Fired Chicago police oversight official files whistleblower suit, alleging anti-cop bias drives probes
A former high-ranking police oversight official has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Chicago, alleging he was wrongfully fired after raising alarms about bias and mismanagement within the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Cook County by former COPA deputy chief administrator Matthew Haynam, marks the latest broadside against the agency charged with probing serious allegations of police misconduct, including officer-involved shootings.
The suit claims COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten fired him and another COPA employee, Garrett Schaaf, after they complained to both a civilian oversight panel and the city's top watchdog about the integrity of COPA's investigations and the allegedly prejudicial actions of agency leaders.
Devlin Schoop, the attorney representing both former officials, said Schaaf was expected to file suit Friday. They were both terminated on Aug. 30 amid a firestorm at COPA.
By then, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability had already asked Inspector General Deborah Witzburg's office to probe "the quality and integrity" of COPA investigations and allegations of whistleblower retaliation.
Meanwhile, the Fraternal Order of Police has filed a federal lawsuit alleging COPA conducted "biased and unfair investigations."
After Haynam and Schaaf were terminated, 16 current or former COPA employees sent a letter asking the community commission to consider taking the first step toward removing Kersten. The commission held a closed-door meeting with some of the authors last week.
A spokesperson for COPA declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. Ephraim Eaddy, COPA's first deputy chief administrator, previously bushed back on claims about an "anti-police bias," noting that just 14% of COPA investigations closed last year resulted in sustained misconduct findings.
"We remain committed to the work and our responsibility to receive complaints [and] investigate those complaints, to receive compliments of officers," Eaddy previously said. "And our obligation is to the city of Chicago at large, and we are still committed to that and have been committed since COPA launched in 2017."
But the lawsuit filed by Haynam, a licensed attorney who previously worked at the police department, serves as an indictment of Chicago's troubled efforts to create a fair system of civilian police oversight. It paints Kersten as "a person with an agenda" who uses "high-profile cases to gain media spotlight for self-promotion and career advancement."
In June 2023, COPA launched a high-profile investigation into allegations that a police officer had impregnated an underage migrant. Haynam claims Kersten used the probe to curry favor with Mayor Brandon Johnson, knowing the mayor "needed to create the public perception that his administration was being proactive at holding police accountable and protecting migrants."
Within months, Kersten announced that COPA found no evidence corroborating the shocking allegations. The suit claims the investigation was built on a spurious "rumor" spread by some city employees and it slams the investigatory tactics as "haphazard," improper and secretive.
Internal concerns "about investigatory integrity reached a boiling point" after Dexter Reed was fatally shot by police after opening fire during a traffic stop in March 2023, according to the suit.
It claims that Kersten broke protocols and "strictly forbade the lead investigator" from discussing the ongoing probe with anyone but herself "and a few select members of the lead investigator's team." Although that investigator reported to Haynam, he was cut out of the loop.
Kersten then made public comments that were "unsupported by the actual evidence," according to the suit, including her claim that officers said they stopped Reed for a seat belt violation. At that time, the officers hadn't been interviewed by COPA or provided the agency with a reason for the stop.
Kersten urged Police Supt. Larry Snelling to strip the officers of their policing powers in an explosive memo on April 1, questioning whether the officers had lied about the reason for the stop.
Snelling later dismissed Kersten's account as "misleading at best," accusing her office of "framing the mind of the people" ahead of the video's release.
"I've made no statements about it because I don't want to poison the well when it comes to this shooting," Snelling said, adding that COPA "doesn't exist to create a bias" and warning that any possible impropriety "jeopardizes the integrity of that investigation."
Haynam insists in his lawsuit that Kersten's assumptions "reveal her willingness to engage in confirmation bias while investigating police misconduct allegations."
"Unwilling or unable to allow the lack of evidence get in the way of her narrative," the suit says, "Kersten ignored the lack of evidence and made a demonstrably reckless statement to the general public."
The suit alleges retaliation and violations of the state's whistleblower law. Haynam is seeking unspecified damages "and any other relief as is just and equitable."
