Michale Callahan, the former Illinois State Police
lieutenant who sued his superiors in federal court and won, is now asking
the Sangamon County Circuit Court to take action against two high-ranking
ISP officials. On Wednesday, Callahan filed a mandamus petition
asking the court to order Gov. Rod Blagojevich and ISP Director Larry Trent
to fire Lt. Col. Diane Carper and Capt. Steve Fermon — the two
supervisors a jury ruled had retaliated against Callahan after he sought to
reopen an investigation into a 1986 Paris double homicide. The jury made
its ruling April 28, awarding Callahan a total of $682,300 in punitive and
compensatory damages. The federal judge later reduced the punitive portion
from $472,300 to amounts proportional to the officers’ salaries
— $100,000 from Fermon, $50,000 from Carper. Callahan’s petition is based on the
state’s Employee Rights Violation Act — a state law mandating
that any “policy making officer” of a state agency found to
have violated the First or Fourteenth Amendment rights of an employee and
assessed punitive damages “shall be immediately discharged from State
employment.”
Neither Carper nor Fermon has been fired. In fact,
Trent has publicly supported both officers, and Carper was recently
promoted. Callahan wanted to reinvestigate the deaths of Dyke
and Karen Rhoads, newlyweds who lived in Paris. Two men charged in their
deaths — Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock — have steadfastly
proclaimed their innocence. Steidl was released from prison after a judge
ruled in June 2003 that he probably would not have been convicted if a jury
had heard all the evidence. Callahan’s attorney, John Baker, says the
mandamus complaint was filed because state agencies that should have
investigated Carper and Fermon have failed to do so. “Mike has raised these allegations that these
two individuals, Carper and Fermon, have impeded a criminal investigation.
To date, no state of Illinois entity has decided to investigate. No one.
DII [ISP’s Division of Internal Investigations] won’t
investigate, the inspector general won’t investigate, and the
attorney general won’t investigate — despite that fact that all
three are mandated to investigate and have said that they would
investigate,” Baker says. As a result, the state’s stance seems to condone
Carper’s and Fermon’s actions — a position Baker finds
intolerable. “There’s gotta be some sort of real-world
repercussions,” Baker says. Callahan has also filed a complaint with the Illinois
Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission against ISP attorney
Keith Jensen, alleging that he attempted to intimidate ISP officers who
planned to testify on Callahan’s behalf in April 2005. In his
complaint, Callahan claims Jensen called ISP Maj. Edie Casella a
“broken woman” as he held the door for her to enter the
courtroom to testify for Callahan and that he threatened to open an
internal-affairs investigation against Capt. John Strohl. Jensen has filed a response denying all
Callahan’s claims. Callahan’s response to Jensen’s denial
includes an offer that Casella will take a polygraph examination to prove
she’s telling the truth about Jensen. Jensen was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
This article appears in Jun 8-14, 2006.
