Joliet Police Det. Peter Ranstead's Downfall: Convicted Domestic Abuser Made Significant Sum On Paid Leave

JOLIET, IL — At the cost of more than $200,000 in taxpayer funds, the city of Joliet and the Joliet Police Department has moved on from Detective Peter Ranstead, who was sentenced to probation earlier this summer in connection with his violent bedroom attack during the night of Sept. 28, 2024. The incident happened inside Ranstead's home on the far west edge of Joliet in Kendall County. The victim was his wife, Caleigh.

In late March, Kendall County Judge Lisa Accardi announced her findings: Ranstead was guilty of two counts of domestic battery and one count of interfering with the reporting of a domestic violence 911 call.

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Last November, Ranstead was notified of his termination by Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans. As a result of an August Freedom of Information Act request, Joliet Patch found no city records to indicate Ranstead even tried to fight or appeal his termination to the mayor's police and fire board. The city of Joliet furnished Joliet Patch a document indicating Ranstead went off city payroll late last November.

On the other hand, the Joliet Police Department's decision to place Ranstead on prolonged paid administrative leave following his arrest proved to be quite costly for the taxpayers of Joliet.

At no point in time after Ranstead was arrested in late September 2024 did he ever work another day on the job for Police Bill Evans and Joliet police's detective unit. Evans and City Manager Beth Beatty placed Ranstead on paid administrative and kept him there.

At the one-year anniversary of Ranstead's domestic violence arrest, the Joliet Police Department and City Hall continued to keep Ranstead on paid administrative leave, taking no measures of discipline against him, at that point.

Eventually, two months later, last November, Ranstead received formal notice of his termination. Joliet Patch just learned as a result of Freedom of Information Act request to the city that Ranstead was paid a total of $200,144 during the time he was on paid leave until his termination. He also received a final payment of $5,750 on Nov. 28, 2025, the city payroll records reflect.

Ranstead Testified At His Own Criminal Trial

On March 19, Joliet Patch was inside the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville when Ranstead took the witness stand, testifying in his own defense at his domestic battery trial.

Back in late September 2024, Joliet police received a total of three successive 911 calls regarding a domestic disturbance at the Ranstead home near Ridge Road in the Kendall County portion of far west Joliet.

During his trial, most of Ranstead's testimony centered on the events of Sept. 28, 2024.

"Caleigh had a wedding as a bridesmaid," Ranstead testified. "We woke up ... She had to be in Tinley Park at 9 a.m. I dropped her off at the hotel."

When asked if he spoke with his wife much that day, Ranstead testified, "We didn't have any interaction because she was in the wedding."

He testified he spent much of his time at the reception going back and forth to the bar to obtain drinks for Caleigh.

"I got her doubles of Captain (Morgan) and Coke. Four over just an hour. It was just dinner," he testified.

Ranstead testified he saw his wife continue to indulge in alcohol throughout the entire evening because the tables were set up in a way that everyone was facing toward the head table where the bride and groom and the wedding party sat.

"The last time she went to the bar, she seemed pretty intoxicated, so I worried for her safety," Peter Ranstead testified. "I saw her put her arm around this gentleman, whisper in his ear, kiss his cheek and take a sip of his drink."

Anna Rose Bertani, his lawyer, then asked how that made him feel to see Caleigh in that situation.

"Sad," he responded. "I started to walk to my car. She got in the passenger seat."

He testified they then left the wedding reception and drove home together.

"Oh, she began yelling at me, screaming at me," he testified. "I turned up the music up pretty loud eventually because ... she's very irrational when she gets intoxicated."

Back upstairs inside of their house, Caleigh continued yelling and screaming at him, and "I just wanted to go to sleep and create separation," he testified.

But, when his wife learned he would not spend the night sharing their bed with him, she screamed at him, "f*** you, I'm going to get all your guns and throw them in the street if you aren't going to sleep with me," he testified.

All the while, their infant son was still asleep in their master bedroom.

"I felt like she was being irrational. So I opened the door to the master bedroom. She continued to yell and scream at me, that's when I grabbed her wrist and I escorted her out of the room," Ranstead testified. "She didn't resist. She was not fighting back."

Ranstead was asked if he pushed his wife into the door frame of the laundry room as she had testified hours earlier on the witness stand. He answered no to that question.

Asked again if he pushed her out of the master bedroom or threw her out of the master bedroom, Ranstead answered "No" and "No."

"I hear the door get slammed open. I saw that the door was broken open," Ranstead recalled. "That's when she said, 'I'm f****** bleeding.' I see blood on her hand."

The next key moment came when his wife dialed 911.

"Next thing I know, I said, 'who ya calling?' She told (me), 'pick it up. Pick it up,'" Ranstead testified.

He said he grabbed possession of her phone, and "I see Joliet Police calling, (an) incoming call. I said, 'It must have been accidental' ... I grabbed my bag and left."

When asked why he chose to exit their house and drive off late that Saturday night, Ranstead's response on the witness stand was, "Because she said get out."

As far as the injuries to Caleigh's head were concerned, Ranstead testified he was convinced that his wife injured herself when she kicked in the door to their master bedroom with powerful force. He never pushed her, pulled her or shoved her into the doorframe, he testified on the witness stand as Kendall County Judge Lisa Accardi listened intently from just a few feet away.

As for his career, Ranstead testified he had been with the Joliet Police Department for 12 years. He served as a patrol officer, then a neighborhood-oriented police officer and finally his last assignment as a juvenile detective and school resource officer at the Pathways alternative school near Joliet Central.