Two Elgin Community College police officers have filed Federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaints against ECC’s former Chief of Police, Emad Eassa, for alleged race and sex discrimination and maintaining a hostile work environment over the past three years.

Officers Tami Haukedahl and William Powell have filed lawsuits against Eassa for expressing “demeaning comments toward women, older workers, and African-Americans” and maintaining a “sexually and racially charged work environment,” according to the Charge of Discrimination form filed by Haukedahl.

Haukedahl’s and Powell’s complaints, filed Feb. 13, describes several claims and examples of Eassa apparently expressing sexual and age discrimination and illegal retaliation toward her.

“Eassa’s frequent rants include demeaning comments about me, women, and racial minorities,” Haukedahl wrote in the complaint. “The atmosphere in the ECC police department is sexually and racially charged, full of demeaning, sexist language directed at women, in addition to a sexist cartoon prominently displayed in Eassa’s office for all police, staff, and visitors to see.”

Eassa had been an officer at ECC for the past nine years when he retired April 28 and has been recognized for his leadership at the ECCPD,  according to an email sent to students and staff by ECC President David Sam.

Powell filed similar complaints to Haukedahl’s, focusing more on race and retaliation.

“I joined several other ECC officers in complaining about race discrimination, sex discrimination and retaliation for opposing civil rights violations by Eassa and ECC,” Powell wrote in his Charge of Discrimination form that he filed.

Attempts to contact Eassa and his lawyer were unsuccessful.

This is not the first time officers from the ECCPD have complained about Eassa’s behavior. Complaints were brought up to Eassa and ECC Human Resources, but no corrective action was taken, according to both complaints and Haukedahl and Powell’s lawyer, Peter Katsaros.

According to Haukedahl, some of the retaliatory tactics devised by Eassa include requiring her to work unfavorable hours and assigning her a heavier workload than her colleagues.

“The response to the complaints that I made in August 2016 was immediate; and it was illegal retaliatory conduct. On Sept. 15, 2016 Eassa assigned me to the undesirable second shift for a total of seven weeks,” Haukedahl said in the complaint. “He repeated this punitive measure on Oct. 4, 2016. The normal scheduling for deputy chiefs at ECC alternates between the day shift and the afternoon shift every other week, as has been for the past five years.”

ECC has stated that they will hire an investigator to conduct an “independent investigation,” but has denied requests to provide input into the choice of investigator, according to Katsaros.

Since the lawsuit has become public knowledge, Sam has sent out an email to faculty and staff announcing that he will not comment on the situation in an effort to protect each individual’s privacy.

“I know you may have questions and concerns, but I am unable to comment on the details for various reasons. Personnel matters are treated as confidential. The College wishes to preserve the privacy of all of its employees. The College supports the right of all employees, who feel aggrieved, to avail themselves of internal and external processes,” Sam said in the email.