Female Officers Sue Palos Hills Police Chief, City For Discrimination

PALOS HILLS, IL — Four female police officers have filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court over claims of gender discrimination against high-ranking Palos Hills police officers and the city administration. The women maintain that they were subjected to continued harassment, passed over for promotions or demoted, denied vacation requests, and subjected to micromanagement from which male colleagues were spared.

The complaint names Palos Hills Police Chief Jeffrey Cucio, Deputy Chief Anthony Carraccio, and the City of Palos Hills as defendants. Cucio was appointed chief in October 2020 when the former police chief, Paul Madigan, retired. Carraccio was promoted to deputy chief last year by the police chief at his discretion.

From 2012 to 2021, the plaintiffs — Traci Bachelder and Traci Hlado, both lieutenants, and patrol officers Kristine Odom and Dorothy Walker — were the only women working on the Palos Hills police force. The officers said since 2012 their male colleagues have used “derogatory and unprofessional language” toward the female employees. As the only female police officers, the women claim they were subjected to remarks from the police chief and deputy chief about women not being qualified to be police officers, inferior to men and “dumb.” The complaint also accuses Cucio of spreading “false rumors” about the female officers “sleeping around.”

Since Cucio’s promotion to police chief on Halloween 2020, the plaintiffs state they were passed over or demoted from their promoted positions and replaced with less experienced male officers.

After the years of alleged mistreatment, on April 8, 2022, the female officers sent a letter to Palos Hills city officials complaining of gender discrimination by the current by the police administration. The women say they were informed a few days later that Mayor Gerald Bennett had been briefed on their concerns.

The following May and June, the plaintiffs said they were each interviewed for several hours by an attorney supposedly hired by the city administration to investigate their claims. After their interviews, the women said they heard nothing more about the investigation, nor did working conditions improve, according to the complaint.

When the city didn’t respond, the female officers filed charges of discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. In November 2022, the women received notice that IDHR had dismissed their claims, which were re-filed Jan. 31 in state court.

Among the allegations, Bachelder, a veteran Palos Hills cop with 22 years on the force, said that in March 2017, she was forced out of the detective division. According to the complaint, Cucio pulled her into his office. He showed her an unopened manila envelope, which he implied contained information on why she needed to leave the detective division.

“We won’t tell anybody, you can write up your resignation letter and nobody has to know what’s going on,” the police chief said. The complaint further states that Cucio told Bachelder she could fight it, “but was not going to win.”

Bachelder took it as a threat of retaliation. The complaint says she was replaced by a male colleague with no experience as a detective. Bachelder was assigned back to patrol on the midnight shift with the other female officers.

While on the midnight shift in January 2021, the female officers were reprimanded by Cucio, who complained the officers’ police vehicles were sitting in one place too long. Bachelder, Hlado and the other officers were ordered to write memos explaining why their vehicles were stationary on their shifts. The women drove “figure-eights” with no place to go after midnight during the COVID-19 shutdown, when there was less activity on the streets, the complaint said.

Also, beginning in March 2022 and continuing through the present day, Bachelder and her female colleagues allege they have been under “increased and unwarranted scrutiny” ordered to correct new officers’ errors, when male colleagues were not held to such scrutiny.

Odom, a patrol officer, left the Palos Hills Police Department rather than face a negative performance evaluation. Bachelder, Odom’s supervisor at the time, told Deputy Chief Carracio that Odom’s “lack of motivation” was due to the “discriminatory and hostile work environment,” the complaint said.

Hlado “has met and to continues to meet the city’s expectations.” The complaint states Hlado was promoted through the ranks since joining the Palos Hills Police Department in 2001, and received specialty assignments, which stopped after Cucio was appointed chief.

Bachelder claims the continued harassment and discrimination has caused her undue stress and loss of sleep out of fear of retaliation, making it difficult to do her job.

Palos Hills city attorney, Joseph Cainkar, told Patch the city would not comment on pending litigation.

The female officers are represented by attorney Heidi Karr Sleper, of the firm of Kurtz, Sleper & Exline, and attorney Lisa L. Clay, both of Wheaton.

The plaintiffs are asking for awards, but not limited to, damages and “back pay from the date of civil rights violations.”