Crime & Safety

Will County's Top Deputy Wants Most of iPad Wife-Spy Lawsuit Dismissed

Will County Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas' lawyer filed court papers seeking the dismissal of most of the lawsuit alleging his client coerced a subordinate to spying on his wife.

The lawyer for Will County Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas slapped back at a former detective who claimed he was forced out of his job after helping the top cop spy on his wife and agreeing to mail a pornographic DVD to a lieutenant.

The motion to dismiss the first two counts of the three-count lawsuit contends former Detective Josh Fazio failed to establish his claims for retaliation and defamation.

Fazio sued Kaupas, the cousin of retiring Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas, in September. Six months later, Ken Kaupas triumphed in the Republican primary to replace his cousin.

The lawsuit said Fazio was working as a computer forensics expert in the sheriff's investigations division in September 2012 when Ken Kaupas asked him "crack the passcode on his wife's iPad to investigate whether 'she was cheating on him.'"

Fazio succeeded, the lawsuit said, "then burned all the data to a CD and gave it to Ken Kaupas."

The lawsuit also claims sheriff's Lt. Jeff McKenzie "instructed (Fazio) to send him a DVD of pornography at the FBI Academy—because Lt. McKenzie apparently had no Internet there."

According to the lawsuit, Ken Kaupas and McKenzie then made Fazio's "working conditions difficult and unnecessarily stressful."

Soon after, the suit said, Fazio was pulled out of investigations and assigned to the patrol division, "which would pay less money, strip him of his pension benefits, and prevent him from spending time with his children."

Fazio then met with Paul Kaupas about the transfer but the sheriff told him he "should have just kept his mouth shut and did what he was told," the lawsuit said. Fazio ultimately resigned his position with the department.

But even with Fazio gone, Ken Kaupas "continues to defame" him, the suit said, telling others that Fazio was "not trustworthy, was a thief, a fake, and could not do his job."

Arguments on the motion to dismiss were scheduled for April 15.

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