According to a complaint against the Lake County Coroner’s Office, a former employee was victimized because he refused to give the coroner’s office his retired dog.
The federal complaint was submitted Thursday in the Northern District of Illinois’ U.S. District Court. Jason Patt, a resident of Gurnee, served as the office’s chief deputy coroner for Lake County.
Patt, a member of the U.S. Navy, started his 21-year career in law enforcement as a military patrolman and then worked as a prison officer for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
In 2007, he began working for the coroner’s office, where he remained for 13 years.
According to the lawsuit, Patt established the office’s first canine program, supported by grants. He was the handler of the cadaver-sniffing Belgian Malinois named Bones. They were together “almost every hour of the day.”
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In the months running up to the November 2020 election, the lawsuit claimed Patt started imposing separation time with Bones by making numerous modifications, including having the dog sleep in the basement rather than his bedroom.
He was aware that his position was appointed and that it was possible that a new coroner would be established, which could have an emotional impact on Bones if they could not remain together all the time.
A “disaster” for Bones resulted from the time spent apart; he started urinating indoors, barking, destroying furniture, and engaging in other strange behaviors. In compliance with the Illinois Police Dog Retirement Act, outgoing coroner Howard Cooper decided to retire Bones and permitted Patt to adopt him.
The lawsuit claimed that Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek ordered Patt to submit a resignation letter or risk being fired the day before she took office in 2020.
Patt concurred and turned in the retirement letter on December 1, 2020, when Banek took office.
According to the lawsuit, Banek “got enraged” with Patt after discovering he had adopted Bones. On December 11, 2020, Banek wrote to Patt and demanded that Patt deliver Bones back to the coroner’s office.
When Patt objected, he claimed that the dog had been medically retired because of separation anxiety. The lawsuit claimed that even though Patt had done nothing wrong, Banek’s unlawful retaliation against him was caused by his adoption of Bones.
When Banek took office, Patt’s employment-related conversations with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office came to an end. The suit stated, “Those discussions ceased; the line went dead.”
Patt continued to be turned down for multiple other positions he applied for, “sometimes after the interview process had already begun.” Patt was eventually hired for the post for which the investigator had contacted Banek, the investigator had revealed to Patt.
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According to the lawsuit, Banek allegedly informed the investigator that Patt was ineligible for rehire with her office because he was “AWOL” and unable to perform his duties. The detective told Patt that Banek had made “additional negative remarks” about him.
Patt then requested information from the coroner’s office under the Freedom of Information Act.
He discovered through his FOIA request that Banek informed the investigator that Patt frequently skipped work, had extramarital affairs, and that she had negative information regarding Patt’s finances and “overall demeanor or conduct.”
According to the lawsuit, Banek made false assertions in a “deliberate effort to injure” Patt.
According to the lawsuit, “it is now clear that Banek made such comments to other potential employers who called regarding Patt’s record with the Coroner’s Office.”
Banek informed Lake and McHenry County Scanner that her office could not comment on the issue due to ongoing litigation.
