Candice Williams was a pregnant senior at Crete-Monee High School when police allegedly dragged her from the building, knocked her to the sidewalk and kneed her in the back. According to a wrongful-death lawsuit she filed last year, Williams claims she lost her unborn fetus because of the 2008 arrest.
In documents filed Tuesday in federal court in Chicago, attorney Brendan Shiller presented job records showing that the guard, Marilyn Reid, was fired in 2005 as a probationary telecommunicator in the Eastern Will County Communications Center in Crete. Reid allegedly hurled the "n-word" at a black woman who was under arrest, according to the documents. She also was accused of showing a black co-worker a paper replica of a Ku Klux Klan mask, saying it would "scare the bitch," the documents say.
Williams, who was on the honor roll, said her trouble started in February 2008 after she and other students sent a letter to the school superintendent complaining about lax security. The lawsuit said the letter angered the security staff, which the school district denies.
On April 3, 2008, Williams finished a workout with her track team and sat on a bench inside the school waiting for the University Park bus to arrive about 5:30 p.m., according to her lawsuit.
Reid and another school guard told students in the hallway to leave the building. Williams walked toward the exit, but waited with three students in a vestibule leading to the outside.
Reid and the other guard told her to go outside, but Williams said she was cold, pregnant and suffering from anemia. A teacher then told the guards that Williams was trespassing and asked them to get the police, the lawsuit said.
In a deposition, Williams admitted she swore at the teacher, saying "call the f - - - - - - police." She said she felt she did not need to obey because her health was at risk. A surveillance video shows the teacher and Reid pointing to Williams when the officers arrived, the lawsuit said. The officers were assigned to the school but were off-duty and working out in the school gym at the time.
"The next thing I remember my face and chest was slammed against the wall of the vestibule and I was out the door," Williams said in the deposition. "I recall telling them [the police officers] I was pregnant."
The school district denies that Williams told the officers she was pregnant and accused her of fighting with Crete Police Officer Juan Garcia. Garcia, who dated Reid, allegedly tripped or pushed Williams to the sidewalk. He told her "that was assault to a police officer," Williams recalled. Then as others students yelled that she was pregnant, Officer Richard Pasquini put a knee in Williams' back and said she would be Tasered if she moved, the lawsuit said.
The officers, in court papers, have denied they used excessive force or that they conspired to cover up the incident. Williams was taken to the police station and charged with trespassing, but a judge later ruled she was not guilty.
At a hospital the next morning, she learned her 9-week-old fetus had been viable but did not have a heartbeat, the lawsuit said. Williams planned to attend college, but her scholarship offers were revoked because she was suspended from school for a month, her attorney said. She can't get a college loan because of her medical bills, he said. She is working as a concierge at a downtown building. Her lawsuit is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages. Reid's attorney and a lawyer for the village of Crete declined to comment