Officer fighting for her job after speeding, DUI charges
Videotape from a Lake County sheriff's squad car will be at issue for a Kildeer police officer attempting to keep her job in the wake of accusations she was driving 101 mph while drunken and off duty.
Suzan Jackson, 42, has been on paid administrative leave since her arrest Jan. 5 in far northwest unincorporated Lake County, near Rand Road and Route 134. Kildeer Police Chief Jeffrey Lilly is seeking to terminate her employment.
Jackson's hearing before the Kildeer police commission began in February and is set to resume today. Her representative and brother, Riverwoods police Officer David Marks, plans to have a video expert at the session.
About 1½ hours of video from a camera inside sheriff's Sgt. Curt Gregory's squad car was shown behind closed doors to the police commission March 20. The video and accompanying audio were captured after Gregory clocked Jackson driving 101 mph in a 55 mph zone on Rand Road.
Marks said he has questions about the images from Gregory's squad car. The police commission will decide Jackson's fate.
Jackson contended in her most recent testimony the video and audio didn't tell the whole story of her arrest as she and a friend were headed to a Fox Lake bar just after midnight. Jackson said Gregory used a derogatory term for a woman when he referred to her in a wireless telephone conversation outside the squad car.
Testimony about the audio and video showed Jackson used a vulgar term when she characterized Gregory while yelling in the squad's back seat. Jackson repeated the derogatory phrase when she spoke before the police commission and stuck by her opinion of Gregory, saying the sheriff's office "should really be aware of who they work with."
When questioned by her brother, Jackson said her behavior in the police car occurred in large part because she realized her arrest would receive media attention.
"I've been persecuted by the media," she testified. "That's where it is today."
Sheriff's police said Jackson was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving and speeding. Authorities said she refused to take breathalyzer and field sobriety tests.
Lilly testified Jackson told him she was traveling 70 mph in a 55 mph zone and had two whiskey-and-colas earlier in the evening before she and her friend entered her 2004 Ford Mustang to drive to the Fox Lake tavern.
Jackson is accused in Lilly's internal complaint of violation of law, interfering with a police investigation, conduct unbecoming of an officer, neglect of duty and attempting to derive private benefit from department association.
Lilly contends Jackson, a Kildeer cop for almost nine years, can't perform her job because her driver's license has been summarily suspended.