Overview
- Gardiner filed a Cook County lawsuit Monday seeking $1 million and alleging the city’s inspector general, the Board of Ethics, and former Inspector General Deborah Witzburg pursued him with a baseless case.
- He was fined $20,000 in 2023 after a watchdog report said he ordered unfounded tickets for a vocal critic, but an administrative law judge cleared him last June after the city failed to prove its case.
- The complaint says investigators hid helpful evidence and relied on false testimony, pointing to photo metadata, GPS records for the ticketing worker, and an aide interview disclosed during the appeal.
- The tickets targeted resident Pete Czosnyka for supposed weeds and rodents, a judge later threw them out, and Czosnyka says Gardiner is casting himself as the victim.
- The city said Thursday it had not been served and would not comment, while Gardiner says he paid more than $100,000 in legal fees and suffered emotional distress.