Ex-Joliet Basketball Star, Ex-Bank Robber Back In Will County Jail

JOLIET, IL — Scott Hasenjaeger, a former prep basketball star at Joliet Central and previously convicted bank robber, must remain in Will County's Jail indefinitely because he is deemed a danger to society, a Will County judge ruled, agreeing with the petition to deny pretrial release submitted by Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow and his prosecutors.

"This court should deny the defendant pretrial release because the defendant's pretrial release poses a real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons or the community and the defendant is charged with ... detainable offenses," wrote Assistant Will County State's Attorney Charlene Recio.

A star athlete at St. Mary Nativity Grade School, Hasenjaeger later played basketball for some of Joliet Central and Joliet Junior College's best basketball teams. He also played for Lewis University in Romeoville. In November, Hasenjaeger was mentioned in a Joliet Herald-News article chronicling some of JJC's greatest basketball teams of former coach Pat Klingler.

A 1993 Chicago Tribune sports article about the remarkable transformation of JJC's men's basketball program under coach Klingler noted that Hasenjaeger was averaging 21.8 points per game for the Wolves that season.

Hasenjaeger was convicted of committing a bank robbery 40 miles away from Joliet, in Marseilles, back in 2007, according to Will County prosecutors.

During the past three years, Joliet police have arrested Hasenjaeger three separate times for domestic violence crimes: November 2020, January 2021 and then most recently on Dec. 5.

According to Recio:

At 4:15 p.m. on Dec. 5, Joliet police were called to the Hasenjaeger house in the 1100 block of Frederick for another domestic battery. The victim told officers that Hasenjaeger attacked her by pushing her down on a bed. She also told Joliet police that Hasenjaeger has been acting irate since Dec. 3, and threatening to stab and kill her.

The woman told officers that Hasenjaeger has schizophrenia and drug addiction problems. On Dec. 5, the victim acknowledged that she threw a picture at Hasenjaeger, prompting Hasenjaeger to push her down and pin her to the bed down in the basement.

Hasenjaeger had been raising his fist to her face and tried to push her down the flight of stairs, according to police.

Hasenjaeger told Joliet police the woman threw a picture of his family at him, but he moved to avoid being hit. Hasenjaeger told officers he was upset with her, and he pushed her on to the bed "due to his anger, reasoning that it was okay to push her because he was mad, and she did not get injured," the prosecutor outlined.

Hasenjaeger's two prior Joliet police arrests in November 2020 and January 2021 also involved the same victim as the Dec. 5 incident, the prosecutor outlined.

In November 2020, Hasenjaeger punched the woman in the back of her head, causing a cut to her ear. That case was dismissed part of the plea bargain, Recio pointed out. In the January 2021 crime that led to a guilty plea, Hasenjaeger punched her in the face, causing a busted lip.

Last week, Joliet police interviewed the wife of Hasenjaeger's father, and she confirmed that Hasenjaeger has acted irate and unusual since Dec. 3.

"This witness believes he is not taking his prescription medicine and is abusing illegal drugs," Recio stated.

The woman heard an argument in the basement, and she saw Hasenjaeger pinning the victim to the bed. The victim did not have any signs of physical abuse to photograph, according to prosecutors.

For Hasenjaeger's 2021 domestic battery conviction here in Will County, he was sentenced to 24 months conditional discharge and ordered to complete a certified domestic violence course.

Back in December 2007, Hasenjaeger was convicted and sentenced to 12 months at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for committing a bank robbery in nearby LaSalle County.

In 1995, he was convicted of criminal damage to property, here in Will County, and sentenced to one year of court supervision.

Joliet Patch has obtained the criminal complaint from 2007 when Hasenajeger robbed the Twin Oaks Savings Branch in Marseilles.

FBI Agent Jeremy Resar of the Orland Park office informed the federal judge that on Jan. 24, 2007, at 1 p.m., Hasenjaeger walked into the bank in Marseilles with a ski mask over his face and approached the teller counter and yelled, "Give me the f****** money.

Then, Hasenjaeger displayed a black handgun and pointed it at two of the three bank tellers.

Hasenjaeger gave the tellers a bag he put on the counter. One of the victims put $35,000 inside the bag. As Hasenjaeger left the bank, he dropped some of the cash, the FBI noted.

Eyewitnesses gave police the license plate numbers for the silver Hyundai that drove away from the bank robbery.

About 45 minutes later, police saw the car, bearing the same license plates, and pulled Hasenjaeger over. When the officers asked Hasenjaeger, who was the only person in the car, what he had been doing earlier that day, he told them, "I robbed a bank."

At the time of Hasenjaeger's arrest, officers searched his car and found his ski mask, cash proceeds from the Twin Oaks bank robbery and a black air gun.

During his interview with the FBI, Hasenjaeger confessed to robbing the Twin Oaks bank in Marseilles and producing the air gun that authorities found inside his car.

"Hasenjaeger admitted he wore the ski mask, which was found in the silver Hyundai ... Hasenjaeger stated he committed the robbery due to his gambling debts. Hasenjaeger signed a written statement admitting his conduct during the bank robbery," the criminal complaint noted.

On Dec. 4, 2007, a federal judge sentenced Hasenjaeger to one year plus one day at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Additionally, Hasenjaeger was ordered to participate in a mental health treatment program and the Gamblers Anonymous Program at the direction of the probation office. Hasenjaeger was restricted from opening any new lines of credit. He had to provide the probation office with access to his finances and continue to provide 10 percent of his net income toward his $1,100 fine issued by the court.