Wisconsin sheriff sues over Skokie woman’s detainment ‘hoax,’ shares evidence

The Dodge County Sheriff has sued a Skokie woman for defamation and on Friday provided information that appears to discredit the story the woman’s supporters publicized last month of her federal detainment and transportation to the Wisconsin county’s jail. 

Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt is seeking $1 million in damages each from Summer Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, the Skokie woman; Kevin Morrison, a family friend of Naqvi; and various members of the media for reputational injury, his civil lawsuit shows. 

Supporters of Naqvi made headlines in March during a press conference outside a federal detention facility in Broadview where they reported federal immigration authorities detained Naqvi, 28, a U.S citizen, for more than 40 hours across two different detention centers, including one in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

But standing before a press junket inside his station in Juneau on Friday morning, Schmidt shared bank statements, surveillance images, text messages and more that indicate Naqvi’s story was a lie and she never even traveled to Broadview or Juneau last month.

Instead, an unnamed “victim” — who Schmidt said had a three year relationship with Naqvi — spent thousands of dollars to fund her trip abroad, pay for her stay in a hotel near O’Hare that March weekend, and personally drove her up to Wisconsin on March 7, Schmidt said. 

Naqvi did not speak publicly about her claims on March 8 and has not responded to The Record’s multiple attempts to contact her via phone, email and in person. The five coworkers with whom she reportedly was traveling have also not identified themselves.

“It is my understanding that a lawsuit has been filed, I haven not seen it. And if a suit has in fact been filed, I cannot comment on pending litigation,” Morrison said by text on Friday.

The Record reached out to Naqvi’s sister Sarah Afzal for comment on Friday but was unable to make contact. Reached by phone on Thursday, Robert Held, an attorney who previously said he represented Naqvi, said he does not represent Naqvi and declined to comment further.

Schmidt said his presentation was aimed at disproving Naqvi’s narrative that multiple law enforcement agencies last month transported her across state lines and then covered it up, and it referenced a history in which Naqvi had reported unsubstantiated claims to other law enforcement, including the Skokie Police Department. 

But the sheriff said the investigation did not deteremine a law that Naqvi or others broke in the state of Wisconsin in reference to this alleged incident. And so, while his criminal investigation remains open, Schmidt said he is bringing no criminal charges against Naqvi and others. 

“To me it’s not about a dollar figure,” Schmidt said of the lawsuit. “To me, we have a victim here who was played, and not just one victim. We have a victim in this incident (and other victims in other incidents) … and she continues to do this and get away with it.

“I don’t have any charges here in Dodge County to bring against her. My only recourse is to make sure that the public knows that she can’t do this.”

‘Spoofed’

To The Record’s knowledge, Naqvi has never personally shared information with the public about her account of being allegedly detained and transported to various detention facilities last month. 

Afzal and Morrison, who was then a candidate for the Cook County Board of Commissioners, said Naqvi was returning from an overseas work trip on March 5. A LinkedIn account bearing Naqvi’s name states she works as a senior solutions architect for SAP, a German software company. 

“We can confirm that SAP is unaware of a Sunny (Sundas) Naqvi being a current or former contractor. While there is a possibility she works/worked for a third party who may have done work with or for SAP, we cannot confirm any affiliation,” said Marcus Winkler, SAP’s co-head of global public relations, in an email to The Record.

Afzal and Morrison also shared information about how tracking data from Naqvi’s cellphone reportedly showed she was held at O’Hare for more than 24 hours starting on March 5; then she was reportedly transported to the detention facility in Broadview and then to the one in Juneau. 

But Schmidt said on Friday that Naqvi’s phone location could have been “spoofed very easily.”

Law and legal history

According to reporting from The News-Gazette, Naqvi accused a University of Illinois professor in 2019 of sexual misconduct. The professor, Joseph Petry, later resigned from UIUC, before suing UIUC in 2020 for an alleged breach of contract and wrote in his lawsuit that the allegations “were fabricated and the result of a student’s failed attempt to blackmail Petry into changing her grade,” according to the reporting.

In July 2020, a Champaign County judge granted Petry’s request for an order of protection from Naqvi as he alleged Naqvi was stalking him, public court records show. 

The News-Gazette reported that Naqvi was expelled from UIUC. Pat Wade, UIUC’s director of communications, confirmed Naqvi attended the university from the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2019, but has no record of her obtaining a degree.

Public Champaign County court records show Naqvi was charged with seven different felonies between May 2019 and December 2020. In every case, a judge ruled in favor of Naqvi and acquitted her of the charges or state prosecutors dismissed their charges. 

Those now dismissed charges included three counts of filing a false report.

Civil cases in Cook County

Naqvi is also listed in public Cook County court records as a defendant in four different civil lawsuits. 

Judges dismissed two of those lawsuits after Cook County Sheriff’s deputies were unable to contact Naqvi to serve her summons, court records show.  

Naqvi has also been sued by a property management company and JP Morgan Chase for, in both cases, failure to pay thousands of dollars.

According to the Chicago Tribune, public records show that Naqvi pleaded guilty in 2022 to making a false police report alleging sexual assault in 2019, and she reportedly completed two years of probation for that case in 2024 before the case was then dismissed.

Stay tuned to The Record North Shore as this story develops.

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