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Wife and son of Illinois officer who killed himself face criminal inquiry
Illinois officer who killed himself sought a hitman to kill village administrator
(about 4 hours later)
An official said on Thursday the wife and son of an Illinois police lieutenant who killed himself during an investigation of the youth program he ran were also under criminal investigation.
Months before an Illinois police officer staged his suicide to appear as though he heroically died in the line of duty, subjecting his community to an expensive and fruitless manhunt, he apparently sought a hitman to kill a village administrator he feared would expose him as a thief, a detective said on Thursday.
The official, who was briefed on the investigation, said it centered on the Fox Lake Police Explorer program from which Lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz allegedly stole thousands of dollars over the course of seven years.
Detective Chris Covelli said Lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz sent a text in April asking a woman to set up a meeting with a “high-ranking gang member to put a hit on the village manager”.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. He said Gliniewicz’s wife, Melodie, and son DJ were caught up in the investigation. Melodie Gliniewicz took part in the Explorer program.
Gliniewicz sent another message in May, saying he had thought of “planting things”. Investigators found small packages of cocaine in Gliniewicz’s desk after he died, Covelli said.
Authorities revealed the embezzlement investigation on Wednesday and said Gliniewicz killed himself and staged the scene to look like he died in the line of duty.
The drugs were “not linked to any case that we could find”, raising the possibility that the lieutenant sought to frame the manager, Anne Marrin, as a drug criminal before she could expose him as an embezzler, the detective said.
DJ Gliniewicz has angrily dismissed suggestions that his father killed himself.
“We never found any explanation why those drugs were in his desk at the police station,” Covelli said.
In Fox Lake on Thursday, public works employees were pulling down blue ribbons residents had tied to trees and poles as a tribute to their hero. Signs around the small town that had praised the cop known as “GI Joe” suddenly disappeared, replaced in one case by another that labeled him “GI Joke”.
Gliniewicz sent the texts after Marrin, the village’s first professional administrator, began auditing Fox Lake’s finances, including the Police Explorers program that authorities now say the lieutenant had been stealing from for seven years.
The friends and neighbors of Lieutenant Gliniewicz reacted with disbelief and dismay to authorities’ announcement that the popular officer not only meticulously staged his own suicide to make it look like he died in the line of duty, but had been stealing for years from a police club for youth that he oversaw.
Often called “GI Joe”, he was a respected figure in the bedroom community of 10,000 people 50 miles north of Chicago. His death on 1 September, moments after he radioed that he was chasing three suspicious men, prompted an intense manhunt involving hundreds of officers, and raised fears of cop-killers on the loose.
“It’s breaking my heart,” said Mark Weihofen, a 41-year-old school bus mechanic. “There is a ‘We love you, Joe’ sign that I pass by every day … It was already down.”
Two months later, authorities announced that he in fact killed himself to cover his crimes. And now authorities are also investigating his wife, Melodie, and one of his sons, DJ, as well, an official said on Thursday.
Investigators said they believed the 30-year police veteran – whose death prompted a weeks-long manhunt and whose funeral drew thousands of mourners – killed himself because his criminal activity was about to be exposed.
Melodie Gliniewicz helped her husband run the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post, which put young people interested in law enforcement careers through sophisticated training exercises. In a newspaper interview weeks ago, DJ Gliniewicz, a soldier in his 20s, angrily dismissed suggestions that his father took his own life.
Recovered text messages and other records now show Gliniewicz embezzled from the village’s Police Explorer program for seven years, spending the money on mortgage payments, travel expenses, gym memberships, adult websites and loans to friends, Lake County major crimes task force commander George Filenko said.
The official, who was briefed on the investigation, spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
“Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal,” Filenko said. “We completely believed from day one that this was a homicide.”
Authorities refused to officially identify anyone beyond the lieutenant who is suspected in any crimes. They also declined to identify the woman Gliniewicz texted in April, other than to say she was not in law enforcement.
The revelations stunned people in Fox Lake, a village of 10,000 about 50 miles north of Chicago where the 52-year-old married father of four had long been a role model.
Investigators did interview the high-ranking gang member, who denied ever talking to Gliniewicz.
“I haven’t got my thoughts together yet. It’s shocking,” said Fox Lake mayor Donny Schmit, a friend of Gliniewicz who said the officer wanted to meet the day before his death to ensure that the Police Explorer program would continue after what he said was his planned retirement at month’s end.
“We found no evidence that they ever talked and we were able to rule him out” as a suspect, Covelli said.
“You never thought he was this kind of man,” said Kathy Pederson, a single mother who considered Gliniewicz a father figure to her son in the Explorer program. Now, she said: “People are outraged and they are taking down the posters … They want their money back.”
The officer’s wife and four children issued a brief statement on Wednesday through their lawyers, saying they were grieving. It did not mention suicide or thefts. The attorneys, Henry Tonigan and Andrew Kelleher, did not immediately respond to voicemail and email messages sent on Thursday.
The reaction to Gliniewicz’s deception extended beyond Fox Lake.
As the investigation into Gliniewicz’s death stretched on, suspicion grew that he had killed himself, but investigators publicly treated it as a homicide investigation until announcing on Wednesday that he shot himself. The lieutenant fired first at his cellphone and ballistics vest, then inserted his handgun inside the vest and fired at his heart. Then, as he was dying, he fell forward, scraping his face, which could have been an intentional effort to create the appearance of a struggle, said the coroner, Dr Thomas Rudd.
A Washington-based organization responsible for collecting the names of officers killed in the line of duty – the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund – quickly removed Gliniewicz’s name and photo from its website and said his name would no longer be etched onto a marble monument dedicated to fallen officers.
Lake County major crimes taskforce commander George Filenko, who led the investigation, said the 30-year police veteran clearly intended to mislead investigators and had the kind of intimate knowledge of crime scenes needed to pull it off.
After his death, pundits had called Gliniewicz a victim of an increasingly dangerous environment for police as some citizens challenge what they see as overzealous enforcement.
Recovered text messages and other records now show Gliniewicz spent the money on mortgage payments, travel expenses, gym memberships, adult websites, withdrawing cash and making loans, Filenko said.
An organization that assists survivors of officers killed in the line of duty, the 100 Club of Chicago, asked the Gliniewicz family to return a $15,000 donation. And Motorola Solutions, which announced in September it would put up a $50,000 reward toward information leading to the arrest of Gliniewicz’s killer, said the money would be donated to the Explorer program to replace stolen funds, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Marrin thanked authorities for solving the case and seemed nonplussed that Gliniewicz had made personal threats against her. Asking tough questions was part of her job, she said. She pressed him the day before his death to share an inventory of his program’s assets. He responded the next morning, promising to deliver it that afternoon.
Still, 24-year-old Ashley Scott said there were a number of people in Fox Lake who did not believe the officer killed himself.
Instead, he killed himself. Just why he tried to make it look like murder remains unclear. Filenko said he did not know whether a suicide finding would prevent his family from receiving benefits.
“I say he died of police corruption – either his corruption or somebody else’s,” she said.
The huge outpouring of grief in the village where the 52-year-old officer had long been a role model has been replaced by a sense of betrayal. Many tributes to their slain hero have come down. Some signs praising “GI Joe” have replaced, one by a poster labeling him “GI Joke”.
Investigators said Gliniewicz’s death was carefully staged. Minutes before he died, he radioed he was chasing three suspicious men into a swampy area. Backup officers found the army veteran’s body about 50 yards from his squad car.
The first bullet from his handgun had struck his cellphone and ballistic vest. The second pierced his upper chest, under the vest. The swampy terrain was otherwise undisturbed, Filenko said.
He also left a trail of equipment leading to his body: his pepper spray, baton and glasses. His precise motive for faking a homicide remains unclear. Asked if a suicide would prevent his family from receiving benefits, Filenko said he didn’t know. Gliniewicz, who was well regarded in the community, may also have been concerned with preserving his reputation.
Filenko did say that the officer had the kind of intimate knowledge of crime scenes needed to pull it off and that it was clear he did it intentionally to mislead investigators.
An intense and costly manhunt followed, with hundreds of officers searching houses, cabins and even boats on area lakes. Helicopters with heat-sensing scanners and K9 units scoured the area for days. More than 100 investigators stayed on the case for weeks.
When questions arose about the investigation in September, Gliniewicz’s family dismissed the suggestion of suicide. He “never once” thought of taking his own life and was excited about his retirement plans, DJ Gliniewicz insisted.
Incriminating texts and Facebook messages that Gliniewicz sent tell a different story, revealing his increasing anxiety after Fox Lake hired its first professional administrator, Anne Marrin. She began auditing all the village departments, including the Explorer program.
Gliniewicz deleted the messages, but investigators recovered them and released some of them verbatim on Wednesday, without identifying whom he sent them to.
“If she gets ahold of the old checking account, im pretty well f(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)ed,” the officer wrote in May.
On 31 August, the day before Gliniewicz’s death, Marrin said she asked him for an inventory of the Explorer program.
In one of the texts, Gliniewicz discussed trying to get Marrin out of office, perhaps by arresting her for drunken driving, but also mentioning “planting things” and a remote bog in the area.
The officer’s relatives now have asked for time and privacy. A statement issued through their lawyers said Wednesday had “been another day of deep sorrow for the Gliniewicz family”.
