Joliet Police Sergeant Files Federal Lawsuit: Ex-Police Chief Roechner, Egizio, Reid, Rosado Defendants

JOLIET, IL — On Dec. 16, 2024, now-retired Joliet Police Sgt. Javier "Butch" Esqueda emerged from the Kendall County Courthouse with a clean record after Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis asked the judge to dismiss all four felony charges he filed against Esqueda way back in October 2020.

Joliet Patch reported how the charges were filed against Sgt. Esqueda by the Joliet Police Department when Al Roechner was chief of police and Joe Egizio was lieutenant of criminal investigations for exposing police misconduct in the death of 37-year-old arrestee Eric Lurry.

Now, Esqueda has retained attorney Gregory Condon of the Condon Law Firm and attorney Michael Faccenda of the Faccenda Law Group, both law firms in La Grange, to file a 206-page federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit is against the city of Joliet, along with Roechner, Egizio and two former Joliet police deputy chiefs, Joe Rosado and Marc Reid.

"This action is brought ... to redress the deprivation of plaintiff's constitutional rights as secured by the United States constitution and under Illinois law when, inter alia, he was maliciously prosecuted and subjected to retaliation after publicly disclosing police misconduct which contributed to the death of an arrestee. Defendants, under color of law, subjected the plaintiff to malicious prosecution, retaliation and various other state and constitutional law violations," Esqueda's newly filed federal lawsuit began.

According to his lawsuit, Esqueda is a Plainfield resident and former Joliet police officer. The city of Joliet was or continues to be an employer and principal of the individual defendants. Roechner was chief of police and a superior to Esqueda. Reid and Rosado were deputy chiefs and superiors to Esqueda.

Lawsuit Facts Spelled Out

Esqueda became a Joliet police officer on Sept. 10, 1993. In 1996, he became a field training officer. In 2001, he was promoted to evidence technician, and after five years in the evidence unit, Esqueda returned to the patrol unit as a field training officer. On July 14, 2009, he was promoted to operations patrol sergeant and in October 2011, he was promoted to field training sergeant.

For 26 years, Esqueda "honored the oath he took and the badge he wore, receiving numerous awards and certifications ... In 2020, plaintiff was confronted with a decision that would impact the remainder of his distinguished career and directly affect his future ability to seek gainful employment," his lawsuit reads. "In 2020, plaintiff was maliciously prosecuted for false charges, including charges for official misconduct, alleging that he had exceeded his legal authority to view video involving his assigned field training officer and his recruit.

"In 2020, plaintiff was personally and professionally attacked for his courage to expose a cover-up of police misconduct."

Lawsuit Section Titled "The Death Of Eric Lurry"

Esqueda's lawsuit has an entire section called "The Death of Eric Lurry."

The section explains on Jan. 28, 2020, Joliet Police Department's narcotics unit received a tip regarding a hand-to-hand drug transaction between passengers in two cars. Joliet police officer Marcus Wietting pulled over one of the cars and performed a vehicle search after Eric Lurry and the driver exited the car at 3:12 p.m., the suit outlines.

Officers Jose Tellez and Andrew McCue reportedly arrived on the scene minutes later. Officer Wietting found illegal drugs in the car and arrested the driver, according to court documents. The same officer did a pat down search of Lurry and found $1,380 in Lurry's front pants pockets. Meanwhile, McCue recovered no contraband or weapons from Lurry "or within Mr. Lurry's immediate vicinity," the lawsuit reads.

According to the suit, one of the officers retrieved an iPhone from the vehicle, gave it to Lurry, returned the money to Lurry "and then allowed Mr. Lurry to leave the scene ... while Mr. Lurry was walking away from the scene, Officer Tellez re-initiated contact with Mr. Lurry and asked Mr. Lurry to return the arrested driver's iPhone."

After Lurry returned the iPhone, Officer Tellez seized the money from Lurry's pockets "and then proceeded to perform another pat-down search of Mr. Lurry's person," the lawsuit explained. Lurry reportedly consented to the search and put his hands on McCue's squad car before Officer Tellez "felt a golf ball to racquetball sized bulge near Lurry's upper leg area and asked, 'what's this?'"

Tellez believed the bulge represented drugs, as Officer McCue told Lurry, "Don't go reaching. Get your hands out of there."

Lurry and Officers Tellez and McCue "slid to the ground in a struggle and Mr. Lurry ended up face down with his hands underneath his stomach area," the lawsuit outlined. The officers called for backup at 3:55 p.m., and "Officer Tellez suspected that Mr. Lurry had already put the drugs that Officer Tellez felt during the pat-down into his mouth around this time."

Lurry was put into the backseat of McCue's squad car and the two officers "left Mr. Lurry handcuffed alone in the backseat of Officer McCue's squad car for around four and a half minutes during which time no one monitored or checked on him," the lawsuit states. "Neither Officers Tellez nor Officer McCue asked Mr. Lurry if he swallowed drugs, asked him to spit out the drugs, told him to open his mouth, nor otherwise attempted to search his mouth for the presence of drugs."

Esqueda's lawsuit noted that Joliet police policy required Tellez or McCue to search Lurry before putting him into a squad car, "and Officer Tellez knew that he should have searched Mr. Lurry at the scene of arrest." Lurry "began breathing heavily" and was "chewing on something," and "Officer Tellez knew that swallowing drugs could lead to a fatal overdose and that a drug overdose qualified as a medical emergency requiring immediate attention," the lawsuit explained.

"Mr. Lurry had a constitutional right to receive prompt medical care for the serious medical condition created by his ingestion of drugs ... Officers Tellez and Officer McCue failed to transport Mr. Lurry to the hospital from the scene of Mr. Lurry's arrest," the filing indicated.

The suit states that Tellez and McCue did not provide Lurry with Narcan and failed to call for medical assistance or emergency medical aid, "either at the scene of Mr. Lurry's arrest or enroute to the Joliet Police Station."

During the squad car ride back to the police station, Lurry "slumped over for portions of the ride and was unable to right himself," the lawsuit noted.

The lawsuit noted that at no point during the eight-minute drive did Tellez or McCue "attempt to talk to Mr. Lurry" At 4:11 p.m., Joliet Police Lt. Jeremy Harrison approached the squad car and Sgt. Doug May came out to assess the situation at the Joliet police parking lot.

"At that time, Lt. Harrison, Officers McCue, Tellez and Sgt. May recognized that Mr. Lurry's eyes were rolling back into his head, that his breathing was shallow and that he was not physically or verbally responding to Officer McCue's or Sergeant May's verbal directions to exit the squad car," the lawsuit stated.

Lurry failed to show any response after Lt. Harrison told McCue to give Lurry a sternum rub, the suit said, adding that "Lt. Harrison directed Sergeant May to push Mr. Lurry out of the car. Sgt. May entered the backseat of Officer McCue's car forcefully struck Mr. Lurry in the face with his full hand while shouting, "Wake up, bitch!"

According to the federal lawsuit, Lt. Harrison, Sgt. May, McCue and Tellez "did not call for medical assistance for Mr. Lurry or direct anyone else to do so. Sgt. May and Officer McCue reportedly attempted to retrieve bags containing narcotics from Mr. Lurry's mouth, while Lt. Harrison and Officer Tellez looked on. Sgt. May intentionally pinched Mr. Lurry's nose for approximately 90 seconds and grabbed him around his throat pressing against his neck and jaw area to intentionally restrict Mr. Lurry's breathing, all in an effort to get Mr. Lurry to open his mouth."

The lawsuit notes how Sgt. May "impacted both portions of Mr. Lurry's airway, both the nose and mouth, and thereby prevented air from reaching the airway which results in less oxygen getting into the bloodstream and the person losing their pulse."

Esqueda's lawsuit informed the federal district court how the Joliet police interactions with Lurry were captured and recorded by the squad car video and audio system yet "one or more of the above-named Joliet Police Officers edited, tampered with and or destroyed the audio and or video footage from the squad car video related to Mr. Lurry's arrest and detention in an attempt to destroy and conceal evidence of wrongdoing."

In 2020, Joliet police said Lurry was taken by Joliet Fire Department's ambulance to Saint Joseph’s hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit before being pronounced dead.

The next sections of Esqueda's lawsuit are labeled "JPD Officer Tellez Disables Videorecorder and "JPD Officer Tellez Falsifies Official Report to Conceal Misconduct."

More Joliet Patch coverage:

• Joliet Officer Turned Off Car's Video System As Eric Lurry Died
• Eric Lurry Lawsuit: Joliet Wants To Settle Case After 5 Years Of Federal Litigation
• Joliet Police Whistleblower Charged With Misconduct In Lurry Case
• Joliet's Missing Eric Lurry Video 'Did Have Evidentiary Value'
• 'Batman Don't Plead Guilty': Joliet Police Whistleblower Vindicated