A year after Lacramioara Beldie was killed by her estranged husband, who’d been ordered to stay away, her family has sued Cook County and the company that operated his tracking device.
In the months leading up to her death, Beldie received more than 20 calls and over 90 messages, alerting her that Constantin Beldie had violated his GPS monitoring, according to the lawsuit filed last month.
But the court allegedly did nothing about these violations and, according to the suit, “intentionally disregarded the impending danger of Constantin Beldie and failed to act to prevent the attack and death of Lacramioara Beldie.”
On Nov. 19, 2024, the tracking company did not issue any alert when Lacramioara Beldie’s husband showed up outside a Portage Park home and proceeded to stab her to death, according to the lawsuit. Constantin Beldie, 57, killed himself after the attack and was found inside a car a block away hours later.
The suit, filed by Cronauer Law on the one year anniversary of Lacramioara Beldie’s death, names the GPS monitoring company Track Group, Cook County and the chief judge’s Adult Probation Department as defendants.
“We are hopeful that lawsuit will provide clarity to our mother’s death,” Lacramioara Beldie’s family said in a statement. “The question is — was it the Court system, the monitoring people, or the technology that failed to protect our mom? Our goal is to make sure victims are protected and this does not happen to anyone else.”
Bradley Melzer, an attorney with the law firm, announced the suit Wednesday.
“Lacramioara Beldie was thrust into a position where she had to trust probation and trust GPS technology to keep her safe, despite all the red flags which should have kept her killer in jail,” Melzer said in a statement. “After getting out of custody, repeated alerts went unheeded, and on the day it mattered most, the system failed her entirely. We’re seeking justice for her family and to shine a light on the court ordered GPS monitoring company so that reforms can be made and prevent future tragedies.”
The spokesperson for the chief judge’s office declined to comment, citing a Illinois Supreme Court rule prohibiting the office from commenting on pending litigation. The county and Track Group didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The murder of Lacramioara Beldie, 54, brought attention to potential flaws of the county court system, which led to her husband being released on GPS monitoring, despite his history of violence against her. Judge Thomas Nowinski, who oversaw his release, was eventually moved out of the domestic violence division.
Nearly a year later, people are again demanding answers from the chief judge’s Adult Probation Department, after a man, who went AWOL on electronic monitoring, lit a woman on fire on a CTA Blue Line train. The new chief judge has already announced a committee to “urgently review and improve communication procedures” for alleged electronic monitoring violations.
Track Group advertises its electronic monitoring device as, “the safest and most reliable monitoring device ever made,” and its integrated smartphone system as a, “reliable, early warning notification when they are close to the offender,” according to the lawsuit.
The morning after Lacramioara Beldie’s death, Track Group sent her a voicemail notifying her of potential tampering to Constantin Beldie’s device and asked if she had wanted to implement any emergency procedure, the suit states.
About a month before the murder, Constantin Beldie was charged with choking and attempting to kidnap his wife. The case was the second time Lacramioara Beldie filed for a protective order against her husband that year.
Adult Probation Services conducted an assessment of Constantin Beldie and didn’t note a history of orders of protections or that he’d used a weapon. They gave him the lowest possible risk score, according to the suit.
Judge Thomas Nowinski rejected prosecutors’ petition to have him held in jail and released him on GPS monitoring, ordering him to refrain from possessing weapons, and forbade him from visiting his wife’s home, work or school.