Revenge Porn Lawsuit V. Joliet Police Administration To Proceed

JOLIET, IL — It's been nearly two years since Officer Cassandra "Cassie" Socha filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Joliet accusing the Joliet Police Department's upper administration of illegally seizing her personal cell phone. According to Socha's lawyer, Hall Adams of Chicago, Socha's supervisors recovered private videos from her phone and then distributed them to several others at the downtown police station to humiliate her and her husband.

Socha is married to another Joliet police officer, Nick Crowley, who went on trial in May 2018 on charges of recklessly discharging a gun. In July 2017, Crowley fired his gun into the ceiling of their townhouse during a late night argument, according to prosecutors.

Kennedy found Crowley not guilty of all criminal charges. Crowley received a 30-day unpaid suspension and was reinstated to regular duty.

At Crowley's 2018 bench trial, Socha's testimony was more helpful to Crowley than to the Joliet police supervisors trying to convict him. Socha and her lawyer contend that the Joliet police administration, in an act of revenge, obtained an illegal search warrant on May 18, 2018, to let them seize Socha's private iPhone.

Will County Circuit Judge Sarah Jones signed off on Joliet Police Sgt. Ed Grizzle's search warrant, which sought "evidence of the offense of harassment via electronic communications, intimidation," court records show.

However, Socha's phone also contained nude images and videos of her and Crowley. The retrieval of those private images had nothing to do with the purpose of the search warrant, Socha's lawyer argues in federal court.

According to Socha's civil rights lawsuit, the upper police administration orchestrated the "re-publication" and "re-recording" of private photographic and video images that were stored on the phone.

Although Socha filed her case in the summer of 2018, her federal lawsuit has basically been stalled by the private law firms hired to defend the city of Joliet's police force.

The defendants claimed that the pre-trial discovery process should not move forward because Socha remained "under criminal investigation" surrounding the May 2018 allegation that she had sent an intimidating text message during Crowley's trial to one of the prosecution's witnesses.

However, at no point in 2018 was Socha disciplined by the Joliet Police Department's internal affairs unit surrounding that matter. Socha did not receive any punishment in 2019, either, court documents show.

Last October, Socha's lawyer filed a motion asking the federal judge to issue a ruling allowing his client to begin the discovery process, a legal maneuver that allows them to take sworn statements from certain witnesses, in this case, key officials at the Joliet Police Department.

"As the proponents of extending the discovery stay, defendants should be required to provide the court with some definitive evidence of and documentation to the effect that the state's investigation is ongoing and that it involves matters sufficiently related to plaintiff's claims that the seizure and search of her iPhone were unconstitutional and that discovery with respect to those claims in this case might interfere with such investigation. Otherwise, the discovery stay should be vacated," Socha's lawyer argued in October's motion.

"Arguably, the discovery respecting the constitutionality of the seizure and search of the phone might have a bearing on a criminal prosecution of plaintiff by the state if one is ever initiated. The same is not true of plaintiff's allegations relating to the 'frat-house' antics in which defendants engaged after her iPhone was seized, searched and the private images on it found."

Now, five months later, a federal magistrate issued a ruling favorable to Socha and her lawyer.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate David Weisman learned that the Will County special prosecutor who had been assigned to Socha's case "has not made any decision on the underlying criminal investigation," court records show. "For the reasons stated on the record," Weisman wrote, "the stay on discovery is lifted."

The federal magistrate then set another hearing for April 23 to discuss the status of the discovery process as well as any developments from the special prosecutor's office, documents show.

The special prosecutor who had been conferring with Joliet police's upper administration related to Socha is the same person who took Crowley's case to trial and lost, Lorinda Lamken-Finnel of the Illinois State's Attorneys Special Prosecution Unit.

In June 2019, 13 months after Socha's phone was seized under the pretext of a criminal investigation launched by the police command staff, "plaintiff's counsel conferred briefly by telephone with attorney Lorinda Lamken-Finnel from that office," Adams notified the federal judges in October. "She tersely confirmed that the investigation suggested by the warrant remained under advisement, which is what plaintiff's counsel reported to the Court."

"Since and despite repeated requests of Ms. Lamken-Finnel by plaintiff's counsel, that office has not provided any additional information about the nature or status of any investigation," Adams continued. "Neither that office nor defendants have since provided any information or documentation to support the proposition that such an investigation remains ongoing or that it is sufficiently related to plaintiff's claims that a stay of all discovery in this case should remain in place."

Original Joliet Patch coverage: Sex Videos Of 2 Joliet Cops Illegally Shared, Seized: Lawsuit