The village of Niles quietly approved a $100,000 settlement payment Tuesday to a former police department commander who sued the village over alleged violations of his free speech rights and the Illinois Whistleblower Act.
The settlement caps nearly two years of developments after the former police department commander, Nicholas Beyer, went to top police department administrators to say he believed that certain police violated department procedures when responding to a call about a police department employee who was found unresponsive in a restaurant drive-thru late at night in February 2021. The village of Niles later conducted an internal investigation which said it found no wrongdoing.
The settlement payment was included Nov. 15 in the routine business portion of the village’s monthly board meeting, in which trustees can approve items without discussion.
According to the resolution authorizing the payment, Beyer and the village agreed on the settlement Oct. 26.
It also states that the village is not admitting to wrongdoing by settling with Beyer.
“The payment of $100,000.00 is being made to settle the lawsuit based on a cost of defense economic decision of the village and not a decision related to the merits of the plaintiff’s allegations set forth in the lawsuit,” the resolution reads.
The settlement, obtained Wednesday by Pioneer Press, also states that this move is the product of both sides’ wishes to avoid the cost of further litigation.
It also stipulates that the village will provide Beyer with a badge that states he is retired at the position of sergeant and, should Beyer seek employment as a police officer elsewhere, that the village will provide “neutral” references.
“If a future employer of Nicholas Beyer requests information from the Village of Niles, they will be directed to the Human Resources Department, where a neutral reference identifying only the time that Nicholas Beyer worked at the Village of Niles will be provided, and nothing more,” the settlement states.
The settlement also states that Beyer is currently seeking a disability pension and sets out that the village will not intervene in the Niles Police Pension Fund process to determine whether Beyer will receive that money.
According to previous Pioneer Press reporting, Beyer was put on administrative leave after he informed Police Chief Luis Tigera about his concerns that officers did not follow department procedures during a well-being check for a civilian police department employee that took place in February 2021.
Beyer, a grandson of the late former Niles Mayor Nicholas Blase, alleged in previous Pioneer Press reporting and later in a lawsuit that officers responding to the call didn’t follow the appropriate department procedures for the civilian, off-duty Niles police department employee who was the subject of the call, and who previously worked as a police officer in another suburb.
Among other infractions Beyer reported were that the responding officers did not conduct field sobriety tests on the subject, request medical help or file a detailed report about the response. Beyer also alleged that the responding officers turned off their body cameras for a short period, which he said violated Niles Police Department policy. He also said an officer removed a handgun from inside the employee’s trunk but did not fill out the proper department documentation, and said an on-duty member of the police department drove the employee back to his house 40 miles away.
Beyer was relieved of his police duties April 2 and resigned from the department July 6, hours before the Niles Fire and Police Commission was set to consider Tigera’s request to fire him. He filed a federal lawsuit against the village in August 2021.
The lawsuit accused the village of violating Beyer’s right to free speech and the Illinois Whistleblower Act and alleged that a member of the Niles Police Department threatened to kill Beyer.
An internal investigation into the department’s handling of the incident Beyer reported concluded in October 2021 that department procedures had been properly followed.
It said that officers did not violate department policy by turning off their body cameras and that there is no department policy that prevents officers from driving a person back to their home.
Mayor George Alpogianis told Pioneer Press he did not have a comment on the settlement. Beyer said he could not elaborate on the information about the settlement that the village made publicly available.
An official village statement reiterated the assertions in both the resolution authorizing the settlement and the settlement itself: namely, that both parties unequivocally denied wrongdoing.
“The settlement payment is being made to settle the lawsuit based on a cost of defense economic decision of the village and its insurance carrier, and not a decision related to the merits of the plaintiff’s allegations set forth in the lawsuit,” it reads.
