Lawyer: Country Club Hills Fire Officials Destroyed Digital Evidence in Sexual Harassment Case

The attorney for a female firefighter embroiled in a years-long sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuit against the Country Club Hills Fire Department is now seeking sanctions against the department for its alleged destruction of evidence pertinent to the case.

Dana Kurtz, who represents suspended Country Club Hills firefighter Dena Lewis-Bystrzycki, has filed a memorandum in support of sanctions for discovery violations and spoliation that seeks default judgment or “other comparable sanctions,” for the department’s alleged destruction of digital evidence that firefighters regularly viewed pornography on department computers despite having received notice to preserve the material as part of a lawsuit, according to court filings.

The allegations of spoliation come in wake of a report generated by a computer forensic expert employed by Kurtz to image the department’s computers for evidence of pornography last year.

The report, authored by Andy Garrett, a computer forensic expert whose firm specializes in digital investigations, states that department officials “took many actions … well after the time notified to not allow for destruction of data.”

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