Inmate's Testicles Squeezed By Will County Jailer: Suit

JOLIET, IL — A 23-year-old Joliet inmate who spent nearly two years inside the Will County Jail on armed robbery charges has filed a pro se lawsuit against Will County Sheriff's officials accusing a corrections guard of squeezing his testicles during a pat-down search last May.

Jordan Peete's lawsuit names deputy Timothy Langley, Sheriff Mike Kelley and Warden Dale Santerelli as defendants. Peete typed his lawsuit while in Will County's custody.

Joliet Patch has reached out to Will County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer for comment on the pending lawsuit. Langley has been a deputy correctional officer with Will County for 20 years.

According to his lawsuit, Peete alleges that Langley visited his jail cell on May 7, 2020, and asked Peete what was on his head.

"I told Langley that it was a T-shirt, and he asked why the shirt was ripped," Peete's lawsuit states. "I took the shirt off my head to show him the (shirt) wasn't ripped."

Several minutes later, Langley returned to Peete's cell and told him to give him the ripped shirt or Langley would call in the Emergency Response Team to search his cell and put him in the segregation unit, court documents indicate.

"I can't give you something that I don't have," Peete said he told the deputy.

Langley opened Peete's cell to do a pat down search and "Langley ran his hands down my torso. When he got to my genital area he grabbed my testicals (sic). As a reflex, I jumped back and told him, 'Bro, you just grabbed my balls. You can't do that.' He didn't respond or finish doing the pat down or search my cell for the ripped T-shirt," Peete's lawsuit states.

According to the Joliet plaintiff, Peete called the jail's hotline to report a grievance "about what happened ... After all this happened, I filed a sexual assault suit against Langley and since then Langley has been assigned to our pod several times after the civil suit. Every time he comes over here he harasses me. I've filed several grievances every time and nothing is done about it, but they keep sending him to our pod."

When Langley works the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, "he calls me out my (sic) name, tells other inmates how much he doesn't like me, he tampered with my legal mail, plays with light while I'm sleep (sic) and just finds any way to bother me to try to get under my skin," Peete wrote.

Peete put in his lawsuit that he has filed several complaints against Langley accusing him of unprofessional behavior and constant harassment "but nothing is done about it, and he keeps coming over here doing it over and over again.

"I want disciplinary action for his behavior and I want compensation for the harassment."

According to Will County Jail records, Joliet police booked Peete into the Will County Jail on April 23, 2019, on five charges relating to armed robbery and carjacking offenses.

As part of a December plea bargain, Peete pleaded guilty to armed robbery, and he was sentenced to 15 years at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Peete was given credit for 591 days of time already served inside the Will County Jail.