WLS PoPo Report: Channahon Police 'Incompetent, Clueless'

CHANNAHON, IL — On Saturday night, one of Chicago's most-listened-to radio stations, WLS-AM, discussed the plight of Empire actor/criminal defendant Jussie Smollett, praised the performance of Aurora's Police Department in the Aurora deadly shooting at the Henry Pratt Company and then offered blistering criticism of the Channahon Police Department in the investigation of Samantha Harer's death.

The weekly two-hour show called The PoPo Report features private investigator Paul Ciolino and Chicago police officer and lawyer Lupe Aguirre. Saturday night, Feb. 23, marked the second time this year The PoPo Report has discussed the death of Harer. Days earlier, Joliet Patch and Channahon-Minooka Patch broke another story, revealing that Harer was found completely nude inside her Channahon apartment on Feb. 13, 2018, with a gunshot wound to her head, while her estranged boyfriend, Crest Hill Police Officer Felipe "Phil"Flores, was present.

Flores called 911 and said the WESCOM emergency dispatcher had put her own handgun to her head and took her own life, just moments after they were in an argument.

The Channahon Police Department brought in the Will County-Grundy County Major Crimes Task Force to help at the scene, but hundreds of documents Patch has obtained since Channahon ruled Harer's death a suicide show that Channahon retained control of the investigation and Channahon had made a determination from the get-go that Harer's death would be treated as a suicide, not a homicide.

Two years prior, the same Crest Hill officer had been accused of raping a former female roommate inside her Crest Hill house, in February 2016,after she had let him crash on her couch after a long night of heavy drinking on his part. That woman later told police that Flores entered her bed during the middle of the night while she was sleeping in the nude and that he forced himself on her against her will.

From that incident, Flores got a 30-day unpaid suspension from Crest Hill but Crest Hill chose not to terminate him as an overnight patrolman. The Will County State's Attorney's Office chose not to prosecute Flores in connection with allegations of criminal sexual assault.

Last week, Patch also reported that a lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, who graduated from college and law school in Chicago, was now taking over the civil case for Harer's family.

Here's a rundown of Saturday night's PoPO Report from WLS-890 AM:

Co-host Paul Ciolino: "Well, we're off to one of our cases that we're following, and we're going to continue to follow, that is the death of Samantha Harer in February 2018. She allegedly commits suicide. Her estranged boyfriend who was on the way out, Phillip Flores, Crest Hill Police Department, is at the house, when she allegedly kills herself, shoots herself in the head.

"Now, the police reports are leaking out. Now, they have a big problem out there in Channahon because there's an attorney out there named Jennifer Bonjean, who has just taken up this cause. And I can assure you, having known her very well, she's not going away. And Channahon and the authorities out there are gonna have some issues with Miss Bonjean in federal (court), who's now representing Kevin and Heather Harer, the parents, the sole surviving parents, of Samantha."

Co-host Lupe Aguirre: "Tragic story."

Ciolino: "It's a tragic story, and they're trying to cover it up out there is what it boils down to. And it's not going to work. It's gonna be a big issue and this is getting a lot of media attention and it's just percolating and it's all bad."

Aguirre: "You know, there's a big movement out there to disband small police departments, just because, you know, it's very expensive, and they don't have all the resources."

Ciolino: "This is a classic case of why they shouldn't exist, OK?"

Aguirre: "Exactly."

Ciolino: "Because, they clearly don't know what they're doing. "

Aguirre: "Channahon, what, a population of twelve-thirteen thousand ... Murders are rare. You don't have the investigative."

Ciolino: "They haven't had a murder in 10 years out there and when they do have one, it's another 10 years. And so do they know how to investigate them? No. Clueless."

Aguirre: "You gotta outsource the investigations to begin with, so why not just team up with a bigger police department?"

Ciolino: "You know what, man? Everyone wants to be a star. Why don't the bigger police departments just, why don't the city just pay them? You want to know why? It's all politics, man. Little mayors want their fiefdoms. They want their own police chief. They want their own fire department. These things all cost money, they involve pensions. And, tragic part is, you have guys that have no idea what they're doing. They're clueless. Right?

"I got a badge. I got a gun. And, ergo, I'm an expert. I can investigate homicides. It's patently ridiculous. And ... they're going to come home to roost on this one. This is a bad case. Twenty-three-year-old girl, basically gets murdered, they try to cover it up as a suicide, police officer involved from another small department, local area, right? And now, the millions are going to start rolling, defending it, prosecuting it. It's going to get real ugly, and all because, what? I want my little police department out here in Channahon, in my little burg, and we can handle our own. Well, guess what? They can't handle it."

Aguirre: "No, they can't."

Ciolino: "They're totally incompetent; have no business doing murder investigations. And, they bring in help, but they're still directing and running the investigation. Just ask them. They'll tell you all about it. So, Jennifer Bonjean is now in federal court with this one. And it's going to get real interesting, real fast down there. And we will follow it, till it's end."

RELATED PATCH COVERAGE:

• Gunshot Victim Samantha Harer Found Completely Nude
• Samantha Harer Gunshot Test Results Revealed
• Samantha Harer Died During Domestic Argument