No Snitching: Wanted Romeoville Man Says Cops Charged Girlfriend With Money Laundering When He Refused To Set Up Drug Dealer

A wanted Romeoville man claims vindictive cops pinned a money laundering charge on his girlfriend when he refused to set up a drug dealer for them.

“I’m not setting nobody up,” said a defiant Richard Conley, who faces a money laundering charge of his own, as well as cocaine and gun cases.

“I’m not going to ruin nobody’s life for nothing,” Conley said.

Conley, 26, told how undercover cops pulled him over in September while he was driving with his girlfriend, 26-year-old Nancy Thang. Conley had nearly $12,000 in the car but explained he carries a lot of cash around because he got a $100,000 settlement when he turned 18 due to a permanent injury he suffered during his birth.

Conley said the money was for a Las Vegas vacation he planned to go on the next day. He was also on his way to check out a car he was thinking of buying when the cops stopped him, he said.

Conley never did see the car or get to Vegas. The cops confiscated his money and while he was held at the side of the road, he said, obtained a search warrant for his Kent Avenue home.

When the police searched the house they found a pistol and about 14 grams of cocaine he intended to take along on his vacation, he said.

But Conley wasn’t arrested after the September stop and search.

An officer “said, ‘You want to go home tonight?’” Conley recalled, telling how he was offered a deal.

“You’ve got to set somebody up,” Conley said he was told. “You have to do this, you have to do that. You have to get somebody to bring in half a key.”

Conley said he told police he was frightened by the idea of snitching.

“I told them I was scared for my life, scared for my kid’s life,” he said. “This person, if I set him up, he’s going to know.”

The cops, Conley said, told him to relax and go out for a drink, and then come back and go to work for them.

Conley said he strung the police along for about a month, telling them the man they wanted wasn’t returning his calls when he actually hadn’t reached out to him at all. But then the police ran out of patience.

“They said, ‘It’s over a month, (we) have nothing to show,’” he said. “That was a Wednesday. On Friday they got the warrants.”

The cops arrested Thang last month. She was locked up and held in lieu of $250,000 bond. Her attorney, Paul Napolski, who also represents Conley, got her bond reduced to $30,000. Thang posted 10 percent of it and was released from custody.

Conley believes Thang was charged because of his refusal to work as an informant.

“They said, ‘If you run, we’re going to charge Nancy with the money laundering,’” he said.

“They knew I didn’t want anything to happen to her from the get-go,” Conley said. “They threw this s--- in on her because I wouldn’t help them.”

Conley said the police have harassed his girlfriend since she got out of jail, calling the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on her when they saw her trick-or-treating with their son.

The warrant for Conley’s arrest carries a $300,000 bond, and his trouble was compounded last week when the Joliet police charged him with the unlawful delivery of cocaine. The bond for that case is another $175,000.

Romeoville Police Chief Mark Turvey said if Conley has faith in his and Thang’s innocence, he should try to clear his name.

“If he feels he’s not guilty, he can turn himself in, go to court and plead not guilty,” Turvey suggested.

Conley said he would actually like to surrender to police.

“Since they let me go that night, I’ve been stressed out,” Conley said of his life as a fugitive.

“I’m turning myself in once me and Paul have a plan.”

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