Crowley Draws City Hall Scrutiny: Ferak Column

JOLIET, IL - In late September, Joliet's City Council named David Hales, an outsider, as the new city manager. He received a three-year employment contract with a $215,000 salary to manage the third largest city in Illinois. Hales, 63, has more than 25 years experience as a city manager. He ran Bloomington the past eight years. Now, the honeymoon period is over.

We're about to find out whether Hales has the leadership chops to start making tough decisions that may bruise a few egos over at the Joliet Police Department across the street from City Hall.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, Mayor Bob O'Dekirk put everyone on notice he was dissatisfied with Police Chief Brian Benton's handling of the Officer Nick Crowley case. At no point since Benton put Crowley on paid administrative leave last summer has the chief tried to fire the patrol officer. Crowley, now 37, previously worked six years at the Bourbonnais Police Department. He joined Joliet in January 2013.

"I have one issue, chief, it's directed to you and David (Hales) ... we have an officer, a police officer, who is currently under indictment," O'Dekirk remarked during the meeting. "He's awaiting trial. I know it's been recommended before that he come in, similar to an officer on light duty."

As of February 9, Patch reported at the time, Crowley had made at least $52,300 as a result of Benton's decision to put him on indefinite paid leave with no effort to fire him. If you factor in another two months of pay, Crowley has now made close to $70,000, all for staying home from work and doing nothing.

If Benton guessed that Crowley would have resigned in shame last summer, in wake of the bad publicity, the chief obviously guessed wrong.

Crowley has no intention of resigning. He maintains his innocence. He wants to be earning his paycheck, just like everybody else. Meanwhile, Benton's handling of the Crowley debacle has caused morale problems and division inside Joliet's Police Department.

"He has not been coming to work for, I think, close a year now," O'Dekirk declared Tuesday night. "I don't want to get into the personnel details or the specifics about this case, but I have to say chief, I have an issue. I think a lot of the taxpayers of Joliet have an issue with a Joliet city employee not coming to work and collecting a paycheck every two weeks."

Last July, the Joliet Police Department arrested Crowley on five separate criminal charges, two felonies and three misdemeanors. The next day, Crowley posted 10 percent of his $50,000 bail. He has remained free and on paid leave ever since. At first, Joliet charged him with two felony counts of reckless discharge of a firearm. He also faced a pair of misdemeanor domestic battery charges; one accused him of causing bodily harm to his girlfriend and the other of making physical contact with her. Lastly, there was a third misdemeanor that accused him of criminal damage to property.

Crowley and his girlfriend, who is also a Joliet police officer, apparently got into a heated exchange at their Joliet townhouse last July 17. Crowley, armed with a loaded gun, fired ammunition into the ceiling. A television was also damaged, court documents outlined.

But were the original criminal charges legitimate or were they were overblown?

On Sept. 1, Joliet Patch published a story revealing that three of the five original charges against Crowley had been dismissed. A Will County grand jury, after hearing evidence presented by a special prosecutor, decided not to issue a criminal indictment against Crowley on both domestic violence counts. He also was not indicted for criminal damage to property.

"The grand jury rejected the allegations of domestic battery. I appreciate the grand jury for taking a hard look at the evidence in this case and deciding the initial charges were inappropriate and without even probable cause. This case is definitely moving in the right direction," Crowley's attorney, Jeff Tomczak, of Tomczak Law Group, told Patch at the time.

Crowley's case will go to a jury trial May 14. Tomczak has told Joliet Patch that he expects Crowley will be found not guilty of the two remaining charges of reckless discharge of a firearm once the jury hears the defense's case.

At the May 14 trial, Tomczak may cite several examples where an off-duty police officer in Will County discharged their gun inside their home and they were never charged with a felony crime. Another recent high-profile case involved the 2016 gun discharge of Will County Associate Judge Robert Brumund.

That Saturday afternoon, Joliet police responded to a non-fatal shooting inside the judge's home. Brumund had a gunshot wound to his hand, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time. The gun was a semi-automatic weapon that Brumund owned.

Joliet Police officials determined that even though the shooting occurred while Brumund was home with his wife, nobody was charged with any crimes. It was deemed to be an accidental shooting.

"It's an unfortunate accident that occurred when I was handling my gun," Brumund told the Chicago Tribune days later. "(It was) a stupid incident. Nothing was done intentionally."

Brumund just retired from Will County's bench this past January.

So how will the Crowley case play out at Joliet's City Hall?

As an outsider, Hales has a lot of practical experience in local government to draw upon.

He has served as city manager in:

• Bloomington, Illinois
• Bend, Oregon
• Kannapolis, North Carolina
• Centerville, Utah

On the other hand, Crowley's boss, Benton, is Joliet police insider.

He joined the department in 1990 and got promoted to police chief in 2013 by then-city manager Tom Thanas and ex-mayor Tom Giarrante.

In January, the Joliet Police Facebook page lamented the retirement of Brian Dupuis, deputy chief of technical services. Dupuis was one of four deputy police chiefs working under Benton.

Besides collecting his police pension, Dupuis also received a $116,360 severance buyout from the city for cashing out his huge stockpile of unused vacation, compensatory time and sick leave banks. At the time of the payout, Dupuis made $75.16 per hour and his total annual pay was about $156,300.

However, if you monitor the city's job openings, you have not seen Joliet post any advertisements seeking a new deputy police chief of technical services.

Here's why: Hales, the new city manager, has decided to leave the fourth deputy chief position unfilled. This raises the question of whether a deputy chief of technical services was ever needed in the first place within the Benton administration.

Now, Joliet's mayor is looking to Hales to resolve the Officer Crowley employment matter.

From my perspective, and I'm being serious, a couple of alternative city job assignments come to mind.

Now that Elgin-based Evil Intentions is in the process of renovating the old women's prison into a haunted house, the city has been bombarded with companies offering to volunteer their services to help with the city's massive cleanup inside the prison facility made famous by the "Blues Brothers" movie.

Crowley is physically fit, and he has leadership skills. The city should put him to work cleaning up the Old Joliet Prison grounds. It would be a meaningful assignment, too, given the world-wide attention in the city's efforts to refurbish the Old Joliet Prison as an international tourism mecca.

Another option is to put Crowley to work in the City Center. I'm usually downtown three or four days a week, and I have to say, on some days, the sidewalks are littered with trash. Over by the Joliet Public Library and the shuttered St. Mary's Carmelite Church, you can often find empty or shattered glass bottles of hard liquor. Also, several downtown streets look old and rundown. They don't project an image of beauty or optimism, even though Joliet's downtown is in the midst of a resurgence.

Why not use Crowley to plant flower beds or to handle landscape or streetscape improvements along Ottawa, Cass, Clinton or Chicago Streets?

Maybe my ideas aren't the best, but at least they are conversation starters. This is not rocket science, folks.

"I'd like to come back at our next meeting with a recommendation, but I just need a little bit more time, looking at the history, what options we might have at this point in time," Hales responded to the mayor at Tuesday night's meeting.

Hales is now on the clock. The next regular City Council meeting is Tuesday, April 17.

The rest of the city will be watching to see what Hales suggests.

So will I.

John Ferak is Patch Editor for Joliet, New Lenox and Bolingbrook, plus Channahon-Minooka and Shorewood. He grew up in Joliet and graduated from Plainfield High School.

Main images of David Hales via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor