About six years after former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese was sentenced to federal prison for stealing town money, officials still are settling lawsuits from her tenure.
The latest, approved this week by Cicero’s Town Council, awards $710,000 to a former police officer who said he was suspended in 1997 and fired a year later because he didn’t support Loren-Maltese’s bid for president.
The officer, Joseph DeMauro, was one of at least 30 Cicero officers — about one-third of the department at the time — who were suspended or fired shortly after Loren-Maltese was re-elected in April 1997. Some claimed they were punished because they supported her opponents, Charles Hernandez, a police officer, and Emil Schullo, a former police superintendent, in the election.
At least nine of the officers sued the town. DeMauro was the last of those suits to be settled, said attorney Terence Moran, whose Chicago law firm represented all nine.
The settlement, which includes money for lost wages and emotional injuries, calls for DeMauro to be reinstated as a Cicero patrolman by the end of the year. Moran’s law firm, Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym Ltd., will get $404,700 of the settlement award, Moran said.
In the suit, the town said DeMauro originally was fired for violating a Police Department residency requirement in effect at the time and failing a law-enforcement test. Later, the town dropped those charges and accused him of filing a false report.
In November 2006, a federal jury returned a verdict in favor of DeMauro. The town entered into mediation proceedings to come up with a settlement.
Loren-Maltese’s actions “have cost the town millions of dollars,” Moran said.
DeMauro, who joined the department in December 1993, filed the lawsuit immediately after being fired in 1998. Before the 1997 election, DeMauro was a member of the Town Republican Organization, Loren-Maltese’s party, but he switched his political affiliation and supported Hernandez in the election.
In 2005, the town approved paying more than $750,000 to settle lawsuits with Police Officers Angel Sarabia and Guadalupe Portillo, who also alleged retaliation by Loren-Maltese. A year earlier, $520,000 went to Officers David Olszewski and Henry Feret on the same claim.
In all, the town has paid out well over $2 million to settle suits relating to the case.
Moran said DeMauro did not want to comment Wednesday, but is happy with the settlement and that he will get his job back.
“We are still paying for the sins of the past,” said Cicero spokesman Dan Proft. “We inherited 150 cases that we are trying to clear.”
Hernandez is retired. Schullo is serving a 9-year prison sentence for his role in mob-linked corruption schemes that cost the town more than $6 million. Loren-Maltese, who was town president for nine years, was caught stealing millions from Cicero, convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 8 years in a federal prison.
