Coroner Expects 1st Meeting with Task Force Probing Cop's Death - But Not Before Next Week

The Lake County Coroner said he will finally meet with the task force investigating the death of a Fox Lake police lieutenant — but not until nearly three weeks after the veteran cop was killed, at the earliest.

The coroner, Dr. Thomas Rudd, said he was left out of a Monday meeting between the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.

On Thursday, the spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Christopher Covelli, said, “Nobody was excluded from that meeting” and that coroner’s office was represented. Rudd said he was later told he “could have come if he wanted,” but called the statement “nonsense” and “double-talk.”

“I feel like I’m in Alice in Wonderland here,” said Rudd.

The coroner has yet to rule on whether Gliniewicz, 52, was the victim of a homicide or accident, or if he died by his own hand. Last week, Rudd, along with other officials, allegedly had his life threatened by a retired Chicago cop. According to Covelli, the retired officer, 54-year-old Joseph Battaglia of Oak Lawn, said he would harm everyone involved with investigating Gliniewicz’s death if it was not ruled a suicide.

The coroner said his meeting with the task force cannot be scheduled until after pathologist Manny Montez returns from vacation Sunday. Montez was at the Sept. 14 meeting, Rudd said, but he wants him back when he sits down with the police.

Gliniewicz was killed shortly after he started his shift the morning of Sept 1. He radioed in that he had spotted two white men and a black man in a remote area of the sleepy northern Illinois town and determined that they were “suspicious.” He then reported that he was going to confront them, police said.

Gliniewicz called for backup and said the men were running into a swamp. Two officers arrived to assist Gliniewicz. They found him shot dead on the ground.

Gliniewicz’s .40-caliber pistol was recovered from the death scene.

George Filenko, the commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, will not say whether the weapon was used to kill Gliniewicz. Filenko has also declined to reveal if postmortem testing showed Gliniewicz fired a gun.

Investigators are awaiting the results of lab tests, including the analysis of DNA from an unknown donor that was found on Gliniewicz’s body.

Last week, Rudd said a “single devastating gunshot wound” took Gliniewicz’s life. His revelation drew the ire of Lake County Undersheriff Raymond Rose, who said Rudd’s “actions are completely outside of policy, procedure, protocols, and are completely unprofessional.”

Rudd then went on to confide that the fatal shot struck Gliniewicz in his torso.

Covelli said any issues with Rudd have been “cleared up” and that the “investigation is moving ahead.”