Federal Lawsuit Claims Evergreen Park Trustee and Cop Son Abused Family, Enabled by Mayor and Village

Mayor James Sexton (top), the village, and trustee Daniel McKeown Sr. have been named as co-defendants in a federal lawsuit, along with Daniel McKeown Jr., a former Evergreen Park police officer.

An Evergreen Park family has filed a federal lawsuit over claims they were stalked, harassed and discriminated against by certain village elected officials and a former village police officer.

Plaintiffs Keith and Barbara Krummick, along with their minor children, maintain they were harassed by their neighbors, trustee Daniel McKeown Sr., and his son, Daniel McKeown Jr., a former Evergreen Park police officer.

The federal civil suit comes in the wake of the elder McKeown’s conviction for disorderly conduct last May, in which a Cook County judge reportedly referred to the trustee as a “bully.”

Between 2012 and 2015, the Krummicks allege the village trustee and his police officer son abused their positions of power by regularly harassing the family “with malicious motives and without any rational basis.”

Condoning and enabling the trustee and his son’s alleged bad behavior is Mayor James Sexton, who, along with the Village of Evergreen Park, is named as a co-defendant in the complaint.

Leading up to the elder McKeown’s arrest in July 2014, the plaintiffs accuse both McKeowns of intentionally damaging the Krummicks’ Chevy Tahoe by packing it in snow and bending the passenger side mirror in various separate incidents.

Officer Daniel McKeown Jr. is also described in the complaint as regularly “stalking” the plaintiffs while in uniform and in his police vehicle, following Mrs. Krummick and her daughter through a Walmart parking lot, and following the couple’s daughter at a Speedway gas station.

The complaint also alleges 35 separate incidents of incessant car honking by both McKeowns when driving past the Krummick residence, and blasting loud music in the plaintiffs’ direction at a “decibel that violated local laws.”

Although reports were filed with the Evergreen Park Police Department, including a video of Trustee McKeown caught in the act of vandalizing the Krummicks’ Chevy Tahoe, as well as recordings of the incessant horn honking, “EPPD did nothing,” the complaint maintains.

“This inaction was due to the policy and practice of the Village of Evergreen Park, Illinois, to allow its trustees and police officers to commit misconduct with impunity … Furthermore, upon information and belief, EPPD did nothing based upon the direct orders from Trustee McKeown and/or Mayor Sexton.”

On July 24, 2014, the day of McKeown’s arrest on a disorderly conduct charge, Evergreen Park police were dispatched to the trustee’s residence for a disturbance. The village trustee is said to have brazenly responded to officers that “they couldn’t do anything to him because he would call Mayor Sexton” -- proving that Sexton was personally aware of and encouraged the McKeowns’ ongoing abuse of their neighbors,” the plaintiffs allege.

Daniel McKeown Sr. was found guilty of disorderly conduct on May 19 after a daylong trial before Fifth District Chief Judge Raymond Jagielski. According to the complaint, Judge Jagielski is reported to have commented, “In this court’s opinion, we see you as a bully.”

Officer McKeown has since resigned from the Evergreen Park Police Department “under a shadow of disciplinary proceedings” because of his own role in the alleged misconduct. He is said to still be wearing a badge working for another police department.

The Krummicks’ filed their lawsuit in July. The co-defendants have reportedly asked for an extension until Sept. 18 to respond to the accusations.

Mayor Sexton said he met with the McKeowns and Keith and Barbara Krummick in his office at the request of the “head judge” at the Bridgeview Courthouse -- Judge Jagielski -- in an attempt to mediate their conflict.

“I refer to it then and I refer to it now as a neighbor dispute,” Sexton said. “It ended up being about where you place garbage cans and where you put your radio. I had them all in my office and told to grow up. It all seems to be quiet now.”

Trustee McKeown did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The Krummick family’s attorney, Schneur Nathan, called the mayor’s statements minimizing the alleged years of abuse as a neighbor dispute “symptomatic of the culture of unaccountability.”

“The lawsuit is still very much ongoing as is, unfortunately, the continued harassment against the Krummick family,” Nathan said. “This isn’t surprising when the mayor himself makes statements supporting the McKeowns even after the trustee’s conviction.”