Opinion ID: 4023381
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Janusz’s Arrest and Termination

Text: In December 2001, three Chicago police officers— Defendants Alan Lucas, Parris George, and Gina Liberti— approached Plaintiff Thomas Janusz at a Chicago‐area gas station. The officers claimed that they went to the area after receiving an anonymous tip about a drug transaction, and that they approached Janusz after noticing that his license plate was expired and that he was pacing around the gas sta‐ tion parking lot with a duffle bag. The officers further claimed that as they advanced, Janusz’s companion, Paula Siragusa, informed them that Janusz had been smoking crack cocaine and that a plastic cup containing cocaine was in Janusz’s car. The officers proceeded to search Janusz’s duffle bag, discovered that it contained several thousand dollars in cash, and arrested Janusz. The police also discov‐ ered a white substance in a plastic cup in Janusz’s car. How‐ ever, the substance was later determined not to be cocaine. At the police station, the three arresting officers were joined by a fourth officer—Defendant Amy Mugavero Lu‐ cas—and obtained Janusz’s consent to search his apartment, No. 15‐1330 3 which was located above one of the funeral homes he man‐ ages for Keystone Illinois, Inc. (Janusz claims that this con‐ sent was acquired through coercion.) At the apartment, the officers allegedly found approximately $18,000 in cash and several illicit drugs—crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, and illegal anabolic steroids. Approximately five months later, Janusz filed a motion to quash his arrest. A judge granted the motion, finding that the officers’ stated reasons for approaching and ultimately arresting Janusz at the gas station were implausible. (The district court has explained in some detail why the state judge likely concluded this. See generally Janusz v. City of Chi., 797 F. Supp. 2d 884, 886–89 (N.D. Ill. 2011). Regardless, that finding is not relevant for this appeal.) The charges against Janusz were dropped immediately thereafter. By that time, however, the arrest had set other negative events in motion. Keystone suspended Janusz following his arrest and in‐ stalled Brian Durante as his replacement. Durante and an‐ other coworker, Thomas Kotrba, later told several individu‐ als within and outside of Keystone that Janusz had been sell‐ ing crystal meth, operating a meth lab in his apartment, and stealing from clients. Unsurprisingly, Janusz was fired.