Dawn Malec Will Still Be Fired From Joliet: Capparelli Vows

JOLIET, IL — One month after Joliet City Manager Jim Capparelli issued a news release announcing he had fired Dawn Malec as the Joliet police chief, Malec remains on the city payroll and she continues to show up for work, although not at the police station.

Malec has been working out of a back office in the city clerk's office at City Hall.

When Capparelli fired Malec as police chief in early October, he did not know about a city of Joliet collective bargaining agreement already in place that allowed Malec to return to her previous rank as a police lieutenant upon being removed from a top command position at the Joliet Police Department.

Now, through a Freedom of Information Act request, Joliet Patch has obtained a memo that informs Malec that even though she remains a city of Joliet employee under her old rank of lieutenant, Capparelli still intends to get her fired.

Capparelli's letter informs Malec that she will be fired from the city of Joliet "due to your recent misconduct including but not limited to your refusal to follow direct orders, your failure provide pertinent information in a timely manner and your violation of Police Department General Orders regarding confidentiality."

At last week's Joliet City Council meeting, Councilwoman Sherri Reardon read a letter written by her constituent, Margie Cepon, who could not attend the meeting. The letter blasted Capparelli for messing up the termination of the Joliet police chief, stating that the manner in which Malec was relieved from leadership duties was amateur, sloppy and uninformed.

On Oct. 27, Joliet Patch published the following headline: Malec Made Egizio Deputy Chief Without City Hall's OK: Records.

One person who read that Oct. 27 article commented: "In my opinion this entire matter cries loudly for the Joliet Police Department, and all police departments, to take political influence and cronyism out of their departments. There should be clear-cut guidelines and qualifications for promotion to any rank and all candidates should have a fair chance at that rank. Politics and cronyism is what is wrong with law enforcement."

Another person commented: "The next chief needs to come from out of town because of all the corruption we've had."

Malec is now the third member of the Joliet Police Department who has been put on an indefinite administrative duty, preventing her from performing day-to-day police officer duties. The other two members are Sgt. Javier Esqueda, the whistleblower in the Eric Lurry case, and Officer Erin Zilka, who faces several criminal charges in connection with her January 2020 crash along Interstate 55 that killed her passenger, an off-duty Berwyn police officer.