Flores Broke Into Samantha Harer's To Snoop: IA Probe

CREST HILL, IL — Last January's internal affairs probe uncovered forensic evidence that Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores gained access to Samantha "Sam" Harer's apartment in Channahon at times when she was not home so Flores could monitor her electronic communications with other people, Joliet Patch learned.

In recent weeks, Patch obtained the full internal affairs report on Flores through a Freedom of Information Act request. Flores tendered his resignation from the Crest Hill Police Department on March 22, 2019. He never worked a day on the job after the Feb. 13, 2018, gunshot death of his 23-year-old girlfriend, who was found shot in her apartment. Flores was inside her apartment at the time of the shooting and called 911, saying she shot herself.

The 2019 internal affairs report indicates that several of Harer's coworkers became aware of instances when Flores, while off-duty from Crest Hill police, drove to Channahon and broke into his estranged girlfriend's apartment while she was gone. On one of the occasions, she was out socializing with a man who worked for Plainfield's police department, the reports show.

Harer was a full-time 911 dispatcher in Plainfield for WESCOM.

About two months before Harer's death, while "Sam was out to a bar in Plainfield with friends, Phil sent a photo of himself while in her apartment to her phone using some type of phone application, perhaps Snapchat. This occurred while they were broken up sometime around December 2017. (One WESCOM employee) also mentioned that Sam did not have a traditional lock on the apartment door that it was a code lock that Sam had changed, but Phil still got in somehow," the internal affairs documents show.

Upon completing his investigation of Flores, Crest Hill Deputy Chief Brad Hertzmann stated the following information was recovered from Flores' phone: "Messages between Samantha Harer and Felipe Flores dated December 3, 2017. These messages are in regards to Flores finding out that Harer is with (a Plainfield Community Service Officer) ... This stream of messages correspond with statements provided by (the Plainfield officer) ... Several witnesses that were interviewed indicate that Harer said that Flores 'broke into' her apartment and sent the screenshots."

Another WESCOM employee interviewed for Crest Hill's internal affairs probe advised that "Sam struggled with the relationship with Phil, not being sure if she wanted to be with him or not."

The female coworker was also aware of Flores gaining access to Harer's Channahon apartment when Harer was not there, using her electronics, such as her iPad, to send Harer Snapchats and threatening to take her cat, documents state.

The coworker told Harer "that was not cool and she needed to do something about that. (The coworker) said she did not see the Snapchats. Sam told (her) that Phil knew the keypad code to her apartment and had gained entry," the internal affairs reports state.

In the days leading up to her gunshot death, Harer "felt anxiety about moving in with Phil, (the coworker) thought this was Sam's fear of normalcy and giving up her own independence."

One female officer at the Wilmington Police Department was also interviewed as part of the internal affairs probe because she had known Harer a long time.

"I asked (her) if she was aware of any domestic issues or anything physical. (She) said she knew they fought a lot," the report said. "Harer would text her and tell her what Phil Flores said and ask her if it was normal. (The Wilmington officer) remembered a time when Harer texted her and told her that Phil walked out of the apartment and would not talk to her. (The officer) said to let him calm down."

Crest Hill Deputy Police Chief Bradley Hertzmann asked the Wilmington officer "if she had any knowledge of any issues I should be aware of that had come to light regarding department policies and procedures. (She) paused a moment and said they fought over text messages Harer had with different men. (She) paused again and I asked her if there was anything, I should know as a department head or police chief.

"(She) told me Harer and Flores had broken up around the first or second week of December (2017) because they had each other's passwords on their phones and also he had caught her hanging out with another guy and that they had a big fight a couple months before for a similar situation," the documents state.

Flores told the Wilmington officer that "he had to apologize to her for the way he reacted. (The Wilmington officer) said she didn't know what that meant. (She) said it was not a healthy relationship for either of them," the documents state.

The officer from Wilmington also explained that Flores and Harer "kind of withdrew from everybody. (The officer) didn't know if it was because he had said that he had found messages between (Harer) and someone else."

Shortly after the Channahon Police Department announced that Flores would not face any criminal charges in connection with Harer's gunshot death, he went out partying at a bar and posting information on social media, the Wilmington officer relayed.

She "said she didn't expect Flores to put his life on hold but when your department is pretty much under a microscope and pretty much every cop in Will County and Flores was going out with his new girlfriend ... and Flores is drinking and posting pictures of it. (She) said this was not even a week after having his name cleared. (She) said the day his name was cleared he posted on Snapchat that his name was finally cleared and he was going back to work and celebrating."

She "said she understood with having everything said about him, but he had no tact," the internal affairs reports state.

According to the Wilmington officer, the wife of a Crest Hill Police detective told her "that Flores said that the reason Harer killed herself is because the group of wives/girlfriends didn't accept her."

The Wilmington officer also said that Flores repeated that comment to her after she herself broke off her own romance with one of the other Crest Hill police officers "and she reached out to Flores to talk about some things."

In total, Crest Hill's deputy chief interviewed at least 19 different witnesses as part of his internal affairs investigation of Officer Flores.

Crest Hill's internal affairs interviews also reveal that multiple people who are employed in public safety sector jobs, including her coworkers at WESCOM, found the ruling of her death as a suicide to be questionable.

One coworker told the Crest Hill deputy chief how she "thought that Phil was controlling and played a role in Sam's death ... she was concerned if Phil comes back to work because she does not want to hear Phil's voice or see his number on the radio. (She) said she has her own feelings and opinions that Phil is responsible."

On March 14, 2019, Crest Hill Chief Ed Clark notified Flores in writing that a disciplinary hearing was set in six days related to multiple police department violations surrounding his relationship with Harer. Phil Flores did not show up for the hearing. Instead, two days later, he tendered him immediate resignation from the police force.

These days, Flores is a co-defendant in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by New York attorney Jennifer Bonjean for the family of Harer's parents. The lawsuit accuses Flores of murdering his girlfriend and it also accuses the Channahon chief of police, Shane Casey, deputy chief Adam Bogart, and lead detective Andrew McClellan of police misconduct. The three men are accused of intentionally covering up Harer's homicide because Flores was a fellow cop. Besides Flores and Channahon, Crest Hill is also named a defendant in the lawsuit.