Sheriff: Jail worker called off 60 times falsely using Family Leave

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart wants to fire a correctional officer who called off work more than 60 times in 18 months under the guise of the Family Medical Leave Act.

Alexander Perteete, who was hired as a Cook County Department of Corrections officer in 2004, was approved for the FMLA in September 2015 after submitting documentation from his doctor related to an “intermittent medical condition,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Between January 2016 and July 2017, Perteete called off under the FLMA more than 60 times, either before or after a regular day off, or on vacation time, according to the sheriff’s office. He used FMLA to miss work, supplement vacations and attend holiday events.

Perteete called in FLMA on May 8, 2016, which was Mother’s Day, and the sheriff’s Office of Professional Review later found that on the same day, he posted a link on Facebook to a news story about correctional officer call-offs at the Cook County Jail on Mother’s Day.

Later that afternoon, Perteete posted a video on Facebook from the AmeriStar Casino in East Chicago, Indiana, writing in the comments that his mother was “hitting it big” at the casino, according to the sheriff’s office.

Investigators also found that he called off work using FMLA while on vacation in Miami and Cancun, Mexico, according to the sheriff’s office.

In addition, Perteete worked a second full-time job at Health Resource Solutions, and investigators found he called in under FMLA 11 times to excuse himself from a shift while finishing a shift at his second job.

He has been suspended from his correctional officer position without pay, according to the sheriff’s office.