Crime & Safety

County's Top Deputy Made Detective Break into Wife's iPad: Lawsuit

Josh Fabio says in lawsuit that Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas also forced him to mail a porn DVD to another officer before pushing him out of his job.

By Joseph Hosey

A former detective with with the Will County Sheriff's Department said he was forced out of his job after helping the top deputy spy on his wife and agreeing to mail a pornographic DVD to a lieutenant.

Josh Fazio filed the lawsuit against Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas and Will County Thursday.

Kaupas is the cousin of Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas. Ken Kaupas has said he plans to run for sheriff in the 2014 election. Paul Kaupas has said he will not seek re-election.

Fazio was working as a computer forensics expert in the sheriff 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,'" the lawsuit said.

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

The lawsuit also alleges that Fazio's supervisor, Sgt. Dan Troike, told him "he should do as Ken Kaupas instructed."

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," and after Fazio complained to Troike that "they probably would not be messing with me if people knew what they had me do," Fazio was called into an October meeting with his supervisors.

Ken Kaupas was "yelling and screaming" during the meeting, and accused Fazio of "breaking his trust and telling Troike about his wife's iPad," the lawsuit said.

McKenzie also shouted at Fazio, the lawsuit said, telling him "information about the pornography DVD 'could ruin his career' and 'he was not going to let that happen.'"

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."

Fazio is claiming retaliation in violation of public policy, defamation and violation of the Illinois Personnel Record Review Act.

Ken Kaupas said he could not comment on the suit but Paul Kaupas said, "Anybody can accuse anyone of anything in a lawsuit whether it's true or not, and it gets printed."

Fazio's attorney, Michael Booher, said he and Fazio "look forward to proving our allegations and letting the facts speak for themselves."

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