$287,000 settlement reached in Joliet police officer’s federal privacy lawsuit

The city of Joliet has agreed to pay a Joliet police officer $287,000 in exchange for her dropping what remains of a lawsuit that claimed a detective intentionally accessed a nude photo on her cellphone.

City officials released the settlement agreement involving officer Cassandra Socha on Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Socha accepted a $287,000 settlement from the city, with each side bearing their own costs and attorney fees, according to the agreement.

Both parties acknowledged that the settlement is not an admission of “liability or of unconstitutional or illegal conduct” on the part of the city, the police department or its officers.

The settlement was reached to “avoid the expense and uncertainty of continuing litigation.”

The settlement marks the end of a 2018 federal lawsuit filed by Socha. The lawsuit initially claimed that Joliet Police Sgt. Ed Grizzle and 20 “John Doe” police department employees accessed her nude photos on her phone.

Grizzle applied for a search warrant for Socha’s phone as part of an investigation into allegations that she sent a single harassing text message to a witness who testified at the 2018 trial of Socha’s fiancée, Joliet police officer Nicholas Crowley.

A federal judge determined that Socha had no material evidence that Grizzle ever saw any of her nude photos, and she never pursued her claims against the 20 “John Does.”

After the judge dismissed Socha’s case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago revived her case in an appeal that was partially successful.

The 7th Circuit ruled that a jury could weigh Socha’s claims against the city and, effectively, Joliet Police Detective Donald McKinney, who was not named as a defendant in the original case.

Attorneys for Joliet contend that McKinney was undergoing training through the Cellebrite software program that analyzes cellphone data when he accessed Socha’s photos by accident.

U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Kirsch blasted the search warrant for Socha’s phone that was approved by Will County Judge Sarah Jones.

“We don’t search apartment buildings looking for drugs in a single apartment, OK? That is an over broad search warrant,” Kirsch said.

In 2017, Crowley had been arrested on charges of battering Socha and reckless firing of a gun.

A grand jury declined to approve the domestic battery charges against Crowley. In 2018, Will County Chief Judge Dan Kennedy acquitted Crowley of recklessly firing a gun.

Kennedy nevertheless criticized the “actions and behavior” of Socha and Crowley that led to the latter’s arrest.

“[You] demeaned the department which you worked and demeaned our community, which you took an oath to serve and protect. You broke your oath,” Kennedy said in 2018.