Joliet’s first female police chief gets $100,000 in settlement with city

Former Joliet Police Chief Dawn Malec gets $100,000 from her settlement with the city but says she still believes she did not get fair treatment as Joliet’s first female police chief.

Malec and the city of Joliet settled her lawsuit in early December but details of the settlement were not immediately released.

Malec was the first female police chief for Joliet when she was promoted from her position as a lieutenant in the patrol division in January 2021 by former City Manager James Capparelli in his first week on the job.

Capparelli demoted her less than a year later in a process that misfired from the start and led to Malec’s lawsuit claiming, among other things, that she was defamed by the former city manager.

In a statement released by her attorney, Malec said her service with the Joliet Police Department “was shorter than I intended.”

“I filed this lawsuit because I did not believe I was treated fairly as Joliet’s first and only female chief of police,” Malec said in the statement. “I still believe this, but I agreed to resolve this dispute now simply because accepting the settlement amount that Joliet was willing to pay made more sense financially than continuing to trial.”

The settlement does not attribute blame and states that both sides wanted to avoid the cost and uncertainty of future litigation.

Malec initially was fired by Capparelli, and the city issued a statement in October 2021 that she no longer was working for the city. Capparelli had to backtrack in a matter of days after learning that Illinois law requires that police chiefs be demoted to their former position rather than being fired.

Malec returned to her rank of lieutenant, but retired in July 2022. She filed her lawsuit against Capparelli and the city two months later.

The lawsuit was one more chapter in a series of police chief controversies in Joliet that has appeared to have subsided since current Chief William Evans was hired in February 2022. Evans was the fourth police chief in less than four years.

Malec replaced Al Roechner, who resigned the week Capparelli was hired amid rumors that the arrival of a new city manager put his job in jeopardy.

Roechner was at odds with former Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who has filed a lawsuit accusing the former police chief and others of conspiring against him.

Capparelli himself was hired after a string of interim city managers under O’Dekirk, who backed Capparelli but was at odds with the City Council over who should fill the job.

Capparelli held the job under two one-year contracts and a final six-month contract before he resigned in June as the the City Council under new Mayor Terry D’Arcy launched a national search for a city manager.

New City Manager Beth Beatty arrived Dec. 11, and she is the first female city manager for Joliet.