Orland Park is cutting a $524,000 check and putting a former police sergeant back on the force after a bitter yearlong fight over racial discrimination claims inside the police department. Village trustees this week approved a settlement that reinstates former sergeant William Sanchez and closes out a case that wound through arbitration and federal proceedings.
Under the deal, the village and its insurers will pay $225,000 in compensatory damages and about $299,000 in back pay, for a total of roughly $524,000. The board signed off on the agreement in a 5-2 vote. As reported by Patch, the settlement also notes the village has already spent more than $460,000 on legal fees and frames the payout as a cost-of-defense move rather than any admission of wrongdoing.
Details of the complaint
Sanchez, a nearly 20-year veteran of the department, sued after he says he was passed over for a promotion to lieutenant and then fired following a complaint he filed in January 2024. The lawsuit claims that colleagues who were caught on recordings making racially charged remarks, including a photo of an officer in blackface and a background-check note about comments referring to lynching, were still promoted, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Justin Tresnowski, Sanchez’s attorney, told the paper that Sanchez “has been reinstated as a sergeant and is returning to work with a clean record.” Mayor Jim Dodge said the settlement “effectively closes this matter” and cast the decision as an effort to spare taxpayers further expense, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Board split and reaction
The village board was clearly not united on how to handle the fallout. Trustees Cynthia Nelson-Katsenes and Bill Healy voted against the agreement, with Healy calling an independent report’s findings “disgusting and inappropriate,” according to The Regional News. Critics pointed to that independent investigation and to some arbitration findings that raised questions about Sanchez’s conduct, even as an arbitrator concluded the firing lacked just cause, the outlet reported.
Legal fallout and what’s next
The settlement requires that all claims against the village and its employees be dismissed with prejudice, effectively closing this chapter of the legal fight, according to Patch. The village had previously secured a temporary restraining order blocking former mayor Keith Pekau from publishing confidential village communications and says it is seeking a permanent injunction, per a Village of Orland Park press release.
