Channahon Offers Proof Samantha Harer Shot Herself

CHANNAHON, IL — In recent days, the Joliet law firm of Mahoney, Silverman and Cross filed nearly 50 pages in federal court to support the Channahon Police chief's contention that Channahon resident and 911 emergency dispatcher Samantha Harer took her own life. It's Channahon's position that Harer was not brutally murdered by a fellow local police officer who was in her apartment when her gun was fired on Feb. 13, 2018.

At the time of her death, Harer was completely naked, and she died of a gunshot wound to her head while in the middle of an argument with her estranged boyfriend, troubled Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores.

But as far as Channahon Police Chief Shane Casey is concerned, those issues are insignificant. And also for Chief Casey, the fact that Flores was previously accused of raping a woman while she was sleeping in the nude did not raise red flags, either.

And for Casey, the gunshot residue tests performed in the case by Mary Wong, a nationally accredited forensic scientist, employed in Chicago at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, also should not be given a huge amount of weight in the case, either.

On Dec. 28, 2018, Chief Casey, Deputy Chief Adam Bogart and several others, including Channahon's civil law firm, Mahoney, Silverman and Cross representative Jim Murphy broke the news to the parents, Kevin and Heather Harer, that their daughter's death was being ruled a suicide and that Channahon was sure she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, just as Channahon informed the family the day after the death.

"Mrs. Harer voiced her concerns that Samantha did not leave a note," Chief Casey stated in a newly filed federal court exhibit. "I confirmed that a proper or handwritten note, often associated with suicide, was not recovered as part of the investigation. I further commented that several items recovered from Samantha's cellular phone, when taken in totality, could be viewed as a 'suicide note.'"

Prior to that meeting, months earlier, the Illinois State Police's Mary Wong informed Channahon Detective Andrew McClellan that Harer, a former Channahon Police Department college intern, didn't have any gunshot residue on her hands, while Flores tested positive.

"With regard to the samples provided to the Illinois State Police, four samples were taken from Felipe Flores and four samples were taken from Samantha Harer," conceded Joliet lawyer Jim Murphy, the primary litigant defending the village of Channahon's Police Department.

Murphy's filing in federal court further states, "According to the report conducted by the Illinois State Police, samples from Flores 'indicate' that Flores 'discharged a firearm, contacted a (Primer Gunshot Residue) related item, or had his right hand in the environment of a 'discharged firearm.'

"Samples from Samantha Harer's hands 'indicate' that she 'may not have discharged a firearm' and that 'if she did discharge a firearm, then the particles were removed by activity, were not deposited or were not detected by the procedure,'" Murphy's federal filing states.

"With regard to the positive test on Flores, it has been suggested that this could have been the result of him being in the room where the gun was discharged immediately after Samantha was shot. This would be consistent with his statement that he was in the room with Samantha immediately after she was shot and lifted her head at some point."

As far as Mahoney, Silverman and Cross is concerned, the absence of gunshot residue on Harer isn't noteworthy, either.

"With regard to the negative test on Samantha, it is notable that the samples from her were taken at St. Joe Medical Center where she was brought by paramedics after receiving life-saving treatment. The report tested negative for gunshot residue on her face. Based on this negative result the report suggests various possibilities, the second being that she 'may not have been in the environment of a discharged firearm.'

"Since this was clearly not the case, it is likely that the other suggested possibilities are true … that 'the particles were removed by activity, were not deposited or were not detected by the procedure," attorney Murphy maintains.

Of far greater importance to Chief Casey, Deputy Chief Adam Bogart and Detective McClellan were a number of personal messages retrieved from Harer's electronic devices.

Channahon Police took the position that Harer — not Flores — surely wrote them, even though Flores was known for being overly possessive and manipulative, according to Harer's family. The Harer parents told Patch last year that Flores had access to her smartphone passwords and that he monitored her conversations and text messages to friends and family.

Police reports obtained by Joliet Patch as a result of last month's Freedom of Information Act request for Channahon's case file do, in fact, confirm that Officer Flores — not Harer — was in possession of her smartphone in the hours leading up to her death.

It's not clear, however, how aggressively Flores was interrogated in regard to why he chose to keep Harer's smartphone in his possession while he stayed the night at her apartment, in a different room, during what turned out to be the final hours of her life.

Last month, Channahon Police chose to deny Patch access to the video-recorded interview of Flores. Channahon only provided a short written summary from one of the Joliet Police detectives and that was it.

"Today when Samantha woke up she asked for her cell phone. He gave her her cell phone. She then laid back down," one of the Channahon police reports states.

And from a portion of Joliet Police Detective Carlos Matlock's report: "He was questioned as to whether or not he had looked through Samantha's phone. He stated he did not look through her phone. He only checked to see if she set the alarm."

Still, there was at least one other glaring inconsistency in Flores' police interview statement.

One of the neighbors who was interviewed by Bolingbrook Police Detective Jaimie Marquez said he was awoken from his sleep between 8 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. by banging on the wall or slamming of the door in Harer's next door apartment. He then heard (the) female yell, 'Let me go' two or three times coming from the same apartment. … he did not hear anything after he heard 'Let me go,'" Marquez noted.

"(Flores) was questioned in reference to Samantha making a statement of 'Let me go.' He stated Samantha never made any statement to let her go because he never had a reason to touch her in any way … He has never put his hands on Samantha," Matlock's interview of Flores stated.

But for Channahon Police and their lawyer, a number of messages retrieved from Harer's phone reinforce their belief that Harer fatally shot herself, even though she was nude.

"A review of Samantha's computer, phone and text messages reveals that Samantha was in a state of mind that could lead to suicide," lawyer Murphy informed the federal court.

"Samantha was apparently the subject of a sexual assault approximately three years before her death and some of her statements can be read as showing that influenced her negative thinking … A review of Samantha's internet searches showed that she had researched methods of suicide using Zoloft, Xanax and a gun starting on February 11, 2018. Those searches included the following: 'Reddit: SuicideWatch - How to overdose on Zoloft 100 mg and 50 mg tabs.' How much Zoloft would one have to take to OD. PLEASE HELP!!! VERY IMPORTANT!?"

Murphy's filing in federal court also attached the following statement from Chief Casey that read in part: "The Harers … were under the impression that women seldom use a firearm in a suicide. It was mentioned that Samantha's familiarity and accessibility to firearms was a factor to consider. The Harers seemed to indicate that they were satisfied with the investigation, but stated the lack of a 'note' from Samantha was bothersome. In addition to Deputy Chief Bogart's response, I told the Harers apart from a final note, there was a trail of breadcrumbs indicating Samantha's mental state going back some time that became bigger and more frequent leading up to the event."

But it was the last two internet searches — retrieved from her smartphone — around the time of her death that have Channahon's lawyer satisfied that his client, the Channahon Police Department, made the right call in treating her death as a suicide.

One internet search used the following phrase: "I Shot Myself in the Head and Survived" and the other read: "best place to shoot your head."

"These last two searches are shown as having been conducted on February 13, 2018 at 8:02 a.m. this was approximately 17 minutes before Flores called in the shooting," Murphy's federal filing states.

Last week, a high-profile civil rights and wrongful conviction lawyer in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jennifer Bonjean, filed a motion in Chicago asking the judge to revive the recently dismissed lawsuit. Bonjean is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. She is from Valparaiso, Indiana. She graduated college from DePaul University and went to law school in Chicago at Loyola University.

Last October, Samantha Harer's parents hired Chicago lawyer Scott Kamin as their legal representative but Kamin did not inform them that his Illinois law license was being suspended for the next 90 days because of dishonest behavior as a trial lawyer, court documents show.

After the Harers got rid of Kamin and his law firm, the parents did not show up at a January court proceeding. The lawyers for Channahon and Crest Hill, which was also named as a codefendant, along with Harer's estranged boyfriend, Officer Flores, got the Harer's lawsuit dismissed.

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch asked Bonjean to comment on the internet searches from Samantha Harer's Smartphone that took place at 8:02 a.m.

"It's suspicious in light of the fact that Flores had access to her phone throughout the night and the Google search she purportedly made brought her to a website that answered her question by instructing to put the barrel in your mouth at a 45-degree angle, which does not correlate to her injuries."

When asked to comment on the 48-page filing submitted by Murphy, on behalf of the Channahon Police Department investigation, Bonjean answered, "Right now, the question is whether the Harers should have an opportunity to litigate and the answer is, absolutely.

"We look forward to discovery and conducting our own independent forensic analysis of the evidence, including all the electronics."

Last week, Joliet Patch asked Bonjean whether she believes some members of the Channahon Police Department were involved in a coverup concerning Harer's death.

"There is a strong factual basis to believe so," she said.

As for Flores, a Crest Hill Police officer since 2012, he was the subject of a criminal sexual assault investigation launched in March 2016. However, many months later, the Will County State's Attorney Office opted not to file charges against the local police officer.

In the end, Crest Hill opted to keep Flores on their police force, giving him a one-month unpaid suspension in the aftermath of the rape allegation made against him.

In the Samantha Harer death investigation, Channahon Police Detective Andrew McClellan oversaw the investigation.

The Channahon Police Department had investigated no murder cases during any of the previous five years, 2013-2017, according to data compiled by the Will County Coroner's Office.

One Channahon officer wrote in his report that Flores "stated this was his girlfriend's apartment and he spent the night last night. He said he slept on the couch while she slept in her bedroom. He said they were arguing this morning and she told him to leave … He said she peered around the bedroom door at him and said 'Just leave.' (Flores) stated she slammed the bedroom door and locked it. He was in the living room gathering up his belongings and he heard the sound of a pistol slide chambering a bullet from in the bedroom.

"He said he went to the bedroom door and tried to pick the lock and yelled to her 'Don't do this' and he heard a 'pop.' He forced the door open and found Samantha Harer on the floor with the gun between her legs and was bleeding from the head."

In any event, Murphy, the civil lawyer with Mahoney, Silverman and Cross, ended his 48-page filing in federal court by informing Harer's new attorney that "In closing, I continue to have sympathy for the Harers. The loss of a child under any circumstances is devastating. From personal experience, I know it is not easy to come to terms with suicide. Often there are no warning signs. At other times, those that are closest to the person are either blind to the signs or ill-equipped to deal with them.

"In the instant case, hindsight shows that there were many signs. I am not in a position to comment on how they were perceived by those closest to her."

Murphy goes on to warn Bonjean, "In addition to Rule 11 sanctions, attorney fees are also available to defendants … when it is determined that a pleading is frivolous. Since you have already admitted that the initial pleading contained 'patently frivolous claims' I will be having a conversation with my client as to whether the village wishes to pursue the fees incurred in defending the first complaint."

Mahoney, Silverman and Cross also implied that Bonjean might want to think twice about asking a federal judge in Chicago to revive the Harer's recently dismissed lawsuit against Channahon, Crest Hill and Officer Phil Flores, who has been on paid suspension for more than a year now.

"Please make sure that you review all of the files carefully. While you have an obligation under Rule 11, I believe you also have an obligation to the Harers to not prolong their agony or impede their healing," Murphy wrote.

For more about attorney Jim Murphy, you can read his bio on his Joliet law firm's website for Mahoney, Silverman and Cross.