10 Key Allegations Raised In Samantha Harer Lawsuit

CHANNAHON, IL - A long-time federal judge in Chicago, Robert Gettleman, is now reviewing a number of legal filings by Brooklyn, N.Y. lawyer Jennifer Bonjean against the Channahon Police Department surrounding the Feb. 13, 2018 death of WESCOM dispatcher Samantha Harer.

The plaintiffs want to include Channahon Police Chief Shane Casey, Assistant Chief Adam Bogart and lead detective Andrew McClellan as additional codefendants to their lawsuit accusing the Channahon Police Department of misconduct and orchestrating a cover up to protect the reputation of another local police agency, the Crest Hill Police Department.

"Plaintiffs have demonstrated that Channahon and the proposed defendant Channahon officers have hindered and obstructed their efforts to pursue an effective claim against Flores and Crest Hill," argues Bonjean in her most recent federal lawsuit filing from late June.

Channahon is being defended by its law firm of Mahoney, Silverman & Cross, of Joliet. The lawyers representing Channahon are hoping that the federal judge rejects the plaintiff's filing. In late June, federal court files show, the Brooklyn lawyer representing Samantha Harer's parents, Kevin and Heather Harer, submitted her additional legal briefs in hopes of convincing Judge Gettleman to add the three high-ranking members of Channahon's police force to her pending lawsuit.

In the coming days, the veteran federal judge in Chicago will have to render his decision.

To recap, Harer was nude when she died of a gunshot wound that went through her head inside her small apartment in Channahon on a Tuesday morning, Feb. 13, 2018. Her estranged boyfriend, Crest Hill Police Officer Phil "Felipe" Flores, was in her apartment at the time of her death. Flores phoned authorities claiming that Harer had locked herself in her bedroom after telling him to leave. Flores claimed that as he was leaving, he heard her trigger her gun and that he tried to open her bedroom door but it was already too late to stop her from killing herself.

Incidentally,Crest Hill never allowed Flores to work a single day on the police force after the death of his girlfriend under highly questionable circumstances.

Two years earlier, Flores was accused of raping a 30-year-old woman while she was sleeping at her house in Crest Hill, after he was involved in a night of heavy drinking at a bar in Joliet, Patch has previously reported. That particular case from 2016 didn't result in criminal charges, but it resulted in a one-month unpaid suspension from the police force.

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In any event, the following statements are contained with Bonjean's most recent filing, a nine-page document, submitted to the U.S. District Court on June 27. The arguments are part of her continuing push to hold Channahon's top police officials accountable in the federal court system for their respective roles in the alleged cover up.

1. "Without expressly stating so, Channahon suggests that Plaintiffs are merely complaining about the quality of the investigation into Samantha’s death and that their claims against the newly-added defendants and Channahon itself are futile, because Plaintiffs do not have a constitutional right to a quality police investigation. A cursory review of Plaintiffs’ complaint shows that Plaintiff is not merely critical of Channahon’s investigation into Samantha’s death, but rather sets forth, with specificity, discrete acts and omissions taken by the Defendants to purposefully cover-up Defendant Flores’ criminal conduct and obstruct Plaintiffs’ ability to seek judicial redress for that criminal conduct."
2. "By way of example, Plaintiffs contend that the proposed defendants agreed implicitly or explicitly to conduct an investigation designed to protect Flores from criminal liability. They accomplished this goal by treating the crime scene as a suicide out of the gate when they would not have done so if Flores was not a police officer."
   
   
3. " They falsely reported to the Plaintiffs that Samantha committed suicide, had tested
   positive for gunshot residue, and that Defendant Flores was negative for GSR. Plaintiffs even contend that Defendants purposefully misrepresented a preliminary gunshot residue test conducted on Flores to mislead the Plaintiffs about the circumstances of her death."
4. "Plaintiffs contend that Defendant McClellan flat out lied to a forensic examiner when
   he told the examiner that Defendant Flores had attempted first-aid on Samantha to explain away, otherwise inexplicable, blood splatter on Flores’ clothing. Plaintiffs contend that
   Defendants falsely claim that Samantha’s toxicology report was consistent with suicide but
   continue to withhold the toxicology report."
   
   
5. "Plaintiffs assert that Defendants withheld and continue to withhold the identity of a witness who reported hearing a physical struggle in Samantha’s apartment and told the police that he heard her yelling, 'let me go.'"
6. "Plaintiffs further allege that Defendants failed to conduct certain investigatory acts with
   the goal of concealing the true circumstances of Samantha’s death. Plaintiffs contend that Defendants failed to confront or further questions Flores about forensic evidence inconsistent with his account of the event. They refused to investigate Flores history of violence toward women, including a 2016 rape allegation."
7. "Critically, Plaintiffs also contend that Defendant Channahon continues to withhold the physical evidence in the case, including property that lawfully belongs to Plaintiffs, thereby preventing Plaintiffs from conducting their own investigation. Notably, Channahon admits that they continue to withhold the full, unredacted investigative file and the physical evidence in the case because defendant Flores will not consent to its release – yet another stark example of how Channahon continues to protect Flores."
   
   8. "Plaintiffs have unquestionably developed sufficient facts to show that Channahon engaged in a cover-up, but Channahon continues to obstruct Plaintiffs’ ability to uncover the true facts surrounding Samantha’s death thereby obstructing Plaintiffs’ efforts to seek full, effective and meaningful judicial redress."
   
   9. "Plaintiffs have no firsthand knowledge of the facts or circumstances surrounding their daughter’s death. Indeed, they must rely totally on the sham investigation conducted by Channahon."
   
   10. "If Defendants have it their way, Plaintiffs will never get access to the pertinent reports,
   witness interviews, and evidence that will allow them to meaningfully pursue their legal right to redress. Simply put,Channahon’s cover-up continues until today."