FOX LAKE, Ill. (AP) – A northern Illinois police officer who authorities say killed himself after years of embezzling from a police-sponsored youth program spent the stolen money on items such as coffee, restaurant meals and trips to the movies, according to court documents.
The records were released Tuesday by attorneys for Melodie Gliniewicz, the widow of late Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz. Authorities say he staged his suicide to look like a homicide because he feared the embezzlement was about to be exposed.
Melodie Gliniewicz’s attorneys argue prosecutors wrongly froze six accounts and two credit cards on Nov. 6 and said in a news release that she can’t pay her mortgage, doctor bills and other family expenses. Attorneys are asking for the freeze to be lifted. An official briefed on the investigation has told the AP that Melodie, and Gliniewicz’s son, D.J., are under investigation.
Attorneys said in the release that Melodie Gliniewicz was asking all to “refrain from rushing to, or misplacing, judgment” and “has faith the truth will come out in time, and if necessary, in court.”
In the court documents that accompanied the news release, prosecutors say bank records show Gliniewicz took thousands of dollars from the Explorer program, spending the funds on coffee, restaurants, going to movies, hormonal supplements and adult entertainment and dating websites.