Stewart sat at the dining-room table and made three phone calls. The first went to Chief Judge Vanessa Lindholm of the Northern District, his former colleague and the current head of the court. He recounted the incident without editorial commentary, sticking to facts, timeline, and procedural violations.
Lindholm listened without interruption, then exhaled slowly. “Jerome, this is unconscionable. What do you need?”
He told her he needed nothing except her awareness. The call ended after six minutes.
The second call went to Thomas Brennan, a civil-rights attorney Stewart had known for 30 years, someone who had argued dozens of cases in Stewart’s courtroom and earned his respect through meticulous preparation and unshakable integrity. Brennan answered on the second ring. Stewart delivered the same factual recitation.
Brennan’s response came immediate and certain. “We file Monday morning. Don’t delete anything. Don’t talk to anyone except me.”
The third call went to the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The intake coordinator transferred him to the legal director, who listened to the summary and asked permission to issue a public statement. Stewart granted it.
That evening, Homeland Security Investigations opened an internal affairs review. The notification came via encrypted email at 8:47. Stewart read it once, forwarded it to Brennan, and opened a blank document on his laptop.
He began drafting a detailed timeline of the encounter, working from memory, reconstructing dialogue, noting the position of bystanders and security cameras, and listing every constitutional violation in chronological order. Outside, the sun set behind the neighbor’s oak tree and the street lamps flickered on. Stewart typed until midnight.
The civil-rights lawsuit landed in federal court four days later. It ran 26 pages of factual allegations, legal claims, and demands for relief, filed under Bivens and Title 42 Section 1983. The defendants were the Department of Homeland Security, Agents Eric Swanson and Thomas Reed in their individual capacities, and Supervisory Special Agent Robert Klein in his official capacity.