JUNEU, Wisconsin (Diya TV) — Dodge County, Wisconsin Sheriff Dale Schmidt filed a federal civil defamation lawsuit on April 10 against Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, 28, of Skokie, Illinois, and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, each for $1 million, after a month-long investigation concluded that Naqvi fabricated a story about being detained by federal immigration authorities.
In March, Naqvi’s family and supporters claimed she and five colleagues were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at O’Hare International Airport after returning from a trip to Turkey, held for over 30 hours, transferred to the ICE detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, and then moved to the Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin. Morrison held a public press conference at the Broadview facility and amplified the claims on social media.
CBP records show Naqvi entered secondary inspection at O’Hare at approximately 10:46 a.m. on March 5 and was released at approximately 11:42 a.m. — about 56 minutes, not 30-plus hours. The Department of Homeland Security released surveillance images showing Naqvi leaving O’Hare about 90 minutes after her overseas flight arrived, and stated she was never taken into custody or transferred to ICE. The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office had no record of Naqvi being booked into their facility.
Hotel records obtained by Schmidt show Naqvi checked into the Hampton Inn & Suites in Rosemont, Illinois at 1:17 p.m. on March 5, within hours of her CBP release. Text messages from that stay show Naqvi asking an unnamed man to pay her “spa lady” during the period she claimed to be in federal custody. Surveillance video then placed her at a gas station in Slinger, Wisconsin at 5:38 a.m. on March 7, and at the Holiday Inn Express in Beaver Dam at 6:36 a.m., around the time her family publicly claimed she was being released from the Dodge County Jail.
The key witness was a man Schmidt described as having a three-year relationship with Naqvi, who came forward after seeing media coverage and provided text messages to investigators. The man told investigators he gave Naqvi approximately $25,000 in a single month, including $12,000 for her trip to Turkey, believing they had a serious long-term relationship. Schmidt said the Turkey trip was for a personal medical procedure, not work. SAP, the German software company Naqvi claimed to work for, confirmed it had no record of her as a current or former employee or contractor.
Schmidt said cell phone location data Naqvi’s supporters shared, purportedly placing her inside each detention facility, was likely spoofed. He identified no criminal law broken in Wisconsin and has referred the matter to the FBI and Illinois State Police.
Court records show Naqvi was charged with seven felonies in Champaign County between May 2019 and December 2020, including three counts of filing a false report; all were acquitted or dismissed. In 2019, she also pleaded guilty to filing a false police report with Skokie police claiming she was sexually assaulted in a park, and completed two years of probation. That same year, she accused a University of Illinois professor of sexual misconduct; he later sued UIUC alleging the claims were fabricated, and a judge granted him an order of protection against Naqvi in 2020.
The lawsuit also names ten unnamed “John Doe” defendants described as individuals outside Wisconsin who participated in spreading the defamatory statements. Morrison said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on pending litigation. Naqvi’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Naqvi herself has never spoken publicly about the alleged detention.
