The rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper. Just a week after Fox Lake, Illinois police officer Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz was found to have embezzled thousands from his department and also to have staged his suicide as a murder, state prosecutors have broadened their scope to investigate all cases involving him. According to CBS Chicago:
Lake County prosecutors have begun reviewing all cases linked to Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, in the wake of revelations he was embezzling funds from the department’s Explorer’s program before killing himself.
Lake County State’s Attorney Mike Nerheim said the review is a precautionary measure in light of the taint now associated with the once-celebrated cop known as G.I. Joe.
The investigation has broadened since the days after Gliniewicz’s death was ruled a suicide, as investigators now believe that Gliniewicz had at least two accomplices. Perhaps related to that belief, both his wife and son have also been investigated. These developments come as even more strange details about Gliniewicz’s life and dealings emerge. Fox Lake police chief Michael Behan promoted Gliniewicz shortly before retirement, even though current acting police chief Michael Keller believes that he should have never been hired. CBS Chicago reports:
“Joe Gliniewicz is an individual that never should have been on this police department. He should have been gone a long time ago. Obviously, much of the information that did come out relative to his personnel file, I wasn’t aware that until it had come out. But he’s clearly and individual that they should have gotten rid of a long time ago.” said interim Fox Lake Police Chief Michael Keller, who was brought in from the Lake County Sheriff’s office to clean up the mess in the Fox Lake Police Department four days after Gliniewicz killed himself.
These developments also come after the bombshell that Gliniewicz may have attempted to hire a hitman to kill or plant drugs on Village administrator Anne Marin, who had uncovered evidence that Gliniewicz had been embezzling funds for years.
The most troubling issue here is that investigators now seem to be finding dozens of obvious red flags after participating wholeheartedly in the lionization of Gliniewicz after his death as a police martyr. His personnel file was available to view, and his record includes incidents of improper dealing and sexual harassment. The records of his years of embezzling were apparently not secret, and based on the facts of his death, a suicide should have been the likely ruling from day one, instead of a suspected multi-killer manhunt that stoked flames of discontent against black activists. How did the Fox Lake police department allow this to happen, and why has it taken so long for the truth to come out?