A Fox Lake, Ill., policeman, once praised as a hero and exemplary 30-year veteran, tried to arrange the killing of an official that might have exposed his corruption, police say.
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Earlier this week officials revealed that Gliniewicz orchestrated his death to look as if he’d been shot in the line of duty on September 1 when he’d actually committed suicide.
The story of the Illinois cop who allegedly killed himself and staged his murder to avoid criminal charges for embezzling $50,000 from a youth program has, somehow, gotten worse.
Although authorities initially thought he’d been gunned down by the fleeing suspects, they later concluded he killed himself after stealing thousands of dollars from the Police Explorer post he helped run.
“Even though these threats were made months ago, I take these threats very seriously”, she said. Spokespersons for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to confirm or deny those reports.
An undated photo of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.
Investigators determined that this was a code name “for a high-ranking motorcycle gang member”, Covelli said.
The family’s attorneys, Henry Tonigan and Andrew Kelleher, have not responded to numerous voicemail and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. “It’s quite unbelievable and nearly surreal”.
A second official briefed on the investigation told the AP that Melodie and D.J. Gliniewicz were recipients of incriminating text messages from the lieutenant that investigators released Wednesday when they announced the staged suicide.
Authorities suspect that at least two other people are suspected of criminal activity and are investigating Gliniewicz’s wife and son in relation to the embezzlement. George Filenko of Lake County told the affiliate. Gliniewicz, according to a report.
Covelli also said that cocaine was found in an unmarked evidence bag in a drawer belonging to Gliniewicz.
Marrin told reporters Thursday that she believed all of her dealings with Gliniewicz were cordial and never had any sense that he was angry with her.
Residents in Fox Lake had expressed shock at the suggestion that Gliniewicz, who they said was viewed as a reliable, trusted member of the community, could have been capable of the deceptions described Wednesday.
Gliniewicz was “a good and honest man”, said Ruth Hogan, who had known him for three decades.
He also left a crime scene unattended, according to the personnel file.
It was not clear from the file whether any action was taken in response to the letter.
You can read the new files in the documents above, via CBS Chicago.
Michael Pearson and Faith Karimi reported and wrote from Atlanta; Rosa Flores reported from Fox Lake.
February 1, 2009: Several members of the Fox Lake Police Department write an anonymous letter to the mayor at the time complaining that the police chief has not dealt appropriately with problems involving Gliniewicz that have been brought to his attention. “And he’d stay about an hour”, the neighbor said.
The official said D.J. Gliniewicz was “Individual #2”, whom the officer appears to scold for spending money on personal items. Gliniewicz was found “passed out” in the driver’s seat of his truck on the shoulder of a Fox Lake road, with the engine running and his foot on the gas. The cop told her he could put three bullets in her chest if she didn’t stop acting foolishly, she claimed.
“This is my first time as a law enforcement officer, in my career, that I felt ashamed by the acts of another police officer”, Filenko said.
Marrin says she pressed Gliniewicz the day before his death to share an inventory of his program’s assets.
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The personnel file was a factor in the investigation, and it prompted a series of possible theories about what had happened, Covelli said.
