A lawsuit was filed in federal court this past week alleging that Naperville female police essentially have been using area citizens as props for their self-aggrandizing appearances on the "Female Forces" reality cop show.
The show which airs in the Bio cable channel, showcases Naperville female cops by following them around in the course of their police work.
According to the court filings, a Woodridge woman, Eran Best, was driving down the street a few doors from her house when she was stopped by the, interestingly-named, male Naperville officer, Timothy Boogerd. (Would you trust a firearm and badge to someone who had to go thru grammer school with a name like that? You know how cruel kids can be, he could be psychically scarred for life.)
Boogerd noticed that Ms. Best had an expired decal on her license plate -- a chicken shit offense at best which was later thrown out of court -- and forced Ms. Best to wait in the cold for 30 minutes as he awaited backup from one officer, Stacy Malec. It seems that Malec was being followed around by the "Female Forces" camera crew that night.
So, Best's lawsuit alleges, Boogerd and Malec played it up for the cameras. They made her stand outside in the February cold while they searched her car. They made her perform a field sobriety test (despite the fact that she had not been stopped for a moving violation.) They then handcuffed her, hauled her off to the station
where, still under the glare of TV cameras, they removed parts of her clothing to search for identifying tatoos.
At the station, Ms Best was approached by an unidentified man who asked her to sign a waiver consenting to use her image for broadcast. Resembling the kind of guy that David Letterman refers to as "Hollywood weasels," he urged her to sign saying it would get out her side of the story. She wisely refused.
So you can imagine her shock some months later when she received calls from family and friends telling her that she was featured in an episode of "Female Forces."
To add insult to egregious Naperville police misconduct, the Naperville female cop, the ever catty, Stacy Malec is shown on camera mocking Ms. Best's blonde hair, Jaguar car and Coach handbag.
"I don't feel sorry for her at all," said devoted Naperville public servant Malec, "Pretty little blonde girl, driving a Jaguar at 25 -- Yea, that's Naperville for you," Malec said.
MEOWWW!!
One wonders if devoted public servant, Ms. Malec is the kind of woman whose taste in off-duty clothing runs to flannel shirts and work boots.
And why are Naperville taxpayers funding people, who essentially, hate them?
So a lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court on the 14th, naming as defendents, Malec, Boogerd, the city of Naperville, the A&E network and the show's production company.
It asserts Civil Rights violations, Publicity Act Violations, intentionial infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, violation of Drivers Privacy Protection act (her drivers license info was shown on camera) and consumer fraud.
The city of Naperville, of course is keeping mum on the whole embarrasing episode.
Except city spokesman, Nadja Lalvani said that the city's involvement was limited to TV crews following their female officers around and it had no involvement in the production.
That may not be true.
Naperville's involvement in this whole unseemly mess was prompted by Naperville Police Sgt., Betsy Bratner Smith. Now hauling down a hefty taxpayer supported pension at the ripe old age of 50, the ever self-promoting Bratner wrote in 2007 that she had contacted friends in Hollywood about involving her Naperville Police department's women in the project.
Bratner Smith, a Western Illinois University dropout, starred in several of the shows herself and said the TV exercise would "show our compassion and dedication."
She wrote in 2007 that Naperville Police Chief David Dial's support of the TV project was "immediate."
The Naperville City Council voted to allow the "Female Forces" production firm to use the Naperville city logo and the NPD insignia.
Naperville mayor George Pradel, himself a former cop, said of the show, "I think it's going to be wonderful. I think it should exemplify what they do in law enforcement."
If what they do in Naperville law enforcement is arrest the people who pay their salaries and bloated pensions, for chicken shit offenses, so that they can then bully and humiliate those very citizens and use them as pawns for their own amusement and self-aggrandizement, you hit the nail right on the head, Mayor Pradel.
But your little outer-Chicago enclave is now becoming a national laughing-stock.
Well -- you wanted publicity -- you're getting it.
