Channahon Wins Dismissal From Samantha Harer Suit

CHANNAHON, IL — The U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit in Chicago issued a 23-page ruling Friday that marks a key victory for Channahon and three high-ranking members of Channahon's Police Department surrounding the Feb. 13, 2018 gunshot death of Samantha Harer.

The judges ruled that Channahon, Police Chief Shane Casey, Deputy Chief Adam Bogart and lead detective Andrew McClellan should be dismissed as co-defendants in the ongoing federal lawsuit filed by Kevin and Heather Harer surrounding the suspicious death of their 23-year-old daughter. Samantha Harer was a full-time 911 emergency dispatcher for WESCOM in Plainfield.

In December 2018, Bogart issued a news release announcing that Harer's death was being ruled a suicide, and that she had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head. The suicide ruling meant that her estranged boyfriend, Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores, faced no criminal charges.

Harer graduated in 2016 from the University of St. Francis in Joliet with a bachelor's in criminal justice, and she had interned at the Channahon Police Department while in college. Harer died after Flores spent the previous night inside her Channahon apartment.

Harer was found nude in a corner of her bedroom and even though gunshot residue was found on Flores' right hand and blood spatter was recovered from his dark sweatshirt and his hands, Channahon's police administration chose not to ask Flores to participate in any following questioning about the forensic evidence.

"We could debate whether the Harers’ allegations, if true, will affect the Harers’ ability to recover on the underlying claims," the appeals judges wrote in Friday's ruling. "They may or may not; it is just too early to say. Unless and until the Harers’ claim against Flores suffers some concrete setback traceable to the defendants’ alleged cover-up, their allegation that the defendants impaired their effort to bring that claim is no more than speculation about an event that may or may not come to pass."

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Last year, Channahon's municipal law firm Mahoney, Silverman and Cross out of Joliet lost several pretrial rulings in front of U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman in the Harer case.

However, attorney Jim Murphy appealed his client's legal setbacks. Chicago's federal court of appeals heard oral arguments on the case in May and issued its ruling Friday. Murphy told Joliet Patch last month that he expected to prevail.

In short, Channahon, Casey, Bogart and McClellan will no longer be tied to the ongoing federal lawsuit as co-defendants. That leaves Flores and his former employer, the city of Crest Hill, as the remaining lawsuit defendants.

"Here, it is precisely because the Harers are in court on the underlying claims that they do not have an access-to-court claim," the appeals judges ruled Friday. "The Harers were able to file this lawsuit and present substantial facts of central importance to their case ... Not only are the Harers’ claims pending in federal court, the Harers have the full discovery process available to them.

"They can submit requests for documents, issue interrogatories, take depositions, and the like as part of trying to learn, confirm, or uncover facts to support their theories of wrongful death and related cover-up. All discovery will occur under the district court’s supervision, and the court can address any fraud it finds. Discovery provides the Harers with access to information, and as a result, access to court.

"Our point is that the Harers may yet obtain damages through their wrongful death and other tort claims against Flores for allegedly murdering their daughter, not to mention their Monell claim against Crest Hill," Friday's ruling concluded.

When reached for comment, the Harers' attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, acknowledged that Friday's ruling was a loss for her and her clients.

"We are going to do the investigation that Channahon refused to do," Bonjean told Joliet Patch's editor Friday night. "We believe that Channahon has already done irreparable harm to this investigation. Whether or not it has prevented us from finding the truth has yet to be determined."

Bonjean explained that Channahon's police officials still must participate in the ongoing pretrial proceedings of her federal lawsuit, since Channahon oversaw the investigation into Harer's death.

"But for now, they are off the hook, but it was a dismissal without prejudice," she said. " If (Channahon) has destroyed evidence or prevented us from doing our investigation in any way, we will be renewing our claim against them, which the court is allowing us to do. It's not a win for us, but it's not an entire win for them."

Channahon's lawyers also argued that Chief Casey, Deputy Chief Bogart and Detective McClellan should be dismissed from the Harers' lawsuit on the grounds of a longstanding legal privilege known as qualified immunity.

The federal appeal judges, however, sidestepped that issue.

"As a final observation, we note that we need not—and we do not—reach qualified immunity," the three judges wrote. "It remains an open question, however, whether the Harers can prove that the Channahon defendants violated their clearly established constitutional rights ... We leave that matter for another day, depending on the potential development of facts not included in this record."

Starting next week, the Harer's federal lawsuit will be back entirely in U.S. District Court for ongoing pretrial litigation. The earliest the Harer case will go to trial is September 2021. The probable length of trial is 6-8 weeks, Patch has previously reported.

Bonjean said she plans to argue that Crest Hill had a pattern of covering up illegal and improper conduct by Flores. She contends that Flores felt invincible, even to the point where he could kill his estranged girlfriend and not fear any consequences.

Crest Hill kept Flores on paid leave for 13 straight months, his employer never allowed him to return to polic work following the death of Harer.

Flores abruptly resigned in March 2019.

Bonjean said that Flores faced a credible rape allegation in 2016, two years before Harer died. The rape investigation ended with no criminal charges being filed by the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow. In that case, Flores remained on Crest Hill's police force, though he did receive a monthlong unpaid suspension surrounding the rape allegation, and was required to abstain from alcohol for a year.

Moving forward, Bonjean told Patch she intends to demonstrate "that Flores was responsible for Samantha Harer's death and that Crest Hill, his employer, fueled his belief that because he had a badge, you don't get in trouble as a police officer even if you rape someone. The message is, 'You're free to do whatever you want, and we'll have your back.'"

To read Friday's entire 23-page ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, go here.