Fan files suit claiming security firm unlawfully detained him at Bears game

A football fan is suing the company that handles security at Soldier Field alleging that a group of its employees assaulted and unlawfully detained him during a game last year.

The three count lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks more than $300,000 from Monterrey Security Consultants.

“Monterrey protects fans and keeps them safe,” Monterrey spokesman Eric Herman said in a statement. “This lawsuit is totally without merit.”

On Nov. 12, Dennis Sopcic was attending a game at Soldier Field between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers when several uniformed security guards insisted that he leave the stadium, according to the suit.

However, the suit claims, there was no reason for him to leave the game because “he had done nothing improper.”

After eventually agreeing to leave the stadium peacefully, the security guards surrounded Sopcic and escorted him from his seat, the suit claims. During the incident, the guards told his sons and friends that he was being taken to the their office, and that they could meet him outside the stadium in ten minutes.

The security guards then blocked Sopcic as he attempted to leave the stadium, pushing him in another direction and eventually to the ground, according to the suit.

Sopcic has no recollection of what happened between when he was pushed to the ground and when he woke up in a holding cell, the suit claims. It is believed that he was stunned “with a taser or other device.”

As he sat in the cell, Sopcic repeatedly asked security guards and Chicago Police officers why he was being held and what he had done wrong, but no one responded to his questions, according to the suit. Instead, the security guards laughed or smirked at him.

After being released from the holding cell, Sopcic was met by his sons and a friend more than an hour after the original incident, the suit claims. His nose was bloodied and he appeared to be “in a daze.” In addition, he had bruising on his arm that appeared to be from the taser or other device.

The suit, which seeks a trial by jury, accuses Monterrey Security of assault, battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.