A federal lawsuit was filed Friday by a man who claims he was targeted as a suspect in the death of Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz, the now-disgraced Fox Lake officer whose death was ruled a “carefully staged suicide” and an attempt to cover up years of criminal activity. Afterward, Randolph “was fearful he could be wrongfully charged with Gliniewicz’s fictitious murder”, the lawsuit said.
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Goldstin termed the case against his client “a very minor collateral issue” compared to the larger brewing scandal of the Fox Lake’s officer death, news reports said.
O’Connor told reporters that Gliniewicz had likely circulated Randolph’s name to other officers.
Telephone calls to Fox Lake officials for comment weren’t immediately returned. It states that Gliniewicz in October 2014 stopped Randolph near his home, performed an illegal search of him and his vehicle and asked him where he kept illegal drugs.
Randolph’s attorney, Kevin O’Connor, says the Village of Fox Lake is also a defendant in the lawsuit “for their knowingly providing a culture which allowed for this type of abuse”.
The incident prompted a massive manhunt and a months-long investigation that ultimately determined Gliniewicz’s death was a “carefully staged suicide” and the “end result of extensive criminal acts”. Authorities say that’s because he was popular with the public as head of a police-sponsored youth group. That basement is packed to the rafters with military equipment, which investigators say the Explorers, and their controversial leader, Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, never should have had. There is no evidence that anyone took action after then-Mayor Cynthia Irwin received a letter in 2009 signed only by “Anonymous Members of the Fox Lake Police Department” with numerous allegations involving Gliniewicz – including sexual harassment and being drunk and belligerent at bars.
Investigators are now scrutinizing Gliniewicz’s wife and son to determine whether they were involved in the thefts, three law enforcement sources have told CNN.
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Gliniewicz gave the teenagers their own keys to the department.
