The village has paid a $1 million settlement to the widow of former Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, both of which prosecutors say stole money from the explorer’s post before the officer staged his suicide as a murder and spurred a manhunt in 2015.
The Village of Fox Lake Police Pension Board approved the settlement agreement during a special meeting in November.
The village board soon after authorized Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit to sign the agreement on behalf of the village.
The settlement involves two payments of $500,000 each to Melodie Gliniewicz to settle her survivor’s pension benefits claim following her husband’s death. The payments were submitted in January.
Village officials said the terms of the settlement allowed the village and the pension board to eliminate the risk of an adverse ruling, the cost of attorney’s fees and reduced the cost of the survivor’s pension by “potentially millions of dollars.”
“This has been a difficult chapter for our Village,” Schmit said Thursday.
“While we cannot change the past, we can choose a path forward that brings closure and represents a prudent financial decision for the Village. This agreement does just that, and we are ready to focus on the continued growth and well-being of our community,” he said.
Lake and McHenry County Scanner learned of the quietly approved settlement agreement late last month and filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the village on April 1 seeking the final approved settlement agreement.
The village waited five business days before issuing a response on Tuesday that it was extending the response deadline by another five business days.
The village claimed that producing the nine-page settlement agreement, which was signed and approved months ago, could not be completed in the required time without “unduly burdening or interfering with the operations of the Village.”
On Thursday afternoon, the village released a public statement announcing the settlement and then 17 minutes later responded to Lake and McHenry County Scanner’s FOIA request by releasing the final settlement agreement.
Melodie Gliniewicz, of Antioch, was charged in 2016 with multiple charges, including unlawful use of charitable funds and money laundering.
Gliniewicz and her late husband, Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, stole thousands of dollars from the Fox Lake Police Department’s Explorer Post for personal expenses from September 2009 through 2015, prosecutors have said.
Joe Gliniewicz was found fatally shot in September 2015 after he staged his suicide, prompting a massive manhunt.
Investigators said Joe Gliniewicz feared he was soon going to be caught for misusing the explorer post’s funds.
Gliniewicz has since pleaded guilty to one count of deceptive practice, a Class 4 felony.
In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed all of her other charges.
“I didn’t know my husband was co-mingling his own money into the explorer account until he asked me to write a check back into the account. And I never knew the full amount he was co-mingling until after his death,” she said during her sentencing hearing.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Facklam said the couple treated the Fox Lake Police Explorer bank account as their own account.
Gliniewicz was sentenced to 24 months of probation and 150 hours of public service work.