Jury finds DuPage sheriff's office not guilty of gender discrimination
The DuPage County sheriff's office has been found not guilty of gender discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed in 2010 by former employee Susan Kuttner.
A jury deliberated for less than two hours Thursday at the close of the four-day trial in federal court, according to the DuPage County state's attorney's office.
Kuttner filed the lawsuit on July 9, 2010, less than five months after she lost a hearing before the sheriff's merit commission to keep her job.
Kuttner worked nearly 12 years in the DuPage County jail, where the 38-year-old Bolingbrook woman said she was physically attacked by female inmates due to unsafe conditions. Kuttner said she often complained to management, but to no avail.
She lost her job on October 7, 2009, "despite an unblemished, exemplary record" on a baseless pretext, the suit alleged, while male deputies accused of far worse infractions not only remained but, in some cases, were later promoted.
In her lawsuit, Kuttner named 15 male deputies who were not fired despite various wrong acts, such as drunken driving arrests, domestic battery, drug use, sexual harassment, soliciting prostitutes, stealing, on-duty political campaigning and viewing pornography on work computers.
In the suit, Kuttner also claimed breach of contract regarding sick-day benefits and adoption assistance benefits. Those claims were summarily dismissed in favor of the sheriff's office before the trial.
Kuttner had claimed gender discrimination as a result of job conditions at the DuPage County jail.
DuPage County Sheriff's officials declined to comment further Friday, but DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin spoke on behalf of the sheriff's department in a written statement.
"The DuPage County Sheriff's Office is one of the premier sheriff's departments in the state," DuPage State's Attorney Bob Berlin said in a statement. "The fact that several of Ms. Kuttner's allegations were dismissed prior to trial demonstrates that her allegations against the office were without merit. When presented with the facts of the case at trial regarding gender discrimination, the jury correctly found that the DuPage County Sheriff's Office in no way discriminated against Ms. Kuttner."