Deputy Schwartz Fired By Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley

JOLIET, IL — On Thursday, two-term Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley fired Sheriff's Deputy Andrew "Andy" Schwartz. He had been on paid leave from the sheriff's department for the past year in connection with a wreck involving two other vehicles on Plainfield Road that left a family from New Lenox seriously injured.

"As of today, Andrew Schwarz is no longer an employee of the Will County Sheriff’s Office. He has been terminated," Will County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer wrote to Joliet Patch on Thursday afternoon.

Even though Schwartz's vehicle was not involved in the head-on crash on April 4,2021, special prosecutor Bill Elward charged Schwartz in December with one felony count of aggravated reckless driving causing great bodily injury. Prosecutors said Schwartz was off-duty when he chased another motorist several miles across Joliet before that vehicle was involved in the head-on crash.

Last year, Elward presented evidence to the Will County grand jury that led to the criminal indictment for the 38-year-old Schwartz.

Schwartz, who has remained free on bond, just appeared before Will County Judge Dave Carlson on Tuesday morning for a pretrial hearing. The judge rejected a motion from Joliet criminal defense attorney Jeff Tomczak to dismiss the criminal indictment against his client.

The judge set Schwartz's case for a jury trial in early June in Courtroom 405.

On Thursday, Tomczak told Joliet Patch he learned of Schwartz's firing by Sheriff Kelley just hours earlier.

"He's terminated, I can confirm," Tomczak told Patch. "Knowing what I know about arbitration law, I believe there is a very good chance he will be back wearing a sheriff's department uniform in fairly short order due to his wrongful termination.

"I learned of this decision, and I can tell you there are a very large number of sheriff's deputies that are disappointed today. It's a very plain fact that Deputy Andy Schwartz was the victim on that day of an aggravated battery. The fact is, Andy Schwartz was a victim on that day, and Sheriff Kelley has a chance to victimize him again," Tomczak added.

Sheriff Kelley is a two-term Democrat, running for re-election in November. He has been with the sheriff's office since the late 1980s.

In the November general election, Kelley is likely to face sheriff's patrol deputy Jim Reilly, a Republican, who ran against him four years ago and lost.

In 35 years of law practice, "I can't think of a worse example of a sheriff not having the back of their deputies," Tomczak told Joliet Patch on Thursday afternoon.

According to Tomczak, the motorist who rear-ended Schwartz's truck on the east side of Joliet also threw a milkshake on Schwartz's vehicle and sped away from the crash.

Schwartz, who was off duty, called 911 to report the hit-and-run driver and followed the motorist at a distance, according to Tomczak.

In December, Joliet Patch reported that eight months after the traffic crash happened on Joliet's Plainfield Road, Illinois special prosecutor Bill Elward also filed an aggravated reckless driving charge against George Kou-Kou, a Plainfield 21-year-old, who lost control of his car and crashed into a van driven by a New Lenox family of four on their way home from church that Sunday afternoon.

"Deputy Schwartz was a victim of aggravated battery and road rage and someone leaving the scene of an accident," Tomczak said at the time of the special prosecutor's indictment.

But the criminal indictment said that "Schwartz pursued a car driven by George Kou-Kou for more than 10 minutes, pursuing Kou-Kou's car eastbound on Route 6, onto I-80, onto Chicago Street southbound, onto northbound Gardner Street," as Schwartz "drove at a high rate of speed on the city streets of Joliet and continuing to pursue Kou-Kou's car until it ultimately crossed into oncoming lanes of traffic at or around Plainfield Road and Frederick Street in Joliet and colliding with a gold 2015 Chevrolet Equinox operated by Phillip Juarez."