Yvonne Averhart v. Cook County Sheriff

Yvonne Averhart, formerly employed as a guard at the Cook County Jail, was suspended without pay in 2001 and fired in 2003. She filed her first federal lawsuit in 2001; the current suit is her fourth. She has lost them all. She filed and lost two state suits as well. The district court dismissed the current suit as barred by the earlier decisions.

Averhart believes that the Sheriffs Department, which manages the Jail, set out to punish her for corroborating a coworker’s accusation of sexual harassment by a male guard. See Smith v. Sheahan, 189 F.3d 529, 531 (7th Cir.1999). The Department…