Lt. Joe Gliniewicz’s personnel file going back to the beginning of his career in Fox Lake reveals the beloved officer -- who officials say tried to hire a hit-man to kill a village administrator -- had been accused of a litany of offenses.
Documents show that Gliniewicz was suspended “6 times” for a total of “30 days for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate.” Additionally, he was accused of “sexual harassment and making threats to a dispatcher” as well as “inappropriately touching women” at department parties.
An anonymous letter written to Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit in 2009 from Gliniewicz’s colleagues accuses him of sexual harassment, being drunk in public and skipping out on bar tabs.
The letter also alleges Gliniewicz “took his family on vacation to Wisconsin in his squad car” allowed friends “to fill their tanks with gas at the village pumps.”
Gliniewicz was also accused of allowing youths in the Police Explorers program “unsupervised access to the department” and letting them dress in “police garments thereby misidentifying them as actual police officers.”
Separate documents show Gliniewicz was reprimanded after officers discovered him passed out in the driver’s seat of his truck along the side of the road. The next day, he reported his truck as stolen.
READ: Lt. Joe Gliniewicz’s Personnel File
Fox Lake Village Administrator Anne Marrin spoke on Thursday after investigators said the now-disgraced police officer whose death was ruled a suicide tried to hire a hit-man to kill her.
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"It's a very scary thought that an officer who was sworn to uphold the law would even think to do that to an administrator," Marrin said.
Det. Chris Covelli with the Lake County Sheriff's office said earlier in the day that Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz sent a text message asking someone to contact a "high-ranking gang member to put a hit on the village manager." Gliniewicz also suggested the hit man could "plant something" on the manager, Covelli said.
Marrin had been looking into Fox Lake's finances, including the Police Explorers program, which authorities allege Gliniewicz embezzled from for the past seven years for personal purchases, mortgages, travel expenses, gym memberships, adult websites and to facilitate personal loans.
Marrin said "there were a lot of red flags" that came up while she pressed Gliniewicz for details on the Explorer program, a process that began in March and continued until the morning before his September death.
Marrin said two Fox Lake officers have volunteered to take over the Police Explorer's program and the program will continue, along with her audit.
Gliniewicz's wife and son are also under investigation in the case, a source close to the investigation told NBC5 News. No charges had been filed as of Thursday.
