http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-fox-lake-cop-personnel-records-20151106-story.html


The Fox Lake police officer who died in a suicide staged to look like a murder had a troubled history at the department, including suspensions and allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation, newly released information from his personnel file shows.

Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, known throughout the community as a dedicated officer and mentor to young adults, grew worried he could face consequences for years of alleged theft from the youth program he ran, the Lake County Major Crime Task Force announced Wednesday.

A copy of Gliniewicz's personnel file released Thursday night also showed that Gliniewicz's record during his 30-year tenure with the department was more troubled than it appeared immediately after his death Sept. 1.

His file includes a 2009 letter to Fox Lake's mayor from anonymous members of the Police Department who said Gliniewicz's conduct and lack of consequences had "destroyed morale in the department."

Among their accusations backed up by other records in his personnel file was a report from May 1988 that 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. Officers took Gliniewicz home and towed his truck, but when he awoke later that day he had no memory of what happened and reported his truck as stolen to the Lake County sheriff's office. He later said he'd been drinking after playing volleyball with friends.

According to the letter reporting the incident, a sheriff's deputy said it "was not the first time that something like this had happened."

Three months later, he received a two-day suspension for failing to report for duty after he said he'd had a couple of drinks after a volleyball game with friends, according to records in his personnel file.

He also allegedly discussed hiring a hit man to kill a village official.

Detective Christopher Covelli with the Lake County sheriff's office said Gliniewicz wrote that he was "being forced to retire" by Village Administrator Anne Marrin and was "close to entertaining a meeting with a mutual acquaintance of (ours) with the word White in their nickname" in Facebook messages sent to a woman in April.

The woman, who is not being identified because she is not part of the ongoing investigation, claimed that the message referred to a "high-ranking motorcycle gang member," according to Covelli, and that Gliniewicz discussed hiring him to "initiate a hit" on Marrin.

But when investigators interviewed the gang member, he denied taking part in the conversation and "the lead hit a dead end," Covelli said.

Gliniewicz, 52, shot himself in a "carefully staged suicide" as it became clear his "extensive criminal acts," including seven years of theft from the village's Explorer youth police training program, could be exposed during a review of village finances and practices, Lake County Major Crime Task Force commander George Filenko announced Wednesday.

Other messages recovered from Gliniewicz's phone, which authorities revealed Wednesday, appeared to suggest threats against Marrin. During one exchange with an unnamed person in May, he wrote, "Trust me ive thougit through MANY SCENARIOS from planting things to the volo bog!!!"

Volo Bog State Natural Area is an extensive marshy area near Fox Lake.

Investigators looked into the possibility Gliniewicz's reference to "planting things" was connected to an evidence bag of cocaine found in his desk after his death, Covelli said. There was no indication the evidence bag was related to one of Gliniewicz's cases, or any open controlled substances cases in the department, but Covelli said authorities couldn't be certain what he intended to use it for.

On Thursday, Covelli said he could neither confirm nor deny that investigators were looking into any roles played by Gliniewicz's wife and oldest son, which The Associated Press has reported.

Other entries in his personnel file fit the image of the man laid to rest after a funeral that drew thousands to mourn an officer portrayed as a dedicated public servant who gave his life to the community.

Amid numerous commendations since he got his start with the department 30 years ago was a 2001 appointment by the local district of the Boy Scouts of America as leader of law enforcement Explorer posts in the Chicago area, and Gliniewicz received several letters from organizations that worked with the youth group he ran praising its conduct and his dedication to the group. Another letter writer said he thought he "wouldn't have made it" if Gliniewicz hadn't stopped to help him after he got a flat tire on a cold winter night.

But in 2003, a dispatcher accused him of talking about putting "bullets in her chest" and her body in a lake. In a letter reporting the incident, she said she felt threatened at the time but later concluded the comment was made in jest after she was behaving in an immature and disrespectful way and no longer believed it was a threat.

Two days later she sent another letter to the chief saying Gliniewicz had intimidated her by bringing a gun into the room where she was working and that given his previous comments she was afraid, upset and angry.

In Gliniewicz's report on the incident, he said they both laughed at the comment at the time and she later told him she did not feel intimidated or threatened.

A few weeks later, he was accused of giving himself access to a sensitive recording system without authorization.

Around the same time, the chief eliminated his position leading support services in part because of "problems with the communications division."

The chief warned him that similar actions going forward could result in disciplinary action, but there was no record of additional consequences related to the incident and he was later promoted to lieutenant.

The anonymous letter from fellow police officers also references a 2003 federal lawsuit in which former police Officer Denise Sharpe Gretz accused Gliniewicz, her former supervisor, of sexual harassment. The village's lawyers acknowledged in court papers that the woman engaged in sex acts with Gliniewicz five times in 2000 and that he was suspended for 30 days.

Former Fox Lake Mayor Ed Bender, who lost the 2013 election to current Mayor Donny Schmit, said he had no idea that Gliniewicz had a troubled history with the Police Department. Bender, who served as a village trustee for eight years before serving one term as mayor, said he was unaware that anonymous police officers had complained in 2009 about Gliniewicz's behavior in a letter to then-Mayor Cynthia Irwin.

Irwin could not be reached Friday morning.

"He was always very professional around me. He was very professional around the other trustees. I had a good relationship with him. It was always 'yes sir, no sir,'" said Bender, 78.

"I knew nothing about all this stuff that they're talking about. … It's beyond belief, trust me."

Bender said he had never seen Gliniewicz's personnel file.

"I didn't think I had reason to," he said.

"I'm sad. I am very, very sad for the whole village," Bender added. "I didn't know he was stealing."

When asked if there could have been more oversight within the department and the village, he said, "It's one of those things you can always second-guess. Looking back, it's probably something we should have done."

The Chicago Tribune's Lisa Black contributed.

lzumbach@tribpub.com

Twitter @LaurenZumbach