(Editor's note: This article has been updated)
Madison County jurors awarded a former Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) employee $170,000 in compensatory damages in a suit claiming he was terminated for reporting alleged fraud.
Plaintiff DeWitt Weary III was awarded $100,000 for emotional distress and $70,000 for “impairment of plaintiff’s reputation and standing in the community.” Jurors also awarded $75,000 in punitive damages against IDOT.
“Having found for the plaintiff Dewitt Weary as to plaintiff’s claim for retaliatory discharge in violation of the Illinois Ethics Act, do you further find that punitive damages are requires (sic) which will service to punish the defendant Illinois Department of Transportation and to deter others from the commission of like offenses,” the verdict form stated.
Madison County Circuit Judge Sarah Smith presided over the trial, which began on Nov. 1 and concluded on Nov. 3.
Weary was represented at trial by attorney Cody Reinberg of HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in St. Louis.
IDOT was represented by assistant attorney general Thomas Ewick.
Weary filed his lawsuit against IDOT and Clark Kaericher on April 9, 2019. Kaericher was later dismissed from the suit. IDOT was the only defendant at trial.
The lawsuit alleged he was terminated from his employment in retaliation for reporting alleged fraud and hiring violations. Weary claimed he had been discriminated against due to his race and age before making the reports.
Weary began working for IDOT in 2017. He was in his late 40s at the time. In his suit, Weary claimed he was first discriminated against due to his race and age when he was offered a salary of $2,640 per month. He argued that his salary should have been a minimum of $27 per hour, or roughly $4,300 per month, given his prior salary, education and work history.
During his deposition, Weary said he raised concerns about the salary he was offered. He agreed to take the offer but said he would protest it later.
He claimed IDOT then allegedly engaged in fraud and bribery during the promotion process. He claimed he was overlooked for a position, which was allegedly given to the son of a “Chicagoland” judge.
Weary also filed a suit against IDOT and Kaericher in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in January 2019.
Weary dismissed his federal suit on Aug. 2, 2021, after the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. They argued that Weary failed to establish that they discriminated or retaliated against him. They also argued that Weary failed to present sufficient evidence that he was deprived of his equal rights “due to his age, race or color, and/or or protective activity by paying him a discriminatorily suppressed salary, failing to promote him, and terminating his employment.”
The federal court suit alleged discrimination and unlawful deprivation of federal protected rights rather than retaliatory discharge.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 19-L-501