Samantha Harer's Gun Also Contains Phil Flores' DNA: Lawyer

CHANNAHON, IL — A three-year-old federal civil rights lawsuit against Crest Hill, Channahon police and former Crest Hill police officer Felipe "Phil" Flores regarding the Feb. 13, 2018, death of Samantha Harer was dismissed Nov. 4, but Flores is hardly off the hook, New York civil rights lawyer Jennifer Bonjean says.

"The case is stronger than it's ever been against Flores," Bonjean told Joliet Patch last week. "Because of legal reasons, the plaintiffs cannot hold Channahon and Crest Hill responsible for Flores' conduct because he was an off-duty police officer. It was kicked out (of federal court) on jurisdiction, not on merits.

"His DNA is on her gun," Bonjean said. "There's no reason why his DNA should be on her gun. And let's not forget that she was in the nude. He's covered with gunshot residue, and she had no GSR. He claims he was not in her room, but he's the one with blood spatter, and why is his right hand covered in blood? Witnesses in the other apartment heard Samantha yelling, 'Let me go.' There's an indentation in her bedroom wall that was not there 24 hours earlier.

"All these facts lead to one conclusion. I have all the facts in the world that a Will County jury will be able to reach a conclusion whether she took her own life or whether Flores was responsible for taking her life."

On behalf of Harer's parents, Kevin and Heather Harer, Bonjean said she plans to re-file her wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in state court at the Will County Courthouse in downtown Joliet before the end of the year.

In late September, DNA expert Dr. Karl Reich, chief executive officer of Independent Forensics in suburban Lombard, notified Bonjean that he had found Flores' DNA on the Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun.

The gun belonged to Harer. The 23-year-old 911 WESCOM dispatcher kept the gun on her nightstand, according to Flores' interview with two detectives within hours of her shooting.

During last week's phone interview, Bonjean told Patch that Flores never indicated he handled the gun used to kill Harer. On Harer's last night alive, Flores stayed overnight at her apartment in Channahon. He was inside her apartment the next morning, calling 911 around 8:15 a.m. to report that his girlfriend had fatally shot herself.

"Samantha Harer just shot herself," Flores told 911 dispatchers on Feb. 13, 2018. "I walked out of the room. She argued with me. I heard the gun rack. I tried to come back into the room, and she shot herself."

When the 911 dispatcher asked if he could attempt CPR on Harer, Flores replied, "She's not breathing. I can see brain matter. Oh, my (expletive) God!

"I've got to put her cat away before he gets out. Come here, Salem."

When the 911 dispatcher asked when the shooting happened, Flores told her, "She just did this when I called 911. We were arguing. She told me to leave. I left. I heard her gun rack. She locked herself in the bedroom, and she pulled the trigger and I came busting in."

As Channahon police cars and an ambulance were rushing to the shooting, the 911 dispatcher asked if the gun was secured.

"It's in between her legs," Flores answered.

At the time of Harer's death, Flores had been a Crest Hill police officer for seven years, and he was in the U.S. Marines for 10 years. He lives in Joliet.

Crest Hill did not let Flores work a single day on its police department following Harer's gunshot death. After 13 months of paid leave, Flores resigned in March 2019.

Bonjean said Flores' version of events is not credible.

In a 2019 article, Patch reported that one of the Channahon 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," Joliet Police Detective Carlos Matlock's interview of Flores stated.

During last week's interview, Bonjean said the position where Harer's gun was found makes no logical sense if Harer had actually put her gun against her head and shot herself in the nude.

"Why is the gun between her legs?" Bonjean asked.

Last week, Patch reached out to attorney Michael Bersani seeking comment for this article because his Itasca law firm has represented Flores for the duration of the 2018 federal lawsuit. Bersani did not return calls to Patch.

In Dr. Reich's Sept. 20 DNA report concerning Harer's Smith & Wesson, he wrote, "The DNA profile obtained from this item is a mixture of at least two contributors. There is DNA from more than individual on this item ... The DNA profile data from this sample is best explained as being derived from a major female contributor and a male minor contributor. The terms major and minor refer to the relative amounts of DNA that each of these contributors provided to/left on Exhibit 1 and are not a description of timing of deposition, importance to the case or significance but refer only to the relative strength, peak heights, of the two profiles observed on the electropherogram."

Furthermore, Dr. Reich's report explained, "it is likely that the sampling of the surface of the firearm collected both touch DNA/handling DNA and some blood from the victim. This conclusion best explains the observed results, the ratio of female to male DNA and the large amount of female DNA that was recovered. Touch DNA has very little biological material, while blood is a very rich source of DNA."

As for his forensic lab conclusions of Flores, Dr. Reich stated, "A comparison of the data obtained by (Illinois State Police) combined with additional data from a more detailed analysis reveals that F. Flores ... is not excluded at 20 autosomal loci; this from unambiguous data from 18 loci plus data from two loci with partial profiles of F. Flores. Also present are data from the one Y-STR locus which also does not exclude F. Flores as a contributor to Exhibit 1, swabs from firearm."

Reich is world-renowned for his DNA analysis. He was one of the main scientific experts hired by attorney Kathleen Zellner who was featured in the October 2018 Netflix docu-series about Steven Avery, "Making a Murderer II."

After three years of litigating Harer's case, Patch asked why Bonjean believes Channahon's police command staff, working closely with the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force, investigated Harer's death from the outset as a self-inflicted gunshot wound?

Bonjean's original lawsuit in federal court named Channahon's Deputy Police Chief Adam Bogart, lead detective Andrew McClellan and Channahon's Chief Shane Casey as co-defendants, accusing them of police misconduct.

In June 2020, Chicago's U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit overruled U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman and agreed to dismiss Channahon's three police officers as defendants.

Even though Bogart, Casey and McClellan won't be sued in her forthcoming wrongful death lawsuit, Bonjean said she's committed to winning the case in front of a Will County jury.

When Harer died in 2018, Channahon's top police officials engaged in "a quick rush to judgment to protect a fellow officer and to protect the community from bad publicity," Bonjean said. "I think the blue code of silence gave them a certain tunnel vision that did not coincide with the truth.

"There is now a recognition from some lower-level investigators when confronted with information," Bonjean said. "For many of them didn't know that Samantha had been involved with the struggle where some of the neighbors heard her yelling, 'Let me go,' and the indent of the wall, that was never explained to them. They were surprised."

On Nov. 5, Patch published an article headlined, "Samantha Harer Federal Suit Crumbles, Flores Prevails."

"This was no surprise to anybody, (although) I would have preferred the federal court keep it," Bonjean told Patch. "It's kind of a who done it now ... That's more of a state court kind of thing."

She said she's committed to making sure Kevin and Heather Harer prevail against Flores at the new Will County Courthouse, now that the case won't be heard in Chicago.

"It matters," she said. "This is about justice. It's never been about money."

Related Patch coverage of Samantha Harer case:

Flores Broke Into Harer's Channahon Apartment: IA Report

Samantha Harer: 'I Hope This Doesn't Turn Out Like Drew Peterson Case'

Listen: 911 Call From Samantha Harer Gunshot Death

'It Was A Homicide That Should Have Never Happened:' Ciolino

Samantha Harer Federal Suit Crumbles, Flores Prevails