Joliet police officials deny ‘false arrest’ of retired sergeant last year

Attorneys for the Joliet police chief and several others have denied a retired sergeant was falsely arrested last year on allegations that he stole a forklift.

Attorneys from the Itasca law firm Hervas, Condon and Bersani responded Thursday to a lawsuit filed by retired Joliet police Sgt. Dwayne Killian against Chief William Evans, Deputy Chief Robert Brown, Sgt. Ed Grizzle, Sgt. Raul Alvarez and Officer Ryan Shaw.

Killian’s lawsuit accused them of playing a role in what he claims was a false arrest June 14, 2022, on probable cause of theft of a forklift. Since that date, no charges have been filed against Killian.

Squad vehicle video showed Killian was not placed in handcuffs when he was taken to the Joliet Police Department. An officer who escorted Killian to the squad vehicle told him, “I’m not handcuffing you, Dwayne. I do got to put you on the backseat, though, since it’s on camera.”

Attorneys for Evans and others denied Killian had a duty to provide storage for a forklift, a compressor and trailer on his property in Minooka because the Tri-County Auto Theft Task Force had no place for it elsewhere. The forklift and other items apparently belonged to the task force.

Killian once was a member of the task force that is led by Grizzle. Killian claims his false arrest led to his firing as deputy director of the task force.

On June 7, 2022, Grizzle directed Killian to return the forklift, according to the attorneys’ response to Killian’s lawsuit. Then on June 14, 2022, Grizzle made a report that Killian had “committed theft of the forklift.”

The attorneys admitted Killian was arrested the same day for what they alleged was “theft of the forklift.”

However, the attorneys denied that Evans and Brown approved of Grizzle’s charge of theft against Killian. They also denied Evans and Brown had no probable cause to believe that Killian had committed theft.

The attorneys further denied Alvarez and Shaw had no probable cause to believe that Killian committed theft.

As part of their defense, Evans and other defendants plan to raise the shield of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects government officials from lawsuits unless they violated “clearly established” law, according to the Cornell Law School.

Killian’s lawsuit was originally filed in Will County court May 31. It was then moved to federal court because of his claims of constitutional violations.

Killian’s arrest first became known when he filed lawsuit against the city of Joliet on Feb. 8 to obtain records on the incident.