JUNEAU, Wis. — Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt sued Sundas Naqvi and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison in federal court April 10, seeking damages in excess of $1 million against each defendant over public claims that Naqvi was detained by federal immigration authorities and held at the Dodge County Jail, April 18.
The dispute deepened three days later, when U.S. District Judge Brett H. Ludwig’s April 13 order allowed limited early discovery after Schmidt argued that phone records and hotel surveillance could preserve evidence tied to Naqvi’s whereabouts during the period she said she was in custody.
Sundas Naqvi case moves from viral allegation to federal discovery
In the complaint filed in federal court, which names Summer Sundas Naqvi, Schmidt alleges that she was never booked or detained at the Dodge County Jail and that the reputational damage from those public accusations warrants compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief and a jury trial.
Schmidt’s theory of the case is reinforced by the sheriff’s office’s April 10 evidence summary, which says U.S. Customs and Border Protection records place Naqvi in secondary inspection at O’Hare from 10:46 a.m. to 11:42 a.m. on March 5, that hotel records show she checked into a Hampton Inn & Suites in Rosemont, Illinois, at about 1:17 p.m., and that video, text messages and travel data place her outside custody during much of the period she later described as detention.
The court has not ruled on the truth of Schmidt’s allegations. But Ludwig’s order gives the sheriff a chance to subpoena T-Mobile records and seek limited hotel surveillance, an early procedural win that makes the public claims easier to test against timestamps, location data and preserved footage.
In comments reported by ABC7 Chicago, Morrison said he could not comment on pending litigation. The station reported that Naqvi and her family did not reply to its requests for comment.
How the Sundas Naqvi story changed over time
The case has drawn unusual attention because the detention account first circulated as a civil-liberties alarm. A March 8 Chicago Sun-Times report relayed Morrison’s assertion that Naqvi and five colleagues were detained after returning from Istanbul, taken to Broadview and later moved to Wisconsin.
That narrative began to fray within days. In a March 11 follow-up by the Sun-Times, DHS said Naqvi left secondary screening roughly an hour after it began and released images and video material that officials said showed she was not taken into ICE detention, even as Morrison disputed the agency’s account.
What comes next for Sundas Naqvi
For now, the litigation remains in its opening stage. Schmidt still has to prove that the challenged statements were false, defamatory and damaging, while Naqvi and Morrison, if they answer the suit, will have the opportunity to contest both his timeline and his legal theory. But the direction of the case has changed sharply: what began as a public claim about an unlawful ICE detention is now being judged through court filings, preserved records and the evidence trail each side can actually produce.
