Federal judge dismisses whistleblower lawsuit from former investigator for Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability

Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune on Feb 4, 2026

Published in News & Features

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CHICAGO — A federal judge has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit brought by a veteran police misconduct investigator against the city and the former chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability who resigned last year.

The lawsuit brought by Matthew Haynam claimed that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired by then-COPA chief Andrea Kersten in August 2024 after he reported her alleged malfeasance to the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability and the city’s Office of Inspector General.

Federal court records show the two-count suit was dismissed on Jan. 29 by U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow for Haynam’s failure to state a claim. A lawyer for Haynam did not immediately comment.

“Based on Haynam’s well-pleaded allegations, the court finds that Haynam’s speech was made as a public employee, and not as a private citizen,” Lefkow wrote in a Jan. 29 order. “It was thus unprotected by the First Amendment.”

Records show the lawsuit dismissed last week was the second that Haynam filed in relation to his firing. He also filed a similar lawsuit in Cook County court in September 2024 that was voluntarily dismissed last year.

Lefkow’s order came six months after attorneys for the city and Kersten filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Haynam’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Kersten declined to comment.

Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, said in a statement to the Tribune: “The Department of Law is pleased that the court correctly dismissed plaintiff’s First Amendment claim. We remain prepared to vigorously defend against any remaining state law claims.”

Ephraim Eaddy, COPA’s former deputy chief administrator under Kersten, said he was unsurprised by the dismissal order and stressed that COPA delivered on expectations throughout her tenure as chief.

“If we’re really looking at the job of the chief administrator, it takes courage and it takes having a strong spine, and I thought Kersten represented that,” Eaddy said. “When anyone … is in that kind of role, you have to withstand the winds of opposition, and I saw a person do that even when faced with it internally and externally.”

Haynam’s lawsuit came as scrutiny of Kersten’s leadership swelled in the wake of the Dexter Reed shooting in March 2024. Weeks before that shooting, police Superintendent Larry Snelling issued a stern public rebuke of COPA during a meeting of the Chicago Police Board.

Kersten resigned about a year later as the CCPSA was preparing to hold a vote of no-confidence.

Persistent complaints and concerns about oversight within COPA, the agency’s workplace culture, the quality of investigations, as well as Kersten’s own public statements and appearances were chief among the reasons highlighted by CCPSA — claims all echoed in Haynam’s lawsuit.

“Kersten’s malfeasance included, but was not limited to, Kersten’s knowing and intentional suppression of information from the public regarding how quality assurance audits revealed COPA’s systemic failures related to the mischaracterization of evidence, failure to interview key witnesses, and failure to properly train COPA investigators regarding the applicable standards for use of force by Chicago Police Officers,” Haynam’s complaint alleged.

Last week, the CCPSA announced LaKenya White, a longtime Chicago police misconduct investigator who has overseen COPA on an interim basis since Kersten resigned last year, would be nominated to lead the agency permanently.

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