Ex-Braidwood police chief, mayor sue parents of drug overdose victim

The former mayor and police chief of Braidwood have filed a lawsuit regarding what they claimed were defamatory statements made against them by the parents of a woman who died while pregnant from a fatal drug overdose.

The lawsuit was filed in Will County court by former Mayor Jim Vehrs and former Police Chief Nick Ficarello against Kim and Chris Earling, the parents of Samantha Kile, who was pregnant with her son, Jaxsen, when she died from an overdose of fentanyl Nov. 3, 2018.

Attorney Theresa Berkey’s New Lenox law firm is representing the two former public officials in their case against the Earlings over comments they were accused of making at a City Council meeting March 23 in Braidwood.

The lawsuit claimed Chris Earling spoke during public comments and said his daughter’s phone was “handed over to” Ficarello, which he “never logged into evidence,” and that Ficarello “destroyed the evidence.”

The lawsuit also claims that Kim Earling accused Ficarello of botching her daughter’s “investigation for drug-induced homicide case” and intentionally “didn’t log evidence.” She also is accused of claiming Ficarello committed fraud by filing an unemployment claim while collecting a police pension.

According to the lawsuit, Chris Earling caused a statement to be posted on the Braidwood Journal that said, “So the old Braidwood Chief of Police Ficarello has stopped by the City Council meetings again to try and convince the people that the $150,000.00 loan former Mayor Jim Vehrs got was legitmately used. He’s put more effort into this $150k loan for himself and Jim than he did trying to keep his department from going over budget $900k on the year he left.”

The lawsuit says Ficarello never altered, destroyed, absconded or lost Kile’s phone and that the funds from the $150,000 loan obtained by Braidwood city officials “were used, in all respects, for the purpose for which they were obtained.”

The loan was for renovating the Braidwood police station, fixing a drainage ditch and updating timekeeping and scheduling software used by police, according to the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the Earlings made defamatory statements against Ficarello and he suffered “damage to his reputation and other damages to be established at trial.”

“Because the foregoing defamatory statement was made with knowledge of its falsity and with actual malice, an award of punitive damages is warranted,” according to the lawsuit.

Vehrs claimed Chris Earling defamed him with his alleged statement about the $150,000 loan, according to the lawsuit.

In 2019, Colin West of Gardner was arrested by the Braidwood police and charged with drug-induced homicide in connection with the deaths of Samantha and Jaxsen Kile.

West also was charged with delivery of a controlled substance, involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide of an unborn child, Braidwood police said.

West’s case remains pending in Grundy County court.