Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil Won't Seek 8th Term

JOLIET, IL — After seven terms of elected office, Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil has decided not to run for another four-year term in the upcoming 2020 elections, Joliet news radio station WJOL reports.

This fall, O'Neil hired fellow Democrat Laurie Summers as an employee in the county coroner's office, and Summers has announced her candidacy for coroner in the 2020 March primary election.

Last month, Summers resigned her position on the county board around the time she took the new job working for O'Neil. She lives in Crete.

O'Neil has been involved in a number of controversial high-profile death cases in recent years. O'Neil did not disclose the cause and manner of death for 17-month-old Sema'j Crosby for nearly six months. By then, Chicago-based social justice advocates began holding public rallies and protests in downtown Joliet outside the Will County Courthouse and the Will County State's Attorney's Office putting pressure on him to declare Sema'j's death a murder.

Finally, on Sept. 15, 2017, O'Neil issued a press release indicating the cause of the 17-month-old toddler's death was asphyxia and her death was considered a homicide.

Sema'j was pronounced dead at 1:27 a.m. April 27, 2017, inside her Preston Heights residence in Joliet Township. No arrests have been made in the case.

In another controversial case from last year in Channahon, O'Neil and his now-former longtime chief deputy coroner Kevin Stevenson ruled a suicide the Feb. 13, 2018, death of WESCOM dispatcher Samantha Harer.

In that case, O'Neil waited until late December 2018 before announcing that Harer had fatally shot herself, even though gunshot residue and blood spatter was found on the hands and clothing of Harer's estranged boyfriend, then-Crest Hill Police Phil Flores.

Three members of Channahon's police department are currently being sued as part of a police misconduct lawsuit in federal court in Chicago. Channahon Chief Shane Casey is accused of overseeing a sham investigation into Harer's death to help a fellow local officer avoid being arrested on murder charges, the New York civil rights lawyer for the Harer family alleges in her lawsuit.

According to the Will County Clerk's Office, three people have already filed to run for Will County Coroner in the 2020 elections.

Summers, the former county board member, will face a Democratic challenge from Sean Talbot of Shorewood. James Piacentini, of Steger, is also running for coroner as a Republican candidate.

WJOL reports that O'Neil is urging the voters of Will County to support Summers in next year's primary and general elections.