Lyons Township Didn't Get the Police Patrols It Paid For, Lawsuit Alleges

The Village of Indian Head Park overbilled Lyons Township for police services and kept money from tickets written in unincorporated Lyons Township, according to a lawsuit filed in Cook County.

John Kielczynski, a La Grange Highlands resident and a retired police officer, filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of Lyons Township against the Village of Indian Head Park. The suit was unsealed Oct. 7.

Lyons Township contracts Indian Head Park police for one unit to patrol unincorporated Lyons Township at least 60 hours a week. The township agreed to pay Indian Head Park $32.71 an hour. The current contract runs from May 1, 2014, to April 30, 2016.

Indian Head Park police reports show officers who were paid to work shifts in Lyons Township were consistently spending that time policing elsewhere, outside the township’s patrol zone. The village submitted false records and claims to the township so it could be paid for policing that didn’t happen or wasn’t complete, according to the lawsuit.

The suit includes 53 specific examples of fraudulent billing, and it claims even more occurred.

The lawsuit alleges the Village of Indian Head Park either recklessly failed to make sure officers who were billing hours to Lyons Township stayed in the unincorporated patrol zone or the village knew it was overbilling the township.

When tickets were written in the contractual patrol territory, markings on 11 of them show the Village of Indian Head Park allegedly kept the fines collected from Lyons Township taxpayers.

For “many additional tickets,” the suit says it’s unknown if Indian Head Park kept the money, and no records show any ticket revenue was paid to Lyons Township.

The contract says fines and penalties from tickets Indian Head Park officers write in unincorporated Lyons Township are supposed to go to the township treasurer for the road and bridge fund.

The suit claims the village knowingly kept ticket revenue that belonged to the township, and it recklessly failed to make sure ticket money was handed over.

Taxpayers in unincorporated Lyons Township are billed twice for police services — once for Cook County public safety and once for Lyons Township special police district, which goes toward the contract, Kielczynski said. He said Cook County sheriff’s police have jurisdiction in the area, but they don’t have the manpower to regularly patrol.

In the lawsuit, the court is asked to order the Village of Indian Head Park to pay Lyons Township three times the value of the fraudulent billing and three times the ticket revenue it owes to the township.

The court is also asked to assess penalties against the village of $11,000 for each False Claims Act violation and award Kielczynski attorney fees and costs.

Kielczynski said he spent 18 months investigating and submitting Freedom of Information Act requests to put the suit together. He’s listed in the lawsuit as “realtor,” as in someone who relates a story to the court as a member of the community.

The lawsuit was unsealed after the Illinois Attorney General’s Office reviewed the case and decided not to intervene, said Matthey Topic, an attorney with Loevy & Loevy.

Topic said the attorney general’s office doesn’t comment on why it chooses not to get involved in cases, but he suspects there aren’t enough resources to handle all the cases submitted. He said he and Kielczynski, on behalf of Lyons Township, are free to pursue the civil suit on their own.

The Village of Indian Head Park was served with the suit Oct. 14, and it has a period of time to answer the complaint or motion to dismiss the suit, and then litigation will proceed. Topic said the suit is based on publically available information, and he plans to get information not available to the public that could show the overbilling was more widespread.

John DuRocher, village administrator for Indian Head Park, said the village’s attorney is working on a response to the complaint, and the suit has been referred to Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, which is the village’s risk management carrier.

DuRocher said the village received $95,490 in revenue from the Lyons Township program between May 1, 2014 and April 30, 2015. He said the village has also received $33,495 from May 1 to Sept. 30 this year.

Photo by C. Holmes.