Sadrud-Din v. City of Chicago

883 F. Supp. 270, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5365, 1995 WL 242223
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 24, 1995
Docket89 C 6903
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 883 F. Supp. 270 (Sadrud-Din v. City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sadrud-Din v. City of Chicago, 883 F. Supp. 270, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5365, 1995 WL 242223 (N.D. Ill. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

HOLDERMAN, District Judge:

Plaintiff Farida Sadrud-Din is the Administrator of the Estate of Selena Johnson, deceased. Plaintiff brings this case solely in her representative capacity as the adminis *272 trator of the estate against the City of Chicago and various individual police officer defendants. Plaintiffs claims arise from the events surrounding the murder of Selena Johnson in her home by her estranged husband, Chicago police officer Edward Johnson, on September 13, 1988. Plaintiff, at the time of her death, was also a Chicago police officer.

Currently before the court are defendant City’s motion for summary judgment, defendant Bonds’ motion for summary judgment, defendants Ivory, Boone and Nimocks’ joint motion for summary judgment and defendants’ joint motion to strike certain exhibits and portions of plaintiffs Amended 12N Statement. For the reasons stated below, defendants’ joint motion to strike is granted in part and denied in part, defendant City’s motion for summary judgment is denied, defendant Bonds’ motion for summary judgment is denied, the individual defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment is denied as to defendants Ivory and Boone, and granted as to defendant Nimocks.

BACKGROUND

At all times relevant to this case, Selena and Edward Johnson were police officers employed by the Chicago Police Department. Selena and Edward were married on February 19, 1973. Selena Johnson filed for divorce on June 29, 1988 on the ground of mental cruelty. 1 On July 12,1988, in connection with the divorce proceedings, Selena and Edward entered into an agreed order restraining each party from assaulting, beating, striking, abusing, molesting, threatening, or otherwise harassing the other party. 2 On June 29 and August 12, 1988, plaintiff obtained emergency orders of protection against Edward Johnson prohibiting him from committing physical abuse, harassment, interference with personal liberty and entering or remaining at Selena’s home. 3

Plaintiff contends that on May 30, 1988, as Selena and Edward Johnson were driving home, Edward reached for his gun, held the hammer of it back with his thumb and threatened to kill Selena. 4 Plaintiff alleges that two Chicago police officers then pulled up in their squad car, interrupted the assault, saw the gun in Edward’s hand, were informed of Edward’s death threats by Selena, yet did not arrest or disarm Edward, but instead drove Selena home and allowed Edward to follow in their car. 5

On August 4, 1988, plaintiff alleges that Edward Johnson, in violation of the June 29, 1988 order of protection, entered into Selena’s house and physically and verbally abused her. 6 On August 12, 1988, Selena obtained a further order of protection and filed a complaint against Edward with the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards (“OPS”). 7 OPS ruled the incident “not sustained,” meaning that it found that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the incident had occurred. 8

On August 29, 1988, Selena met with Edward’s commanding officer, defendant Commander James Ivory, and informed defendant Ivory about Edward’s abusive behavior over the past several months, including that Edward had threatened her with a gun and had punched her in the mouth, and about the complaints she had filed with OPS. 9 In response, Commander Ivory told Selena to submit a report in writing detailing all the abusive incidents. 10 Ivory left on vacation the following Monday, September 5, 1988. On the previous Friday, September 2, 1988, Selena submitted a letter to Commander Ivory detailing the abusive incidents from May *273 of 1988 through August 29, 1988. 11 In the letter, Selena asked Commander Ivory to take any action he could because she was in fear for her life. 12 In addition to sending the letter to Commander Ivory, plaintiff alleges that Selena sent copies of this letter to her own Chicago police commander, OPS, and the Internal Affairs Division of the Chicago Police Department. 13

On September 11, 1988, plaintiff alleges that Edward Johnson again threatened Selena’s life and physically abused her in her home. 14 In response to a complaint of violence at Selena’s home, Officers Nimoeks and McGinnis arrived at the scene to investigate. 15 Selena told Nimoeks that Edward had threatened her life and that she had an order of protection entered against Edward. 16 Pursuant to the policy of the Chicago Police Department which requires a supervisor to be notified and sent to the scene when an off-duty police officer is accused of a crime, Officer Nimoeks requested that a supervisor be sent to the scene. 17 Officer Ni-mocks’ sector sergeant, defendant Sergeant George Boone, shortly thereafter arrived at the scene. Sergeant Boone knew where Edward was located and talked with him on the phone. 18 Boone told Edward on the phone that he knew Edward slapped Selena around and that Selena wanted him arrested. 19 Boone did not arrest Edward Johnson. Ni-mocks did not arrest Edward because he did not know where he was and he was not given any instructions to do so by Boone, the supervisory officer at the scene. 20

Two days later, on September 13, 1988, Edward Johnson entered into Selena’s home, shot Selena eight times and killed her. Later that same day, Edward Johnson killed himself.

ANALYSIS

I. Motion to Strike

Defendants have filed a joint motion to strike certain exhibits and portions of plaintiffs Amended 12N Statement. More specifically, defendants move to strike portions of the deposition of Steven Bogira, a reporter for the Reader, a weekly newspaper distributed in the Chicago area; a Reader newspaper article written by Bogira entitled “Officers in Trouble;” 21 the September 2, 1988 letter from Selena Johnson to Commander James Ivory; statements of Selena Johnson contained in court files; and an anonymous letter received by Bogira following publication of his Reader article.

A. Anonymous Letter

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
883 F. Supp. 270, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5365, 1995 WL 242223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sadrud-din-v-city-of-chicago-ilnd-1995.