Chicago Nurse Sues CTA-Hired Security Firms After Fare Jumper Left Her With A Broken Leg

ROSELAND — A Chicago woman is suing two private security firms — including a company contracted by the CTA in a nearly $90 million deal — following an incident at a Red Line Train station that left her with a broken leg and other injuries. 

Hilary Thorne, a 61-year-old nurse at Stroger Hospital, on her way home at the 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line Station in Roseland when the incident occurred on July 10, 2025.

In a video shared by her attorney Kenneth Hoffman of Mitchell Hoffman & Wolf, Thorne is seen walking her bike toward the station’s accessible fare gate when a man who previously tried to enter a turnstile approaches her. 

Thorne said the man asked her if she would “tap him through,” but she refused because if she were to tap somebody in, she wouldn’t be able to enter herself, Hoffman told Block Club. Thorne declined to comment.

A second video shared by Hoffman shows Thorne passing through the accessible fare gate with her bike and the man following behind her. Thorne begins to close the gate and the man pushes it open, knocking Thorne over, the video shows. The fall caused Thorne to break her leg, Hoffman said. 

Three security guards are seen in the second video steps away from Thorne as the scuffle occurs. As Thorne sits on the ground, three guards approach her before heading in the direction the man went. One guard points to another to stay, according to the video. 

A few minutes later, two guards return with the man and force him to exit the train station, according to the video. 

Following the incident, police and an ambulance arrived at the train station and Thorne was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Thorne broke her leg and developed a blood clot during her recovery, which kept her out of work for about three months, Hoffman said. Thorne returned to “light duty” last October and didn’t fully resume her role as a nurse until January. 

Thorne is now seeking more than $50,000 in damages for medical expenses, lost wages and “the pain and suffering she endured while recovering from the injury,” Hoffman said. 

A three-count complaint filed by Hoffman in January alleges that Action K-9 Security — a private security firm hired by the CTA under a two-year, $90 million contract — and its subcontractor, First American Security, Inc., failed to monitor and supervise the area around the fare gate and implement necessary security protocols to prevent fare evasion. 

The complaint also claims the CTA “negligently hired an unfit private security company,” ignored complaints from passengers that the private security was ineffective and failed to terminate the private security company when it knew it had been ineffective.

The CTA was subsequently dismissed from the case because of the state’s Immunity Act, in which the transit authority is “immune” from a neutral lawsuit for failing to prevent crimes, Hoffman said. 

According to the city’s two-year contract inked with Action K-9 Security in February 2025, the company is to provide a “strong, visible deterrent presence around the stations, and namely at the turnstiles, so people see them and think twice about doing things just like this,” Hoffman said. 

“They are there to prevent and deter crimes,” Hoffman said. “You can see from the [videos] there’s no visible presence of the security at all. If you look at the [second] video, they’re nowhere near the turnstile gates at all. In fact, they’re not paying attention one bit.”

In response to the complaint, Action K-9 Security defended their actions by claiming “we’re not the police,” and that employees with the company can only observe and not do anything more, Hoffman said. 

The security companies also blamed Thorne for the incident, saying it was “wrong for [Thorne] to take the law into her own hands” when she pushed the accessible fare gate back at the man instead of letting him go through, Hoffman said. 

In a statement to Block Club, Mika Stambaugh, a spokesperson for Action K-9 Security, denied the lawsuit’s allegations and said it does not “accurately represent all the facts.” Action K-9 Security, a family-owned and operated business, has served the city for nearly 40 years, Stambaugh said in the statement. 

“We have denied the allegations, continue to do so and will defend the allegations in court,” Stambaugh said. “Every day, millions of citizens travel safely through the City of Chicago, in large part due to the security we provide.” 

The CTA and its security contractors were “well aware” of turnstile jumping and fare evasion at the 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line station, Hoffman said. 

In emails shared with Block Club, Thorne contacted the transit authority through its feedback form in December 2023 describing the “abusive and threatening” people she encountered while entering the stations’ new accessible gates. 

People “surge[d] forward to push through the gate without paying,” with one man spitting on her, Thorne wrote in the December email. 

“The worst of them all is the south terminal at 95th Dan Ryan, as there are never any staff at the gates, and often no staff in the terminal at all,” Thorne continued in the email. “I absolutely dread having to open the gate as I know I am going to get pushed around and maybe injured. Every. Single. Night.” 

One person threatened to kill her, while others mostly “spit and cuss” when she refused to hold the gate, Thorne wrote. 

“I have emailed before to tell you how dangerous this is now, but I guess someone has to be killed before you take notice,” Thorne continued. 

A member of the CTA Feedback Team replied to Thorne apologizing for the “poor travel experience” at the 95th/Dan Ryan Red Line station and promising the CTA and police department’s dedication to safety. 

Thorne submitted another response through the CTA’s feedback form in December 2024, recounting an incident where a man harassed and threatened a CTA employee until he was allowed on the train. In the email, Thorne said there were seven security staff steps away, “standing in a circle, looking at their phones.” 

“Not one of them even noticed what was happening,” Thorne wrote in the December 2024 email. 

Thorne also noted “people smoking in every car of the train” and active drug sales, according to the email.

The CTA Feedback Team replied to Thorne’s email again, apologizing for Thorne’s “poor travel experiences,” according to emails shared with Block Club. 

“The behavior you described is absolutely not acceptable from a CTA representative,” the CTA’s Feedback Team wrote. “We take seriously reports such as yours in which employee behavior has not met expectations and have forwarded your information to the responsible management for review and appropriate corrective action.” 

Thorne sent the emails because she was afraid — “and her worst nightmare occurred,” Hoffman said. 

The CTA recently announced a request for proposals to pilot new fare gate designs or technologies that will replace the turnstile’s 40-year look. 

In an information session for the pilot program on July 30, CTA representatives shared that rail fare evasion has “increased substantially in recent years,” rising to 5.5 percent in November 2025. 

The fare gates of the future initiative will “modernize the system and identify different gate types or other technologies that can help to deter fare evasion while also promoting a welcoming environment on transit,” according to the announcement. Applications are being accepted until Aug. 24. 

In May, city and county officials also launched the Regional Transit Task Force — a new collaboration between the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago Transit Authority — as another tool to address violent crime on buses and trains. 

The initiative is the latest effort from local leaders to improve rider safety amid threats from the Trump administration to cut CTA’s federal funding. In March, the agency submitted a revised security enhancement plan that called for a 75 percent boost in monthly policing hours, a doubling of off-duty officers patrolling CTA on their days off as part of Chicago Police Department’s Voluntary Special Employment Program and 4,400 additional hours of policing from the sheriff’s office.

The CTA did not respond to Block Club’s request for comment. 

Thorne is recovering, though her leg still bothers her, Hoffman said. As a nurse, she works 12-hour shifts that require her to be on her feet “and it’s painful,” Hoffman said. 

She’s also afraid that “this could happen again to her or someone she knows,” Hoffman said. 

Thorne’s ultimate goal in filing suit is for the CTA to be a safe place for people to enjoy, Hoffman said. 

“If we’re going to pay public dollars to private security companies, they need to do their job,” Hoffman said. “They can’t be sitting, talking amongst themselves, not paying attention, not providing the strong, visible, deterrent presence that we expect and that they are required to provide by the terms of the contract that they’re being paid a lot of money for.”