Two years into a bitter child custody battle, Chicago police Officer Emily Hock said she became fearful after her son’s father seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of her daily work schedule.
Hock said she had her personal car swept for GPS trackers and even asked for an investigation to be opened into who was accessing her work records after her former boyfriend, Kristopher Weiss, used Chicago police jargon to refer to obscure internal reports.
But Hock, who filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, said she was stunned in October to uncover emails pointing to the alleged source of Weiss’ inside information — an investigator with the civilian agency charged with investigating Chicago police misconduct.
Hock said the emails showed the investigator giving Weiss tips on how to make his complaints to police and the Independent Police Review Authority seem more substantial.
"I was completely almost taken off my feet," Hock, an eight-year department veteran now on medical leave, said in an interview in her lawyer’s offices. "I couldn’t believe that an agency that has this much power and this much access to police officers’ confidential records … was providing them to somebody who I was scared for my life from."
Hock’s lawsuit against an IPRA investigator and the city of Chicago alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress, privacy violations and failure by the city to properly supervise the investigator.
An IPRA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email Tuesday and the investigator could not be reached for comment.
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Hock’s lawsuit marks the second in seven months in which a Chicago police officer alleged that IPRA leaked internal records. Police Lt. Glenn Evans, acquitted of criminal charges that he shoved his service gun down a suspect’s throat despite evidence of the suspect’s DNA on his gun, sued IPRA last year in federal court, alleging that a disgruntled investigator disclosed the results of the DNA tests to a reporter.
Hock’s lawsuit alleged that the investigator was involved in a romantic relationship with Weiss at the time. Weiss, 45, died last August after he was punched while walking home from a Bridgeport bar and struck his head on the concrete, prosecutors have said.
Cook County prosecutors charged Phillip Levato with involuntary manslaughter in Weiss’ death last September. His attorney, Ralph Mezyk, said Tuesday that Weiss was the aggressor and had a history of violence.
The emails in Weiss’ AOL account from 2013 to 2014 came to light after he was killed. A probate court judge ordered AOL to turn over the passwords to the account as Hock searched for assets that could go to their son, now 6.
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"I promised research … here you go," the investigator allegedly wrote Weiss, according to the lawsuit. "She is assigned to a school car. … The sheets show she starts at 730."
"WOW! Thanks!" Weiss allegedly responded, according to the lawsuit. "That might be really helpful. I certainly do appreciate it."
Court records show that Weiss was indicted in 2015 on two felony counts of stalking Hock, but he was acquitted of all charges at a bench trial last year.
The IPRA investigator also mailed Weiss police documents detailing emergency calls and advised him "how to file frivolous complaints to harm Hock’s career," according to the lawsuit.
"It’s a complete invasion of privacy, and it’s devastating what it’s done to my life, my career and kids," Hock said.
As part of the lawsuit, Hock’s attorney, Thomas Needham, plans to subpoena for any other email correspondence.
sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
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