Racial Profiling Joliet Police Lawsuit: Plaintiff, 30, Dies

JOLIET, IL — A 30-year-old Black resident of Romeoville who filed a federal lawsuit accusing three Joliet police officers of racial profiling last October has died. Plaintiff Neal McMurtry was killed around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 30 on Interstate 94 in Chicago.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, McMurtry died of multiple blunt force injuries as the result of a vehicle striking a pedestrian along the southbound express lanes of I-94 near 27th Street. An obituary notice for McMurtry was recently published on the website for the Minor-Morris Funeral Home on Joliet's Richards Street.

On Thursday, Chicago civil rights lawyer Ed Fox returned a phone call to Joliet Patch's editor confirming that his client died less than two weeks ago. McMurtry's death means their federal lawsuit will be dismissed, Fox said.

Fox said there is no way to keep the lawsuit going now that McMurtry died.

"It wasn't a big case, but it clearly was a case of racial profiling,"Fox told Joliet Patch on Thursday afternoon. "There was absolutely no reason to stop him."

He contends the Joliet police pulled McMurtry over because he was Black, and therefore they erroneously suspected he might have drugs with him. He was traveling alone at the time.

Fox said the Joliet officers told his client at the scene of the overnight traffic stop that there was a burned out light near McMurtry's license plate and that was the reason for the stop.

Fox said the Joliet officers made that up, and that his client had photographs showing the light was working properly.

McMurtry's lawsuit named Joliet police officers Pat Strocchia, Emily D'Amico and Kristopher Fitzgerald as defendants. They were accused of unlawful detention and search, excessive use of force, assault and battery.

Fox told Joliet Patch that the improper traffic stop occurred around 2 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2020, in the 3000 block of Plainfield Road in the Louis Joliet Mall area.

A Romeoville resident, McMurtry had no criminal history.

In September, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul held a news conference announcing that he is investigating possible patterns or practices of unconstitutional or unlawful policing by the Joliet Police Department.

According to Raoul, his investigation into possible patterns or practices of unlawful policing by the Joliet Police Department is being conducted using the office's authority under the Illinois Attorney General Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, and the Illinois Civil and Equal Rights Enforcement Act. The investigation is the first of its kind since the 2021 Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today act went into effect July 1.