Task Force commander George Filenko cited numerous recovered emails and text messages indicating financial improprieties, coupled with the account records, and stated, “The investigation found that Gliniewicz had been stealing and laundering money … over the past seven years.”

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office froze the bank and checking accounts of Melodie Gliniewicz, the widow of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, as part of the ongoing investigation into financial malfeasance with the Fox Lake Explorer Post 300 accounts.

The Nov. 6 action was based on dispersals made to family members on records supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In a subsequent move, Lake County Circuit Court judge Christopher Starck released a portion of the held funds Nov. 19, to help pay her immediate debts, as cited in an affidavit submitted Nov. 17 through her attorneys, Andrew Kelleher Jr., Henry Tonigan, and Vasili Russis. The document was sent to the state’s attorney’s office, prior to the hearing.

Starck also issued a gag order on further proceedings. Several phone attempts made to the Lake County Circuit Court Clerk’s office for dispersal particulars were not returned. One report had the amount as $4,100.

“That figure would have come from the clerk’s office, and we have no information on that, and with the gag order, it effectively means no other information will be heard publicly,” said Cynthia Vargas, the communications spokesperson for the State’s Attorney’s Office. “This case carries an ‘M. R.’ designation, which is more of a civil case, as opposed to a criminal case.

“The investigation is ongoing, and our investigations unit is continuing to research the data,” she said.

The office’s investigator, Willam Biang, had previously filed an affidavit with the freeze order stating that $26,800 went into the Explorer accounts, as direct deposits, from the Village of Fox Lake, and also a $32,000 deposit from Nationwide Insurance Solutions in Jan. 2014.

Melodie Gliniewicz’s attorneys, in their affidavit, countered that the first deposit was paid from Gliniewicz’s “net paycheck over a five-year period, and not the village,” while the latter amount was also deposited by the officer, “from his own personal retirement account.” A $7,000 deduction from the account in March 2014, allegedly for a Hawaii trip, was covered by the deposit.

The FBI has made its own investigation of bank records relating to a handful of Explorer accounts, and presented their findings to the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, and other county agencies, prior to the Nov. 4 press conference, where the Sept. 1 shooting of Gliniewicz was declared a “carefully stage suicide,” masked as a homicide.

Task Force commander George Filenko cited numerous recovered emails and text messages indicating financial improprieties, coupled with the account records, and stated, “The investigation found that Gliniewicz had been stealing and laundering money … over the past seven years.”

Task force spokesperson, Det. Chris Covelli, confirmed the matter was referred to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department’s investigations unit.

In a related story, The Village of Fox Lake Police Pension Fund Board of Trustees issued a statement Nov. 5, stating, “In the wake of Lt. Gliniewicz’s (Sept. 1) death, the Pension Board reached out to Gliniewicz’s surviving spouse, Melodie, and provided Ms. Gliniewicz with a formal application for survivor’s benefits. To date, Ms. Gliniewicz has not submitted that application … requesting a survivor’s pension benefit.

“Therefore, the Pension Board has no information with regard to which type, or types, of survivor’s benefits Ms. Gliniewicz intends on filing for … If and when this matter proceeds to an initial administrative hearing public notice of the same shall be posted in accordance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act.”

Pension Board president Fred Loffredo noted, “As of today (Nov. 21), no application has been submitted. I’ve sent the forms to fill out, and she’ll complete them, and we’ll make a determination. We’re a separate administrative agency, apart from the Fox Lake Village Board, with the exclusive administrative authority on pension funds.

“This is different from 100 percent full benefits, under normal conditions, because there are factors such as being on-duty or off-duty, in the line of duty … the type of death means different calculations,” he said. “It gets technical, and from that point, we’ll have to wait for a legal interpretation of the claim.”

Loffredo admitted being taken aback by the Gliniewicz episode, but remained hopeful. “Even though the circumstances are odious, the entire village, and the trustees, is moving forward in a positive direction, so that something good will come out of all this.”

Gliniewicz’s attorney, Kellehr, at the offices of Kelleher and Buckley, refused to comment.

— State’s Attorney freezes accounts on Gliniewicz’s widow —