A heroic cop’s ‘ultimate betrayal’
He embezzled funds, planned his killing
The heroic cop who died in the line of duty turned out to be an embezzler who was siphoning cash from a youth program to pay his mortgage and adult websites.
Just over two months after the shooting death of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz in Fox Lake, Ill., spurred a massive hunt that grabbed national attention, investigators in Lake County, Ill., said Wednesday that the cop, whose death they had treated as a homicide, carefully staged his suicide.
The reason? He feared he was about to be outed for embezzling thousands of dollars.
“Gliniewicz committed the ul- timate betrayal to the citizens he served and the entire law enforcement community,” said George Filenko, commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.
Gliniewicz’s, 52, an Army veteran who had spent more than 30 years as a police officer, was found dead in a marshy area of Fox Lake the morning of Sept. 1. Before his death, Gliniewicz radioed dispatch to say he was going to check on suspicious activity. Police said he told dispatchers he was in a foot chase and described seeing three suspects. Officers found him dead from gunshot wounds. He had been shot once in his protective vest and once in his torso.
A manhunt involving hundreds of officers followed. Nerves were on edge as Gliniewicz’s death was thought to be the latest in a spate of cop killings across the country, including one in Harris County, Texas, days earlier in which a sheriff ’s deputy was gunned down as he fueled his vehicle.
Until Wednesday, investigators maintained that they believed Gliniewicz had been gunned down. The tributes to Gliniewicz were many. Dick Durbin, Illinois’ senior senator, lauded “G.I. Joe” on the Senate floor. Local businesses and cops and firefighters raised money for the officer’s family. And hundreds, including Gov. Bruce Rauner, showed up for Gliniewicz’s funeral.
But Filenko said as they pushed ahead with the investigation, detectives uncovered thou- sands of texts and Facebook messages that showed Gliniewicz feared the Fox Lake village administrator had caught on to his malfeasance. “The situation right here would give her the means to CRUCIFY ME if it were discovered,” he wrote in a June 26 message to an unidentified individual.
The investigation would unveil that Gliniewicz was spending cash from a police explorer’s account on trips, loans, a gym membership, his mortgage and an adult website.
Filenko said the ordeal marked the first time in his law enforcement career that he felt ashamed by another police officer.