GUILTY: Joliet Police Detective Loses Bench Trial Before Kendall Co. Judge Despite Testifying

YORKVILLE, IL — Joliet Police Department Detective Peter Ranstead's days on the police force are pretty much over. Not only has chief of police Bill Evans recommended Ranstead's firing — which is on appeal to the city's police and fire board — on Thursday, Ranstead was found guilty of two crimes of domestic battery and one crime of interfering with the filing of a domestic violence report.

The incident happened on Sept. 28, 2024, inside Ranstead's home on the far west edge of Joliet in Kendall County. The victim was his wife, Caleigh. Thursday's trial took place at the Kendall County Courthouse in front of Judge Lisa Accardi, who became a judge in the summer of 2023.

Caleigh Ranstead was the first witness called to the stand by former high-ranking Assistant Will County State's Attorney Katie Rebenda, who left Jim Glasgow's office and now works as a top prosecutor for Eric Weis and the Kendall County State's Attorney's Office.

Very late in the afternoon, Peter Ranstead was called to testify by his criminal defense lawyers Anna Rose Bertani and CJ Haney of the Tomczak Law Group in Joliet.

The estranged husband and wife both testified on the witness stand to opposite stories, forcing Judge Accardi to decide who was believable. Caleigh Ranstead is in her late 20s, and Peter Ranstead is in his early 40s. After hearing all the evidence, the judge found Caleigh was credible and not Peter Ranstead, announcing her guilty verdicts around 6 p.m.

Caleigh Ranstead's Testimony:

Caleigh Ranstead testified she and Peter Ranstead got married in December 2022. She testified she has three biological children plus two stepchildren. Peter Ranstead testified late in the afternoon he had been previously divorced, and he served on the Joliet Police Department for about 12 years at the time. He testified he previously served in the military and worked for less than a year at his first police job at the University of Chicago.

"I met him in late 2021 or early 2022," Caleigh testified for the prosecution. "In 2024, it was starting to get a little rocky. A lot of arguments, things like that ... I loved his children like they were my own."

One of their first major blowups happened when Peter Ranstead and Caleigh each suspected the other of infidelity. Peter wanted to go through his wife's phone to see if she was corresponding with a guy on Snapchat. "He was accusing me of Snapchatting someone. I told him I was not doing that ... I had nothing to hide," she testified.

On June 9, 2024, the Ransteads had an argument that turned explosive and physically violent. "Peter didn't really like when I went out with my friends," Caleigh testified.

At the time, she worked for the Will County Sheriff's Office as a correctional guard. He was a Joliet Police school resource officer assigned to the Pathways alternative school near Joliet Central, and he was also on the detective unit for JPD. During one of their arguments, Caleigh determined that her husband had cleared some of his conversations he was having with a female on a social media platform. She testified that she developed a lot of distrust toward him by the summer of 2024.

"He was still friends with her," Caleigh testified. "I was always afraid he would cheat on me."

June 9, 2024

"I decided I wanted to leave," Caleigh testified Thursday morning. "I started packing the diapers (for their baby son) and Peter was following me, throwing clothes at me and telling me to get out, that my kids' stuff (is going) to be on the curb, that he didn't care about me at all or my kids."

Caleigh retreated to their garage and put her young son into his car seat. That's when Peter Ranstead came into the garage, opened the passenger side door and smacked his wife in the face with the pizza pan, she told the courtroom.

Prior to that outburst, Caleigh testified, she had grabbed her husband's pizza off the counter and thrown it to the floor.

"He struck me in the face with a metal pizza pan," she testified. "It was pretty blunt, it was fast."

As she tried to escape her husband's violence, Caleigh then backed her car out of the garage and clipped her husband's vehicle in the process, she testified. She immediately called her mother. "I was very panicked. I never had been hit like that before," Caleigh testified. "I accidentally swiped the back end of his car parked in the garage."

Caleigh testified she called a female friend who worked at the Joliet Police Department for guidance. She did not want to contact anyone else at the Joliet Police Department because she did not trust the Joliet Police Department, she testified. After conferring with this female friend, Caleigh drove to Shorewood to the Shorewood Police Department. "I didn't want it to be them or go directly to where Pete worked," Caleigh said, referring to the Joliet police doing the investigation.

Eventually, she drove to the Target store in Shorewood and spoke with Shorewood police. "I wasn't really sure what to do when he hit me in the face," she testified. She spoke with Shorewood Police Sgt. Danielle Malone, but in the end, Caleigh did not want the Shorewood Police Department to pursue a criminal case against her husband, so they didn't.

"Because I didn't want Pete to get in trouble because I loved him," she testified. "I didn't want to lose my family over that. I felt very discouraged over the way he didn't really think it was a big deal what happened. I grew more nervous, like walking on eggshells."

In the coming months, the Ransteads bought a new house in the Kendall County portion of Joliet along Woodiris Drive near Ridge Road.

September 2024

On Sept. 28, 2024, Caleigh was a bridesmaid for one of her best friends. The wedding was in Tinley Park.

She testified that she only had one drink of orange juice and vodka around 9:30 a.m. and then didn't have any alcohol until dinner time at the reception. She was dancing for a while with her friends and later that night, she went up to the bar to get more drinks for herself and her husband, testifying that, "Peter kneed me in the butt and he was very, very angry. He took his Corona, threw it in the garbage and said, we're leaving."

Caleigh testified that all she did was have a conversation with one of the groomsmen while standing in line at the bar. There were no romantic passes or signs of affection exchanged.

"Probably about five drinks total," Caleigh testified, when asked by Rabenda how many drinks she had at that point. "I was probably buzzed at that point, but nothing crazy."

Caleigh left the wedding and climbed into her husband's car, and they made the 40-minute drive back to their new home in far west Joliet. On the drive home, "He was talking about getting a divorce. He turned the music up really loud. He was upset because I was talking to the groomsman."

At Thursday's trial, Caleigh told the courtroom, "there was really nothing to explain."

Back home, Ranstead helped Caleigh's mother, who uses a walker, to get to her vehicle. She had been staying at the house babysitting their infant son while they went to the wedding. As tensions simmered, the topic of conversation turned to "where Peter would be sleeping that night."

She testified that he chose to sleep down the second-floor hallway in his son's bedroom. Then, Peter Ranstead returned to their master bedroom and "told me I would be the one sleeping in the bedroom," she said.

Rabenda asked Caleigh to describe her husband's demeanor.

"Just cold. Like he just hated me, to be honest, is what it felt like," Caleigh told the courtroom.

Caleigh testified that as she sat on the corner of their bed, Peter grabbed her by her shoulders. "He wasn't grabbing me too hard, I know that he's trained to do takedowns. He's a lot bigger than me. I fell very fast. I fell and hit the back of my head against the door in the laundry room."

That's when Peter Ranstead closed and locked their bedroom door to keep her out. "I kicked through it to get to (our son)," she testified. "I realized I was bleeding. I started telling Peter I was bleeding. He told me it was coming from my finger."

Realizing the blood was coming from somewhere on her scalp deep within her long hair, "I called 911," Caleigh testified. "Because I thought I might need stitches in my head. I obviously wasn't going to drive myself and lose consciousness while driving."

Rabenda asked Caleigh to describe how her husband picked her up off the bed and threw her into the doorframe. "It was just fast and hard," she testified.

Immediately after the 911 call, Peter Ranstead grabbed his wife's phone and disconnected the 911 call, according to testimony. When the 911 dispatcher — a fellow Joliet police employee — called back, he answered the phone and "he told her it was him," explaining it was an accidental dial, Caleigh testified. However, a third 911 call came from Caleigh's Apple Watch. She testified that she had programmed her watch to have the capability of dialing 911 because she feared such an emergency might occur in her future.

After realizing his wife called 911 again, Peter Ranstead left the house. He was gone by the time fellow Joliet police officer Allen Pina and Sgt. Robert "Bob" Mau arrived at the Ranstead house to investigate the domestic disturbance.

Caleigh testified that several drops of her blood were later found on her bathroom floor. The following day, more members of the Joliet Police Department showed back up at their house to continue with the investigation.

She contemplated changing her original story of what happened to appear "less credible. I was going to tell them I was excessively intoxicated," she testified. "I just started coming up with a lot of things because I didn't want him to lose his job."

The prosecutor asked Caleigh, "did you leave the defendant at that time?"

"No," she answered. But "afterward, it was not good. I thought we would try to resolve everything in a healthy way, marriage counseling, therapy, I originally started with basic talk therapy. I wanted to stay together. I wanted to keep our family together."

During the Apple Watch 911 call, the prosecutor played several minutes of that for the judge. During the call, Caleigh told 911 dispatchers, "he pushed me out my bedroom and I hit my head on the wall."

"Listen, honey, I'm going to send you help. That's Ranstead's house. Honey, I got them coming for you. Are you safe in the house?" the dispatcher inquired.

Caleigh testified she developed bruising on her shoulders and lower back area and that she took a few photos on her iPhone, only to delete them shortly afterward for fear that her husband would go through her phone and discover them.

Caleigh testified her main reason for calling 911 was because her husband was not helping her as she was seeking medical attention after discovering the blood coming out of her head. Her purpose for the 911 call was not to get him in trouble with the Joliet police force or see him charged with any crimes, she said. It was not until May 2025 when Caleigh filed for a divorce. Their divorce is still pending, the judge was told.

"I think deep down, I knew it wasn't going to get better," she testified about her filing for divorce. "I realized I was in a very unhealthy relationship with someone I no longer wanted to be with."

When Caleigh realized her husband was leaving the house while she got through to 911, she exclaimed, "You're just going to make it worse, Peter. Yes, I wanted him to help me."

When Sgt. Robert Mau later presented Caleigh with the Joliet Police paperwork to obtain a formal statement for domestic violence victims, she refused to fill out the form.

"You didn't want to press charges?" defense attorney Anna Rose Bertani asked.

"That's correct," Caleigh testified.

"And after the officer left, you called Pete and wanted him to come home?"

"Yes."

"You wanted this man who threw you into a wall to comfort you?"

Joliet Patch will produce a separate story on Friday highlighting Peter Ranstead's testimony in his own defense. His story was the opposite of his wife's version of what had happened throughout the night, beginning with the wedding reception incident in Tinley Park.