A Chicago Police lieutenant who is married to Superintendent Eddie Johnson has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming she’s a victim of the department’s “discriminatory” promotion process.
Promoted in 2015, to lieutenant, Lt. Nakia Fenner, was previously investigated after an allegation surfaced that her and two other police supervisors were coached by a high-ranking police official for an August 2015 lieutenants exam.
She was promoted to lieutenant after that exam and it is presumed that this lawsuit is for an additional promotion she has sought since then.
She or her attorney have not commented.
Johnson has asked Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to look into the complaint by Lt. Nakia Fenner, who married Johnson last year, according to his spokesman.
EEOC complaints are normally investigated by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs, but Johnson referred the case outside the department to avoid any potential conflict of interest, according to Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Fenner is a lieutenant assigned to the South Side’s Deering District, which covers such neighborhoods as Bridgeport, Canaryville, Back of the Yards and Brighton Park. She married Johnson last summer after he underwent a kidney transplant.
This is not the first time the inspector general’s office has looked into a case involving Fenner.
According to DNAInfo, Fenner was the highest score on the 2015 exam but it was alleged that a “subject matter expert” for the exam helped her for that test. Her No. 1 ranking in 2015 was significantly better than the last time the test was offered in 2007 when she finished 303rd.