Suit says man feared murder charge after cop staged his own suicide as homicide
A man who claims he was repeatedly harassed by a former police officer in a suburban Chicago town says his life took a terrible turn for the worse after the cop committed suicide and staged the shooting as a slaying by others.
As federal, county and local law enforcement officers aggressively investigated the seeming September homicide of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz of Fox Lake, they focused on him as a target of the probe, says plaintiff Vernon Randolph III, 26, in a federal lawsuit.
Although authorities determined earlier this month that the lieutenant’s death was a suicide, Randolph says he was subjected to extreme stress, fearful that he would be charged with murder, according to the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.) and the Daily Herald.
The lawsuit filed Friday names as defendants Fox Lake and the estate of the 52-year-old Gliniewicz, a 30-year police veteran.
Attorney Kevin O’Connor represents the plaintiff in the case. He criticized Fox Lake officials at a Friday news conference, saying that they had not addressed a documented history of problem behavior by Glinewicz, both on and off the job.
“They not only allowed it … they promoted the man,” O’Connor said.
Another likely issue in the case will be whether investigators should have realized earlier that the lieutenant had probably committed suicide, according to WLS.
“If they had, almost immediately, information that it was a probable suicide and kept it from the people of Fox Lake for so long, I think there’s going to be liability with respect to the government,” said Richard Kling. He is a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Defendants in the suit were not immediately available to comment on Friday, the Tribune says.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Cases under review after ‘hero’ police officer was found to have staged his own suicide”
WGN: “Gliniewicz investigation turns to military stockpile, first lawsuit to be filed”
