Harer Lawsuit: Judge Weighs Adding 3 Channahon Police Officials

CHANNAHON, IL — The out-of-state lawyer for Kevin and Heather Harer, the parents of late WESCOM emergency dispatcher Samantha Harer, has asked a federal judge in Chicago to let her amend her deprivation of civil rights lawsuit to include three high-ranking members of the Channahon Police Department as co-defendants.

Brooklyn, N.Y., attorney Jennifer Bonjean is accusing Channahon Police Chief Shane Casey, Deputy Police Chief Adam Bogart and lead detective Andrew McClellan, of orchestrating a cover-up and conducting a faulty police investigation to ensure that Harer's February 2018 death was not treated as a homicide.

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, 23-year-old Harer, a former Channahon Police Department college intern, was found in the nude on her bedroom floor with a gunshot to her head. Her estranged boyfriend, Crest Hill police officer Felipe "Phil" Flores, was inside her Channahon apartment. Flores called 911 around 8:20 a.m., claiming Harer shot herself after she had locked herself in her bedroom, while he was supposedly on the other side of the door in her living room.

"This official cover-up was rooted in a concerted and unremitting abuse of power and authority, and it was undertaken, with the intent or knowledge that it would obstruct the legitimate efforts of Plaintiffs to vindicate the violent death of Samantha Harer through judicial redress, or with reckless disregard for the same," Bonjean argues in new court documents filed this week.

"Indeed, in the law enforcement community it was widely understood that defendants deemed Samantha's death a suicide out of the gate," Bonjean's filing reflects. "Defendants embarked on an investigation designed to prove that Samantha Harer committed suicide rather than follow the evidence with an open mind to a logical and reasoned conclusion."

In response, the Joliet law firm of Mahoney, Silverman & Cross has already filed a short motion asking the federal judge in Chicago to reject the amended complaint of Bonjean. The long-time Joliet firm represents the village of Channahon as its municipal law firm.

"The only claims against these three individuals are that Plaintiffs have been denied access to the courts as the result of alleged actions taken by the three individuals. This is essentially the same claim made against Channahon in the two prior complaints," argues Channahon's co-counsel Marron Mahoney.

"Amending the complaint for such a cause of action in the instant case is futile given that settled case law establishes that there is no constitutional cause of action ... for an alleged cover-up unless the alleged cover-up has prevented the plaintiffs from timely bringing an action against the party who inflicted the underlying wrong."

Mahoney also cited a handful of legal rulings by courts over the years to bolster Channahon's argument. Long-time U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettlemann of Chicago will likely issue his ruling in the coming weeks.

Here's a summary of the key issues raised in this week's filing by Bonjean in her quest to add the Channahon Police leadership team to her amended complaint.

Channahon Remained In Charge

Although it was portrayed that the death investigation was directed by the Will County-Grundy County Major Crimes Task Force, that wasn't the case, Bonjean informed the judge.

"Channahon police officers were responsible for securing all of the physical evidence, inventorying the physical evidence, and directing the forensic testing of the evidence. To date, all the physical evidence in this case is in the care and custody of the Channahon police department. Specifically, under the direct supervision of Channahon Police Chief Casey, the investigation was led by Deputy Chief Bogart and Detective Andrew McClellan.

"Although Defendants Bogart and McClellan delegated some tasks to other officers associated with the Will County Task Force, Bogart and McClellen (sic) were responsible for deciding what investigative steps should be taken and what witnesses should be interviewed."

At the end of December, police administrators for Channahon and Crest Hill issued press releases declaring that "a thorough and transparent" investigation had taken place during the past 10 months and that investigation confirmed the initial suspicions that Harer had died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Officer Flores was cleared of criminal wrongdoing and he would be returning to the Crest Hill Police shortly, the press releases indicated.

Behind the scenes, however, Crest Hill continued to keep Flores on paid suspension, and he abruptly resigned in March, rather than face termination. Flores never worked a single day on the job at Crest Hill following the death of his estranged girlfriend.

"Upon information and belief, physical evidence at the scene was not properly or adequately preserved, tested and analyzed by Defendants Bogart and McClellan and other officers under their command and direction," Bonjean's amended complaint reflects. "The individual Channahon defendants and the department as a whole conducted a sub-par investigation implicitly designed to protect potential misconduct of a fellow police officer ... This failure to investigate and properly manage the scene is a clear disregard for public safety and an example of the cover-ups and protections provided to officers."

The amended complaint accuses the three Channahon Police officials of having:

• Failed to treat the shooting as a potential homicide
• Failed to investigate other acts of violence toward women by defendant Flores
• Failed to investigate priors acts of violence toward Harer by defendant Flores

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McClellan Led Investigation

Most of the plaintiff's suspicions of a police cover-up are focusing on Channahon Detective Andrew McClellan.

"Detective McClellan and an evidence technician surveyed the scene together less than an hour after the shooting. The ET reported that he was dispatched to the scene 'for a suicide,'" Bonjean outlines in her amended complaint.

"After a preliminary review of the scene with defendant McClellen (sic), the ET concluded that the scene was consistent with suicide. The ET made this finding without speaking to any witnesses, including defendant Flores, and without processing any forensic evidence. On information and belief, defendant McClellan implicitly or explicitly directed the ET to make a preliminary suicide finding."

Hours after the shooting, Officer Flores participated in an interview with a Joliet Police detective and a Will County Sheriff's detective, where he explained his version of events. The written reports from Channahon's case file indicate there were no follow-up interviews with Flores even when forensic evidence testing raised serious doubts as to whether Harer shot herself.

"Even after evidence was developed that contradicted Flores’ account of the shooting, the defendants refused to confront Flores with the contradictory evidence," attorney Bonjean contends. "Critically, defendants failed to ask Flores why he had blood splatter on his clothing if he was not in the room when Samantha discharged the weapon. Upon learning that Flores’ hands and clothing were positive for gunshot residue, defendants never questioned Flores further about whether he was, in fact, in the bedroom with Samantha when the gun discharged."

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The reports indicate that a major DNA profile for Harer was retrieved from her Smith & Wesson at the scene. However, there were also minor DNA profiles obtained from two unknown males. Bonjean questions how hard Channahon tried to identify the men whose DNA was on her gun, including Officer Flores.

"Defendant McClellan falsely told an Illinois State Police forensic expert examining the blood splatter evidence that defendant Flores had rendered aid to Samantha even though (Flores) had not rendered any aid to Samantha," Bonjean's latest filing reveals. "On information and belief, Defendant McClellan falsely told the ISP expert that Flores had rendered aid to Samantha in an effort to minimize the significance of the blood splatter on his sweatshirt."

Channahon Tried To Ignore Plainfield Cop

Since taking over the case this year, Bonjean has determined that Harer had been conversing with a Plainfield Police officer on numerous occasions in the weeks leading up to her violent death.

A written report indicates that an in-depth interview of the Plainfield officer did not occur until 10 months after Harer was dead and that the interview was done at the instruction of Mike Fitzgerald, a top-level criminal prosecutor for Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow.

"On information and belief, defendants made no effort to interview other women who had accused Flores of assault or who had sought an order of protection against him," Bonjean's filing states. " On information and belief, in and around the time of her death, defendant Flores and Samantha were arguing about Samantha’s text conversations with another officer from a neighboring jurisdiction. On information and belief, Defendant Flores was enraged when he discovered these text exchanges on Samantha’s phone.

"Shortly after Samantha’s death, the aforementioned officer informed the defendants through his own supervisor that he had pertinent information about Samantha’s death, but the defendants made no effort to interview him until three days before they closed the investigation."

Joliet Patch published an investigative article earlier this week revealing there had only been a total of nine gunshot suicides by women in all of Will County during the previous five-year period.

"During the interview, the (Plainfield) officer told defendant McClellen (sic) that he and Samantha communicated regularly by text and that he had hundreds, if not thousands, of text messages with him – most of which had been deleted from her phone," the amended complaint reveals. "The officer had texted with her just a few days before her death. Samantha told him that Flores had access to her phone and that Flores was jealous of him. The officer told defendant McClellen (sic) that there was 'no way' Sam would kill herself. After this interview, Defendants promptly closed the investigation without even questioning Flores about the information revealed by the officer."

In a bombshell story published earlier this year, Patch reported that the official laboratory testing performed by an independent police agency, the Illinois State Police crime lab in Chicago, found that Harer had tested negative for gunshot residue on her hands while Flores' right hand as well as his sweatshirt tested positive.

About a month before that article broke, Bogart, Casey and McClellan met with Harer's parents and during that meeting the Channahon Police officials all kept quiet about those gunshot residue tests, according to Bonjean.

Incidentally, just one day after their only child's death, Kevin and Heather Harer were visited by Chief Casey and his lead detective, McClellan.

"Kevin and I were a state of shock after learning of our daughter's death and were alarmed that law enforcement authorities had in 24-hours determined that Samantha had committed suicide without conducting any real investigation," Heather Harer's sworn affidavit states. "Kevin and I were particularly concerned that Samantha's boyfriend, Felipe -Phil Flores, may have played a role in her death.

"We raised our concern with Chief Casey and he reassured me that Samantha had committed suicide because Phil was negative for gunshot residue 'GSR.'"

But how did Channahon Police Department foul-up the test results in such an important case, one of the biggest cases in the community in years?

"On information and belief," Bonjean informed the federal court, "a Channahon police officer purposefully altered, rigged, or misrepresented the results of a preliminary gunshot residue test conducted on Flores to support their premature theory that Samantha Harer committed suicide."

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