‘GI JOE’: THE PLOT THICKENS

Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, who staged his suicide to look like a cop killing, not only embezzled $50,000 from the Explorer Unit training fund, but he also tried to find an outlaw biker hitman to kill the city manager

Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz, a 29-year veteran of the Fox Lake, Illinois police department, was held in the highest esteem by the villagers who called him “GI Joe’ affectionately.

On September 1, Gliniewicz radioed that he was in pursuit of three suspicious men, two white and one black. When there was no firther radio contact, officers were sent out to search for their lieutenant. They found him shot to death in a field.

During the manhunt for his killers, police arrested Thomas Corso, Preston Shrewsbury and Manuel Vargas as suspects after they had been identified on surveillance video. However, the three were released when they produced a receipt which showed they were eating at a restaurant at the time Gliniewicz made his radio call.

After an extensive investigation, officials from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force announced Wednesday that Gliniewicz had actually committed suicide, having staged his death to make it look like he was murdered by three suspicious men. He had shot himself once in his ballistic vest and then in his chest from above the vest.

It is thought that Gliniewicz killed himself because he knew he was about to be exposed as a thief.

George Filenko, commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said “Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served and the entire law-enforcement community. Personally, this is the first time as a police officer that I’m ashamed by the actions of a member of law enforcement.”

It was also revealed that Village Administrator Anne Marrin had been investigating Gliniewicz for embezzling $50,000 from the Explorer Unit training fund during the past seven years. Among other things, Gliniewicz spent the money on adult websites, vacations, a gym membership, girlfriends and mortgage payments. His wife and a son are also under investigation because text messages between Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, and Melodie and D.J. Gliniewicz showed the trio plotting ways out of the embezzlement investigation.

And text messages revealed that Gliniewicz had tried to contact an important outlaw biker gang member to arrange a hit on Anne Marrin. He also texted about planting something on Marrin so that she would be discredited. After his death, investigators found a packet of cocaine in his desk. It is speculated that he was going to plant the coke on Marrin.

But there is more to come.

On Thursday, the Northwest Herald obtained Gliniewicz’s personnel file. Here is what it found:

The 2009 letter from Gliniewicz’s fellow Fox Lake officers, which was addressed to then-Fox Lake Mayor Cindy Irwin, detailed a number of accusations against Gliniewicz, some of which they allege could be violations of state law.

The two-page letter listed 20 accusations against Gliniewicz, including statements that:

• Gliniewicz had received six separate five-day suspensions for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate and she filed a lawsuit that cost the village thousands.

• Gliniewicz was accused of sexual harassment by a dispatcher and of grabbing women’s breasts at several different department Christmas parties.

• Gliniewicz was spotted in bars after hours eating pizza while on duty and seen at various village establishments with women other than his wife.

• Various officers were approached by bouncers from local establishments and were told Gliniewicz was “becoming a nuisance because he was drinking in the bar after hours and would not leave.”

• Gliniewicz used his squad car to take his family on vacation in Wisconsin.

• Gliniewicz allowed members of Police Explorer Post 300 to operate department vehicles and dress themselves in official police garments. He also used department equipment that was supposed to be on the road for explorer training.

• Gliniewicz obtained a certificate for a free tattoo that was donated to the department and used it to get a tattoo while on duty. The day was changed to a vacation day after other officers complained to then-Chief Michael Behan.

The letter stated the complaints were brought to Behan and Behan had taken a “head-in-the-sand approach” to dealing with Gliniewicz.

“We can no longer stand by and watch Lt. Gliniewicz violate the rules and regulations, policies and procedures, and state statute, and remain silent,” the letter stated.

Behan announced his decision to retire in August, days before Gliniewicz’s death, after he had been placed on administrative leave because of a village investigation into the department.

Village officials said they had concerns about how Behan investigated an incident in which a Fox Lake police officer engaged in a verbal and physical altercation with a 36-year-old man during a public intoxication arrest.

Elsewhere in the 264-page personnel file was an incident from May 1988 in which Gliniewicz was found passed out in the front seat of his pickup truck on the side of Route 59 with his engine running full throttle and his foot on the gas. The report stated it was “not the first time something like this has happened.”

In August 1988, Gliniewicz failed to report for a shift after he said he had too much to drink in Wisconsin with friends before his shift.

A letter regarding the incident from then-police Chief Joseph Semasko stated, “He also added that he knows he has a drink [sic] problem and he was doing good but he could not handle that first drink.”

The file also contains an April 2003 report from a Fox Lake dispatcher that alleged Gliniewicz made a comment regarding putting “bullets in my chest.”

Two days later, the dispatcher filed a report stating Gliniewicz entered the Radio Room with a firearm, an action the dispatcher found threatening. In a written response, Gliniewicz said the weapon was not loaded.

Also in the personnel file was a February 2008 letter from Behan to Gliniewicz in which the chief instructed Gliniewicz that all meetings of Police Explorer Post 300 must be held at the department.

With a personnel file like that, how did this bozo ever get promoted to lieutenant? Or more amazing yet, how come didn’t he get fired?

The 100 Club of Chicago presented Melodie Gliniewicz with $15,000. Now the club eants it’s money back. Joe Ahern, head of the 100 Club, said this is the first time that the nearly 50-year-old organization has requested the return of a donation.

As soon as Gliniewicz’s death was announced, right-wing websites and bloggers filled the internet with accusations that GI Joe had been killed because of all the anti-police rhetoric committed by Black Lives Matter, Quentin Tarantino and other cop haters. There hasn’t been a peep out of them since Wednesday when the suicide hoax was announced.

This beloved ‘hero’ has finally been exposed for the four-flushing phony he was – a thief, an unfaithful womanizer, a sexual harasser, a drunk, and a potential murderer. His hometown admirers must now feel like village idiots.