Bolingbrook Hearing Officer Lost Gig For Ruling Against Village: Attorney

BOLINGBROOK, IL — A veteran lawyer retained by Bolingbrook to preside over administrative hearings lost his gig after ruling against the village, a local attorney claimed.

Not only did hearing officer Wayne Kwiat go against Bolingbrook in the November case, he ruled in favor of a resident suing the village and one of its police officers, said attorney Joseph Giamanco.

“It’s corruption of the legal system when you fire a person for making a decision like (the one) Mr. Kwiat did,” Giamanco said.

Kwiat, who is also a part-time Will County assistant state’s attorney, declined two opportunities to comment on the matter. On Thursday, he said, “No, no,” when asked if he wanted to talk about allegedly getting cut off from his contract employment as a hearing officer.

Giamanco said he learned Bolingbrook Public Safety Director Tom Ross called Kwiat “within hours” of ruling against the village in a Nov. 3 hearing and told him he would no longer serve as a hearing officer. Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar also called Kwiat, Giamanco said, and told him he was done as a hearing officer.

Both Claar and Ross have ducked questions about Kwiat, failing to return numerous telephone calls since Dec. 1.

The hearing that supposedly cost Kwiat his job involved Giamanco’s clients, brothers Gerald and Harold McCadd. The police had been called to a house owned by the McCadds after a neighbor who was unhappy with the way a car was parked complained to the cops, Giamanco said. The police mistook a friend of the McCadds who had been staying at the house as a tenant, he said, and soon after the brothers were cited for allegedly renting the house without the required permits.

Coincidentally, Harold McCadd happened to be suing the village and a police officer in federal court. Harold McCadd alleged excessive force was used during a November 2012 arrest and claimed that “false and incomplete police reports” were written about the incident. The federal case remains pending.

An attorney from Robbins Schwartz Nicholas Lifton & Taylor — the law firm representing Bolingbrook in the federal lawsuit — was present at the administrative hearing, Giamanco said. A court reporter was hired for the hearing, he said, and the law firm ordered a transcript.

“You don’t have a court reporter at an administrative hearing — I’ve never seen it,” Giamanco said.

“It was clear to me this was more than an ordinance violation hearing,” he said.

“There was a game being played. There was another agenda,” Giamanco said.

Kwiat came down on the McCadds’ side, Giamanco said, and “shortly after that I found out Mr. Kwiat was essentially fired, he was no longer going to do administrative hearings, and that stems from his decision in my case.”

“The village is trying to control the outcome of the cases,” he said, “it’s not right.”