Samantha Harer FOIA Denied By Channahon Police

CHANNAHON, IL — It's been nearly six full months since 23-year-old Samantha Harer, a full-time public safety dispatcher at WESCOM, died from a single gunshot wound to her head. Her boyfriend, Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil" Flores, was inside her small Channahon apartment and reportedly claimed she shot herself. On Friday, Channahon Deputy Chief of Police Adam Bogart informed Patch he was denying a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to him in regard to the Feb. 13 death probe of Harer.

"Respectfully, your request (is) denied at this time," Bogart wrote to Patch. The FOIA was submitted behalf of Joliet Patch and the Channahon-Minooka Patch on Monday, July 30.

"Such disclosures would obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation by the Channahon Police Department," Bogart's letter states. "Certain scientific evidence is currently being analyzed and a manner of death is yet to be declared. When the results of all evidence examination is complete, the investigators will continue to work to determine more facts and circumstances surrounding Ms. Harer's death."

In a story published July 17, Channahon Police Chief Shane Casey told Patch that his agency was still awaiting word from the Illinois State Police Crime Lab in Cook County, which was contacted to conduct a series of tests on various undisclosed items of evidence from the case. During the mid-July interview, Casey acknowledged that the case was not being actively investigated on a daily basis anymore.

According to the Aug. 3 FOIA denial letter from Bogart, "releasing police reports, 911 tapes and/or transcripts, witness interviews and statements and other related evidence will impair the investigators' ability to complete their work in part because opinions and impressions of witnesses may be influenced by the publicity.

"Additionally, releasing certain evidence may compromise witness cooperation with investigators to determine the manner of Ms. Harer's death. As the FOIA officer for the Channahon Police Department, I am responsible for the denial of your request."

In the July 30 request, Patch sought access for eight different public records. Bogart's letter served as a blanket denial.

Patch sought the following information from Channahon's Police Department:

1) Access to any and all 911/police calls for service for Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 to notify police and/or ambulance units to respond to the Bridge Street apartment of Samantha Harer. Patch requests access to any audio files as well as any written transcripts of these calls, if the later exists.

2) At crime scenes and suspicious deaths it is customary to maintain a sign-in, sign-out log for officers, investigators and emergency responders to ensure the scene is not compromised. Patch asks for access to the police log(s) that was maintained at the Bridge Street Apartments on Feb. 13, 2018 as well as any subsequent logs that were kept before the scene was finally cleared and released.

3) Access to the initial written police report that was generated as a result of the Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 police response call to Samantha Harer's apartment.

4) Access to the "total" number of apartment complex tenants who were interviewed and gave statements as part of the Samantha Harer death investigation during the week of Feb. 13, 2018.

5) Access to a representative sampling (no more than 6) of the official police photographs that were taken inside Harer's apartment as part of the death scene investigation.

6) Access to photos showing the recovered gun that was found inside Samantha Harer's apartment before it was bagged, tagged and taken into evidence.

7) Access to photos showing the evidence tag and evidence log for the gun that was recovered from apartment #8 and was taken into evidence in this case.

8) Access to the audio-recorded statement and/or written transcripts of that statement give to police by Samantha Harer's boyfriend Phil Flores.

Because of the denial, Patch has 60 calendar days to decide whether to appeal the Channahon Police Department's public records denial to the Public Access Counselor Office of the Illinois Attorney General in Springfield.

In the meantime, it remains unclear when authorities at the Will County Coroner's Office of Patrick K. O'Neil will determine a cause and manner of death for Harer, whose case has been compared by a number of people to the death of Kathleen Savio, the third wife of Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson. Initially, the Will County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy and ruled the 40-year-old woman's 2004 death an accidental drowning in her empty bathtub.

After Drew's fourth wife, Stacy, vanished in October 2007, authorities eventually re-opened the investigation into Savio's death. Peterson was indicted in 2009 for Savio's murder. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow convicted the former Bolingbrook police sergeant of his third wife's murder in 2012.

Back on Feb. 14, Channahon's police chief and a detective visited the Minooka home of Harer's parents. They informed the couple that Samantha's case was being considered as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. At that time, the parents have said, the Channahon Police Department and the Will County-Grundy County Major Crimes Task Force had done minimal legwork into their daughter's background or the background of her boyfriend, Flores.

Flores, who is divorced and 10 years older than Harer, joined Crest Hill's Police Department in 2012 and worked the overnight shift. However, he spent considerable time away from work in 2016 on paid suspension. He was accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman at her house in Crest Hill, Patch has previously reported.

The 30-year-old woman gave Flores permission to sleep her on couch after a heavy night of drinking alcohol, police reports obtained by Patch from a previous FOIA show.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office ultimately decided not to charge Flores with criminal sexual assault, the Illinois State Police District 5 was informed. Flores got a 30-day unpaid suspension over the incident, his Crest Hill Police Department employee personnel file obtained by Patch through a previous FOIA showed.

As for Harer, she graduated from the University of St. Francis in Joliet in 2016 with a criminal justice degree, she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority and was a former intern at the Channahon Police Department when she was in college.

Her parents say that she began dating Flores around May of 2017 and the dating couple went on a vacation together to Arizona last September.

Joliet Patch has been recognized as providing the most in-depth coverage of any news media outlet covering the Samantha Harer case. (In addition to staying Patched in here on Facebook, did you know that you can also get Joliet news delivered straight to your inbox for free? Sign up for our free daily newsletter and our breaking news alerts at Joliet Patch.)

Here's a rundown of some of the key articles that were only in Patch:

Samantha Harer's Death Still Unsolved 5 Months Later

911 Dispatcher's Gun Death Still Open, 7 Weeks Later

Crest Hill Cop Put On Indefinite Paid Leave From Work

Crest Hill Cop Phil Flores' Paid Suspension Has Cost Taxpayers $20,000

Samantha Harer's Death Still Unsolved 12 Weeks Later

Grieving Minooka Parents Say They're Being Kept In The Dark

Patch Editor John Ferak Appears On WJOL To Discuss Samantha Harer Case

911 Dispatcher Was Murdered: Parents Believe

Dead 911 WESCOM Dispatcher Was Dating Crest Hill Cop

Images with Samantha Harer were previously furnished to Patch with permission to use