Lawsuit: Intoxication arrest by Frankfort
cop cost Mokena firefighter his job
Will County judge hearing the ordinance violation case found
that prosecutors hadn’t proved their case and dismissed the charges, according
to Dvorak and records.
A former Mokena firefighter who was arrested and charged with
public intoxication while celebrating his marriage engagement is suing a
Frankfort police officer and the village for allegedly costing him his job.
Justin Haskett, 26, proposed to his girlfriend at her
Frankfort home in front of friends and family last June. During the
celebration, Haskett’s sister called village police to report that her parked
car had been damaged, according to the federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
When Justin Haskett criticized how the responding officer
was handling the situation, the officer arrested him under a public
intoxication ordinance the village adopted in February 2011, Haskett’s attorney
Richard Dvorak said.
“This officer really took a personal grudge and turned it
into a criminal arrest without any probable cause and this essentially
destroyed my client’s life,” Dvorak said.
Haskett was in his first probationary year of employment as
a firefighter-paramedic in Mokena, Dvorak said. The Blue Island resident was fired
after his bosses saw the arrest notice in a local newspaper, Dvorak said.
“Once they found out about the arrest, they immediately
fired him,” Dvorak said.
In November, the Will County judge hearing the ordinance
violation case found that prosecutors hadn’t proved their case and dismissed
the charges, according to Dvorak and records.
The lawsuit against Frankfort and the officer alleges that the village’s
public intoxication ordinance, which carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine,
is “clearly unconstitutional.”
Haskett is now working part-time as a firefighter-paramedic
in Country Club Hills. The couple, trying to save money after he lost his
Mokena job, have delayed their wedding until next year, Dvorak said.
Frankfort’s village administrator said today that he
couldn’t comment and hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit.