreement, court records show. Those attorneys included the ones representing Malec, the City of Joliet and James Capparelli, the former city manager who resigned last June.

Details on the settlement agreement were not immediately available on Monday.

Malec retired from the Joliet Police Department several months before filing her lawsuit against the city and Capparelli, who had hired her as chief in 2021 as part of a shakeup of the police department.

Malec became the first woman in the department’s history to serve in the top role.

Malec’s lawsuit claimed Capparelli issued three letters of reprimand against Malec without ever discussing the matters with her or responding to Malec’s own letters in her defense against the reprimands.

One of those reprimands concerned Malec’s attempt to discipline a police officer who was not identified. Following Capparelli’s failed attempt to fire Malec in 2021, she told The Herald-News that she had been threatened with dismissal if she proceeded with a disciplinary hearing on Sgt. Javier Esqueda.

Esqueda, who’s also retired, faces felony charges of official misconduct after he was accused of leaking the police squad video of Eric Lurry. He died in 2020 from what authorities said was a fatal drug overdose. The controversial video showed the events following Lurry’s arrest, including Joliet Police Sgt. Doug May slapping Lurry in the face and pinching his nose shut.

Malec’s lawsuit also alleged Capparelli had damaged her reputation by telling a former member of the Joliet Board of Fire and Police Commissioners that she was unmotivated and telling “many people who did not need to know that he intended to fire her.”

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly had dismissed several claims from Malec’s lawsuit. The judge determined Capparelli had authority to remove Malec as police chief and that neither Capparelli nor other city officials violated her whistleblower rights.

Kennelly did not dismiss an allegation that Capparelli defamed Malec by making public false claims that she had been insubordinate.