Harer Family Lawyer: 'This Lawsuit Was Never About Money For Them'

JOLIET, IL — Wednesday's wrongful death lawsuit against former Crest Hill Police Officer Phil Flores accuses him of grabbing his girlfriend Samantha Harer from behind, slamming her into her bedroom wall, then putting her gun against her head and killing her while she was nude.

Around 8 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2018, Flores awoke after sleeping on the living room couch at Harer's Channahon apartment while she slept in her bedroom, according to plaintiff's lawyer Jennifer Bonjean of New York's Bonjean Law Group.

"Her firearm was on her table. Flores and Samantha began arguing about communications on her cell phone that Flores discovered after secretly taking the phone from Samantha's room while she slept," Bonjean's lawsuit argues.

"An argument ensued during which Samantha's phone was thrown across the room. That argument escalated into a physical confrontation that included Flores throwing Samantha into a wall in the tiny entranceway of her bedroom."

Other Channahon apartment building tenants heard a woman's voice screaming at Flores, "Let me go!" and banging on the walls, the lawsuit noted.

"Police officers would later find a divot in the size and shape of a head in the wall at the precise location where Samantha's body was found," Bonjean contends. "The damage to the wall was not present a day earlier."

Moments later, Harer was shot.

"Flores grabbed Samantha from behind with his arm tightly across the top of her chest," the lawsuit states. "Using his right hand, he placed the muzzle of the firearm either against or closely near Samantha's temple and fired the weapon, inflicting a single gunshot wound to her head.

"Flores placed Samantha's body in a seated position against the wall in the tiny vestibule in her bedroom and then placed the firearm between her legs."

At 8:19 a.m. Flores called 911, reporting Harer just shot herself shortly after the two of them had an argument where she told him to leave.

"Flores claimed that after leaving Samantha's room, he heard her 'gun rack' and that Samantha locked herself in her room just before he heard a gunshot," Bonjean's lawsuit outlines. "Defendant Flores falsely claimed to the 911 operator that he busted into the bedroom and observed Samantha unconscious with a gunshot wound to her head; her gun laying between her legs ... There was no damage to the door that Flores claimed to have 'busted' through."

On Wednesday afternoon, Joliet Patch went to Flores' apartment complex in Joliet to interview him. There were two vehicles in his driveway, but nobody answered the door.

Joliet Patch's editor left his business card on Flores' Ring doorbell, but Flores did not call back.

The new Will County lawsuit explains that Flores insisted he was not inside Harer's bedroom when "she allegedly shot herself, but he had blood spatter on the right sleeve and front of the sweatshirt that he was wearing.

"Similarly, Flores claimed that Samantha was in the room alone when she shot herself and that he did not conduct any life-saving measure such as CPR, but there was inexplicable blood smears on the walls in the pattern of handprints," Bonjean wrote. "Flores' right hand had dried blood on it when police first arrived at the house."

Bonjean also informed Will County's judges that one forensic expert and the investigating detectives noted "that although Samantha's nude body was covered in blood, there was a void across her chest that looked as if an arm had been tightly positioned across the front of Samantha's upper chest, just below her neck, when the wound was inflicted, and she began bleeding."

The lawsuit notes that Flores refused to submit to additional interviews to explain why he tested positive for gunshot residue or to answer any additional questions.

On Dec. 28, 2018, Joliet Patch published a story headlined, "Samantha Harer's Gunshot Death Classified As Suicide By Channahon."

"The Channahon Police Department immediately requested the Will/Grundy County Major Crimes Task Force to provide assistance and add additional expertise to the investigation. Members of the task force from Bolingbrook PD, Grundy County Sheriff's Office, Illinois State Police, Joliet PD, Romeoville PD, Shorewood PD and the Will County Sheriff's Office immediately responded to the scene," Channanon Deputy Police Chief Adam Bogart announced at the time.

"The Will County Coroner has determined that Samantha's cause of death was by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. That finding is consistent with, and supported by, the evidence presented by this multi-jurisdictional investigation," Bogart's press release stated.

During a phone interview this week, Bonjean told Joliet Patch her wrongful death lawsuit against Flores is not about the family getting lots of money from Flores.

"This is not a big pocket defendant," Bonjean said of Flores. "These are still people that are greatly grieving the loss of their young daughter."

Samantha Harer, 23, was the only child of Kevin and Heather Harer. At the time of her death, she worked for WESCOM as a 911 dispatcher. She had graduated from the University of St. Francis in Joliet with a criminal justice major. In college, she had interned at the Channahon Police Department.

As for the performance of Channahon's Police Department and the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force, "the leadership was lacking, and that resulted in a scenario in our estimation where justice could not be done," Bonjean told Patch on Wednesday. "Through our discovery, there were definitely law enforcement who seemed to be surprised by the evidence they were not aware of."

By filing the lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse, Bonjean said the case should bring more attention to the Channahon and Crest Hill police departments.

"This still brings attention to how the case was handled," she said.

Patch asked if she believed the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow would reopen the investigation into Harer's death, as he did several years ago in the case of Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in her bathtub.

Savio's death was initially ruled an accidental drowning by Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil back in 2004.

"I know that's what the family would love to see," Bonjean said. "This (lawsuit) was never about money for them. The ability to prosecute Phil Flores is hampered of course by the bungling of the investigation."

The Will County lawsuit, "it's about justice. This is the only way they can get it. It was always about getting answers they simply could not get."