Sergeant Promotion Delayed For Joliet Officer Bob Mau Jr.

JOLIET, IL — Many promotions on the meeting agenda for Joliet's Police and Fire Board are met with a unanimous approval and little discussion. But Monday evening's agenda calling for Joliet police officer Bob Mau Jr. to become a sergeant did not gain the board's quick approval.

At the start of the meeting, one board member announced that city manager Jim Capparelli wanted to delay the Joliet police promotion votes. Besides Mau being recommended for sergeant, Sgt. Julie Larson is being recommended for a lieutenant.

The board then went into closed session from 5:07 p.m. until 5:46 p.m. to discuss the promotion of the two Joliet officers. When the five members reconvened 40 minutes later, one of the board members could be heard saying, "we're going to vote on one and table the other."

But that's not what happened.

Moments later, deputy police chief Robert Brown offered several glowing remarks to the board about Larson, and the board was reminded that Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans has recommended her approval to lieutenant.

However, when the board voted whether to table both promotions, the vote went 3-2.

Quinn Adamowski and John Lukancic were on the losing end. The three members voting in favor of delaying the promotion votes for both Mau and Larson were Brad Price, Janean Jackson and Rosa Hernandez.

Last Friday, Joliet Patch published a story chronicling how Mau Jr. was up for a promotion into the Joliet Police Supervisors Association despite having pleaded guilty in November 2011 to the crime of battery. Mau also lost a May 2016 civil lawsuit filed by his victim, resulting in garnished wages of $55,958 from Mau's city paychecks in 2016 through 2019.

Back in 2012, Mau agreed to serve a 120-day unpaid work suspension from the Joliet Police Department as part of a "last chance agreement" to remain a city police officer.

Mau perpetrated the attack upon his ex-fiancee's friend less than three hours after he finished his 2 to 10 p.m. work shift at the Joliet police station.

Prior to Mau's attack, he had been drinking alcohol at two different Joliet area bars. Before meeting his ex-fiancee at the Double J Sports Bar on Essington Road, Mau decided to follow the Joliet woman to a west side house where she was driving to drop off a male friend.

Mau found her car parked in the driveway and saw her kissing a man in the passenger seat. At that point, seven months had passed since Mau's ex-fiancee called off their wedding, and six months since she gave Mau back her engagement ring.

According to a Joliet sergeant's memo, in the incident on Reardon Drive, "Officer Mau struck (the victim) in the face numerous times with a closed fist. When (the victim) was on the ground, Officer Mau punched and kicked him in the face, resulting in a broken nose, lacerations, contusions, swelling to his face. Officer Mau was subsequently arrested for Aggravated Battery."

On Monday night, Joliet Patch interviewed Todd Wooten, former chairman of Joliet's police and fire board, for his reaction to the board's delay on promoting Mau to sergeant.

Now a resident of Las Vegas, Wooten served on the board from 2015 until September 2021. He retired as a Joliet Fire Department captain in 2013.

Based on the contract agreement with the Joliet Fraternal Order of Police, Wooten said, the police and fire board is only supposed to consider an officer's past five years of discipline, "but with what he did, I would have a problem with it because he should have been fired."

Wooten said he disagrees with people suggesting Mau, now 41, has paid his debt for the incident leading to his arrest and conviction in November 2011.

"His debt should have been a termination," Wooten told Patch. "So just having the job should be his reward. What if the guy had died? Would they still say he served his debt?"

Three of the five Joliet police and fire board members are running in the April 4 Joliet City Council races. Hernandez is trying to replace Bettye Gavin, who is not seeking a third term.

Adamowski is running against two-term incumbent Pat Mudron. Jackson is running against Mudron's ally, incumbent Sherri Reardon.

"When board members approve a promotion," Wooten said, "they're vouching for an officer's behavior moving forward.

"Professionally, they may be required to promote him, but personally I couldn't vote for him because I couldn't vouch for him moving forward," Wooten said of Mau. "I don't care how much time has passed. I don't think he should be rewarded with a promotion, because he already received a reward. The reward of not being fired."