Former McHenry Co. deputy sues sheriff

A recently fired McHenry County Sheriff's deputy is suing the department and five of his former superiors, claiming he lost his job for protesting racial profiling practices.

In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, ex-deputy Zane Seipler alleges he repeatedly was passed over for promotion, removed from the department's SWAT team, threatened and ultimately dismissed for accusing his colleagues of unlawfully targeting blacks and Hispanics for traffic stops.

"He was fired because he made it difficult for the sheriff's department to continue their discriminatory practices," Seipler attorney Blake Horwitz said Thursday. "It was difficult for them to do when they had an officer calling attention to it and not willing to go along."

Sheriff Keith Nygren vehemently denied the claims, saying his office investigated Seipler's profiling allegations and found them to be without merit.

"The objective numbers, the audits, the state numbers do not back up anything he says," he said. "I welcome our opportunity to go to court and get the facts out there."

Seipler, a deputy since October 2004, was fired Monday "for cause," Nygren said.

"There was a complete and thorough investigation and he was terminated," he said. "When the facts are known, I'm confident we will be vindicated by the proper forum, and that is in the courts."

The suit claims Seipler witnessed numerous examples of racial profiling within the department, including a January 2006 incident in which he was directed to pull over a black male driver simply because of his race. After he began speaking out about such incidents in 2007, the suit claims, sheriff's department brass began harassing and retaliating against him by refusing him a promotion, ordering him to undergo a psychological exam and stripping him of some duties.

The issue came to a head when he was placed on administrative leave in July and ultimately dismissed Monday, the suit states.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks undisclosed monetary damages for Seipler.

Seipler was at the center of another controversy in 2006 when he fired what was meant to be a nonlethal beanbag projectile into the head of a knife-wielding man during a standoff in Wonder Lake, causing a fatal brain injury.

An Illinois State Police investigation later determined that Seipler's actions were justified.