JOLIET, IL — At a time when at least two different Joliet first-degree murder defendants have been let out of the Will County Jail under the SAFE-T Act, a 40-year-old man arrested by Joliet police on misdemeanor charges of violating an order of protection has been ordered to remain in the Will County Jail under the SAFE-T-Act's dangerousness threshold.
Last week, Joliet police arrested Jacob Kauzlarich and upon hearing the evidence, Will County Judge Sherri Hale imposed the SAFE-T-Act, agreeing with the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition contending that it's too dangerous for the community to have Kauzlarich in their presence.
The criminal complaint indicates that Kauzlarich was served with a Will County order of protection dated Oct. 19 and in spite of that order, he went to the protected address at the 900 block of Joliet's Copley Lane on Nov. 4.
According to the prosecution's filing, Joliet police responded to the house in the 900 block of Copley after learning that the 911 caller's ex-boyfriend, Kauzlarich, was at her door banging on it. Responding officers were alerted that she had an order of protection on file to keep Kauzlarich out of her life and it was served on him Nov. 1.
At the scene, the officers spotted Kauzlarich as he wore an orange shirt and blue jeans and stood at the front window of the woman's house. And that's when he told the officers he would be leaving now, prosecutors revealed. Officers did not allow that to happen. They conducted a pat down and discovered Kauzlarich had a pocketknife in his possession, court files show. He also told the officers that he had personal items inside the house that he was trying to obtain. Joliet police arrested him and then they interviewed the ex-girlfriend.
She relayed that she was inside the house with her female friend with an unknown person knocked on the door. She suspected it to be Kauzlarich because he called her by her first name and asked her to let him inside the residence, prosecutors outlined. She and Kauzlarich had dated for six years, but she broke up with him four months ago. She told the officers that he had no reason to show up at her residence and that he did not have any personal items at the house. She "was fearful that the defendant is stalking her," prosecutors informed Judge Hale.
Prosecutors noted that Joliet police interviewed Kauzlarich to obtain his statement and he relayed that he knew he was served with the protection order a couple of days earlier in Braidwood but he did not understand what he was supposed to do. He told the officers he was heading back to the Joliet house on Copley to retrieve personal items and trying to get a hold of her so they can organize a day for him to get his items, court files state. "Officers informed that he was unable to do that due to him being served this order of protection."
Interestingly, Joliet police discovered that Kauzlarich had parked his vehicle an entire block away, in the 800 block of Copley Lane, prosecutors revealed. His criminal history, until now, pretty much happened in Kane and LaSalle Counties. It includes a 2014 domestic battery in Kane, a 2009 DUI in LaSalle, a 2008 DUI from Kane, a false report of an offense from 2006 in Kane, a 2004 DUI in Kane that also included a drug paraphernalia possession charge. In 2007, Kauzlarich was arrested and later convicted of manufacturing and delivery of marijuana, also in Kane County.
Kauzlarich has now remained in his Will County Jail cell since 8:20 p.m. Nov. 4. He will be escorted over to the courthouse on Friday the 13th for his next pretrial hearing in Courtroom 801. He also has been ordered to have absolutely no contact with the ex-girlfriend, court records indicate.
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