Former Winfield trustee drops defamation suit

A former Winfield trustee who sued her village board colleague last year for defamation has dropped her case, according to DuPage County court filings.

Christine Petitti first filed her suit against former Trustee Chris Levan in January 2007, claiming Levan tried to have her fired from her job as an industrial hygienist for the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The suit stems from a March 2006 meeting at village hall involving a local police officer.

Levan complained to Petitti's bosses that she had attended the meeting not as a village trustee but as a representative of the Department of Labor.

Petitti was cleared by her employers of any wrongdoing, but has claimed that the incident has harmed her job prospects and caused her emotional distress.

Phil Leutkehans, Levan's attorney, said Petitti had sought up to $200,000 to settle the suit, but finally dropped the case on Thursday after the taped proceedings of a May 2007 closed-door hearing in Winfield were submitted by Levan as evidence.

Petitti's "case pretty much crumbled after that," Leutkehans said. "The suit had no merit to start with ... At the end of the day, Chris (Levan) feels vindicated, as he should."

Calls to both Petitti and her attorney, Bruce Bonebrake, weren't returned.

Petitti, a single-term official who was appointed to the village board in August 2004 and elected the following spring, abruptly resigned from her post last month.