Porn Searches Found on Fire Department's Computers

COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, IL - A forensic examination of computers at the Country Club Hills Fire Department revealed thousands of pornography-related searches. Andrew Garrett performed the imaging search as part of a court order in the case of Dena Lewis-Bystrzycki, a female Country Club Hills firefighter who is suing the village and fire department for sexual harassment. Garrett testified last month that thousands of web searches related to pornography were found on four of the fire department’s computers, according to a Daily Southtown report.

"There's thousands of web searches for pornography. It's all over the board," Garrett testified. "It appears that they've wiped the hard drives (and) reloaded them.”

Also, the village of Country Club Hills was sanctioned by Judge Lynn Egan for its failure to comply with the court-ordered imaging and will now be instructed to reimburse the forensic expert for time and expenses related to the imaging, the Southtown reported.

Firefighters watching porn regularly at the Country Club Hills fire station is one of the claims made by Lewis-Bystrzycki, a fire department veteran since 1998 who filed the lawsuit in 2012. She also claims in court that she was sexually harassed and treated in a hostile manner and was the victim of gender discrimination when she came up for a promotion.

Part of lawsuit claims that on her first day at the fire department she received a crude sexual invitation from the fire chief and that another firefighter said “welcome to the fire service” when he was told about it.

Previous reports indicate Lewis-Bystrzycki was suspended by the department in 2015 for participating in interviews with the media about the lawsuit.

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