TROUBLED PAST

Fraud Cop Joe Gliniewicz Once Allegedly Threatened to Kill Dispatcher

Also faced sexual-harassment allegations.

According to personnel files released Friday by Fox Lake, Illinois, officials, Lt. Joe Gliniewicz once allegedly threatened to kill a police dispatcher during a 2003 dispute. According to an official complaint sent to the department chief on April 14, 2003, Gliniewicz told the unnamed dispatcher that he would “put bullets in [her] chest.”

The threat allegedly came after the dispatcher had been short with the officer, telling him that some radio-related materials were “none of [his] business.” The officer also allegedly remarked about how many lakes were in the surrounding areas, and how difficult it would be for anyone to find a body. In the same complaint letter, the dispatcher admitted that Gliniewicz’s remark may have been a joke, and that while the dispatcher did not feel threatened, she said she didn’t feel such inappropriate comments would ever be warranted in a professional setting.

In addition, a complaint letter sent by a group of anonymous officers in 2009 alleged that Gliniewicz had been suspended for six five-day terms “for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate.” The officers also said that local bouncers complained about Gliniewicz’s drunken behavior, and that he didn’t pay a $300 bar tab. Further, upon being found in an intoxicated state at an Antioch bar, Gliniewicz was allegedly belligerent with the officers who discovered him.

Gliniewicz was also accused of grabbing women’s breasts during a Christmas party, and allowing members of the Explorer Post youth program to dress in police garments, “thereby misidentifying them as actual police officers.”