The Suicide of Joe Glinewicz

Once again I have decided to do a more unique crime. It does involve a death but the death itself was determined not to be a crime. The crime was embezzlement and money laundering but that did not come out until later. But, when Joe Gliniewicz died it was initially believed it was murder and because he was a police officer it entailed a full scale manhunt.

Fox Lake Illinois is almost two hours northwest of Chicago and sits on near the Wisconsin border. When Joe Gliniewicz died in September of 2015 tensions were high all over the country between police officers and especially African Americans. It had been building for some time as it was but the murders of Eric Garner in July 2014 in New York and Michael Brown in August of 2014 in Missouri had truly brought the issue to the forefront. Garner and Brown had both died at the hands of police officers. They were both African Americans and the officers involved in their deaths were white men. Even today in 2018 you rarely hear about any sort of police shooting where the race of the individuals is not announced. While the Garner and Brown cases were cases in which the officer caused the death it had caused enough divide and upheaval in the country that in some areas police officers seemed to be targeted.

Joe Gliniewicz was fifty-two years old and was scheduled to retire in October of 2015. He had been an officer for thirty years and had risen to the rank of Lieutenant. He had earned the nickname “GI Joe” in the community for his previous military experience. Joe also ran a program, the “Fox Lake Police Explorer Post 300,” that mentored young at risk individuals who would like to become police officers. Just after 7:50 on the morning of September 1, 2015 Joe radio dispatched that he was in pursuit of three suspects he had seen near an abandoned cement plant. His Explorer program often hiked in the nearby wooded area. According to his call the suspects were 3 young men, two white and one black.

When another officer arrived at the scene they found Joe Gliniewicz lying next to his patrol car, dead. Initially it was believed that the unknown assailants had somehow obtained Joe's service weapon, a 40 caliber and had shot him with it. There was a “massive” manhunt for the assailants and more than 400 police officers participated. State buildings flew their flags at half staff in his honor. While funerals for police officers killed in the line of duty are generally huge deals, it seems his was even more. Everyone loved “GI Joe” and it was a fairly Fox Lake is a fairly small village where everyone knew everyone else. Funny enough though while it is common in those types of places that people knew everyone's business it seems that no one knew what was going on in the Gliniewicz home, save it seems, one man.

It appears that the first questions arose when the coroner examined Joe's body. The medical examiner determined that a bullet had pierced Joe's chest, under his bulletproof vest. Now, initially it was still thought it would have been possible if there was a struggle between the officers and the unknown assailants, but it would later be determined that based on the angle of the wound it had been self inflicted. Of course officers did not want to believe this without more information. A former Chicago police officer, Joseph Battaglia, tried to tell them what they needed to know but when he felt they were not listening he went to the media. He had even allegedly called the coroners office and threatened the medical examiner if he did not declare the death as a suicide. Battaglia would even be arrested on September 13^th and charged with two counts of disorderly conduct.

But, it does seem that between the information the medical examiner had discovered, and Battaglia's suspicions or information piqued the interest of the lead investigators. Their investigation would take two months before they were ready to announce the results. This was long after Joe Gliniewicz had been laid to rest but not before the quest to find his killer had ended. More than a few men had been arrested in that time period but all were released. There was even a billboard erected in the area praising Gliniewicz. That was all about to change.

Investigators would learn that recently the police department had began conducting an audit on the department. This was being done by a “village administrator.” This woman, doing the audit, was looking into the Explorer program and had recently asked Gliniewicz for some paperwork and documents to help her finish her job, he had died just prior to the time he was to have given her what she needed. Upon further investigation they would learn that Gliniewicz had been stealing money from the program for at least seven years to the tune of over $50,000.

In November of 2015 investigators announced that Joe Gliniewicz's death was not a murder by unknown assailants, but a carefully planned suicide. They also announced that Joe's wife, Melodie and his oldest son, D.J, were also under investigation for the money laundering scheme from the Explorer program. While it appears that charges were never brought against D.J, a member of the military, in January of 2016 Melodie was indicted on four counts of disbursing charitable funds without authority and for personal benefit. She was also indicted on two counts of money laundering. A few days later a seizure was ordered on five different bank accounts thought to be used in the scheme. Meldoie posted bond soon after her indictment and arrest.

Throughout all of this Melodie and her children desperately fought against the finding of suicide against her husband. Some say this is because it cut into the pension that she would likely be entitled to. But, really it seems what the investigation showed the community was that Joe Gliniewicz was not the upstanding citizen they had thought. It would be discovered that Gliniewicz's police career had been riddled with numerous suspensions for things. There were allegations of sexual harassment and threats made to people. They had also discovered that he had apparently approached a local gang member to kill the village administrator that was conducting the audit.

One huge allegations about his behavior also involved his son, D.J. It was alleged that Joe Gliniewicz was having an affair with a woman named Kathryn Grams. To be fair Grams has denied this but there apparently seems to be evidence of the contrary. While D.J was enlisted in the Army it is alleged that his father set up a “sham marriage” between D.J and Kathryn Grams. They were married in July of 2013 but a month later they were living separately. They were divorced by December of 2014. Authorities allege that the marriage was arranged so that D.J could receive more benefits through this service.

Justice has been slow in this case. Melodie had filed to obtain Joe's pension fund in January of 2016 but initially it was said that a ruling was delayed until her criminal issues were settled. In December of 2017 she once again filed for the funds even though her case had still not gone to court. It is unclear exactly what, if anything was decided. It was said that she could get up to $72,000 a year but that would be in a line of duty death, which authorities have ruled it was not. Even still it looks as if she would be entitled to 50-75% of Joe's salary. Since that time a new law was enacted that payments can be blocked to someone convicted of a felony connected with a police officer but most accounts state this new law cannot be applied retroactively to Melodie even if she is convicted.

It is unclear when Melodie will have her case settled. She has pleaded not guilty and apparently expects to take her case to trial. Prosecutors stated that emails and text messages between Joe and Melodie prove that she knew about the monies that were being taken and that she too had been “an adviser” with the program. The judge hearing the case ruled that the emails and text messages could not be used against her because they would violate the marital privilege laws. The state appeals that decision. Prosecutors believed that when Melodie signed a consent form for the FBI to search her phone that implied that she waived that privilege and told this to the appeals court. They believed that this was new evidence and sent it back to the original judge to look at again before coming back to them, if necessary. However in June of 2018 that judge still ruled that marital privilege was involved and the emails and text messages could not be used. It can only be assumed that the state has once again appealed the decision. Melodie remains free on bond.