After deliberating for approximately six hours over two days, a Federal Jury found that former Willow Springs Officers were wrongfully terminated. The Jury awarded Officers Bobby Sims and Phillip Wiseman 2.2 million after the two week long jury trial in Federal Court. The Officers were terminated in 2002 in violation of their First Amendment and Due Process rights the Jury found.
Bobby Sims and Phillip Wiseman were full time police officers who found themselves in the Police Department and the Village Administrations cross-hairs after they drafted a petition (signed by fellow officers) critical of the Police Department and Village’s handling of another police officer’s positive drug test. The administration claimed the officer came forward and confessed to having a drug problem and thereby they were obligated to allow the officer to retain his employment while he sought rehabilitation efforts. However, Officers Sims and Wiseman had been discussing the fellow officers drug use with the Village Administration for weeks prior to the officer being drug tested. Not only could the Plaintiffs’ demonstrate that the Village was aware they had reported misconduct to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, but also, the Plaintiffs’ were able to show that the Police Chief allowed the drug abusing officer to continue to patrol the streets of Willow Springs for a week after he had allegedly “voluntarily confessed” to being an abuser of drugs. In addition to the petition that the officers had prepared, they were able to prove that they were retaliated against because they reported various other misconduct by supervisory police personnel to the Cook County States Attorney’s Office.
