A troubled Skokie woman with a historical past of mendacity to the police engineered an elaborate “hoax” to make it seem as if she’d been detained by federal immigration brokers for more than a day, a Wisconsin sheriff instructed reporters Friday.
During a information convention, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt offered proof that he mentioned uncovered Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi’s net of lies about being detained last month on the county jail and a suburban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Schmidt mentioned he couldn’t cost Naqvi with any crimes in Wisconsin, however he’d referred the matter to different regulation enforcement businesses, together with the FBI and Illinois State Police.
He additionally introduced he filed a federal defamation lawsuit in opposition to her and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, who was among the many political candidates and representatives who spoke out about Naqvi’s purported detention as a U.S. citizen. He’s looking for $1 million.
Last month, Morrison joined Naqvi’s household and different supporters once they introduced consideration to her alleged detention. They instructed reporters that Naqvi and 5 colleagues had been detained by federal immigration brokers at O’Hare Airport whereas getting back from an abroad work journey.
They mentioned Naqvi, 28, and her co-workers have been then taken to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview earlier than Naqvi was transferred in ICE custody to Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin, the place ICE detainees are held. They even shared screenshots that purportedly confirmed she had been taken to each services.
Sarah Afzal, sister of Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, proven throughout a information convention outdoors of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview final month. At that point, she claimed her sister had been detained by federal immigration officers. Officials have since mentioned there’s no proof corroborating Sunny Naqvi’s story.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
But it was all a lie, in keeping with Schmidt.
He shared textual content messages, surveillance footage and lodge data indicating Naqvi went from the airport to a Rosemont lodge earlier than asking somebody to drive her to Wisconsin, the place she “reunited” along with her household.
Cellphone location data displaying she was contained in the jail have been doubtless spoofed, Schmidt mentioned.
“I don’t have an answer for why you would do something like that,” Schmidt mentioned. “I could hypothesize, just as all of us could. There’s a hypothesis: maybe it’s just to go after President Trump. Maybe it’s just to go after ICE.
“Maybe it’s because it’s something she enjoys doing.”
Naqvi’s story had already started to unravel after it made headlines and her historical past of deception was uncovered.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security beforehand launched photographs displaying Naqvi leaving a safe space at O’Hare, simply an hour after she was flagged for screening.
The Cook County sheriff’s workplace poked one other gap in her account, saying she wasn’t discovered throughout a search of the Broadview facility.
And the multinational software program firm she claimed she labored for mentioned she’d by no means been employed, and that none of its staff had been detained at O’Hare.
Naqvi didn’t reply to a request for remark. Morrison mentioned he couldn’t remark, citing the “pending litigation.”
Schmidt’s broadside marks the newest instance of Naqvi going through allegations of falsely presenting herself as a sufferer. Records obtained by the Sun-Times present Naqvi has repeatedly been charged with submitting false police stories.
In one case, filed in Cook County courtroom, she was convicted of mendacity about being the sufferer of a violent sexual assault and was sentenced to 2 years probation.
Naqvi claimed stab wounds she had on her thighs have been sustained throughout the alleged assault close to her dwelling in Skokie. Eventually, Skokie police discovered she had falsely accused an ex-boyfriend of assaulting her, and as a substitute introduced a felony case in opposition to her.
Skokie police discovered the ex-boyfriend had really been “catfished” on a courting app and drawn to the Evanston-Chicago border, doubtless by Naqvi, across the time of the alleged assault.
But it wasn’t the primary time Naqvi was accused of constructing a bogus report — or breaking the regulation.
Series of legal costs
In May 2019, Naqvi and her roommate at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been accused of holding that very same ex-boyfriend at knifepoint, in keeping with police stories.
She was accused of pushing the boyfriend to delete proof off his telephone and pc associated to allegations she’d made in opposition to a professor she accused of sexually harassing her and buying and selling intercourse for higher grades, according to media reports. The professor stepped down however denied wrongdoing.
Naqvi was charged with intimidation and aggravated illegal restraint, courtroom data present.
About a week later, Naqvi reported the ex-boyfriend broke into her house, stole tablets and left a notice admitting to creating up the sooner incident, in keeping with a Champaign police report. She allegedly requested police if she’d be allowed to graduate that weekend in the event that they arrested the ex-boyfriend.
When officers discovered the ex-boyfriend, he mentioned he’d been in conferences with the college’s dean all day, then spent the remainder of the night together with his mother and father, data present. Naqvi was ultimately charged with making a false report.
In January 2020, Naqvi reported her automobile was stolen, however she was once more charged with falsifying that report.
Naqvi was by no means convicted in any of the instances filed in Champaign County courtroom, data present.
Naqvi has additionally been evicted twice lately, Cook County courtroom data present. In 2024, a River North house complicated mentioned she owed over $43,000 in hire and charges. Around the identical time, JP Morgan mentioned she owed almost $15,000 in unpaid bank card debt.
Schmidt, the Dodge County sheriff, mentioned Naqvi had roped a new man into subsidizing her life-style and paying $12,000 for the journey she took to Turkey earlier than she claimed she was detained. That similar man drove Naqvi to Wisconsin however in the end started cooperating with the sheriff’s workplace after seeing media stories about the alleged detainment, in keeping with Schmidt.
The man instructed the sheriff’s workplace he gave Naqvi about $25,000 in a month “because he thought there was a very long-term relationship in their future,” Schmidt mentioned.
The man reported he was charged $1,000 to pay a regulation agency on a day Naqvi mentioned she was detained — a cost he didn’t authorize, in keeping with Schmidt.
Naqvi “continues to do this and get away with it, and she has other people who are helping to do that,” Schmidt mentioned.
“That’s what this is about, making sure that people know that she, and people like her, are out there, and making sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
