WGN: Sources say Gliniewicz family orchestrated sham marriage to boost son’s

The investigative team at our sister-station in Chicago is citing a source who says Fort Bragg soldier Donald “D-J” Gliniewicz is under criminal investigation.

Just a day after it was alleged he tried to have a village administrator killed, a copy of his personnel file has been released and it’s full of red flags from 30 years in the department, including suspensions and allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation, according to the Tribune.

Earlier this week, authorities investigating Officer Gliniewicz’s death announced it was a “carefully staged suicide” to cover up years of embezzlement from the Fox Lake Police Explorers program.

In the message, sent through Facebook in April, Gliniewicz said his work life was “a living HELL the last 2 months” due to the new village administrator. He added that he was close to considering meeting with someone “with the word White in their nickname”, according to a copy of the message.

With the cause of the death determined, the task force’s role in ongoing investigations has come to an end, sheriff’s Detective Christopher Covelli said. After Gliniewicz’s message, the conversation with the acquaintance moved to a telephone call.

The official, who was briefed on the investigation, spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

“He said he had no knowledge of any of this, no conversation with the [acquaintance] about it and no conversation with Gliniewicz about it”, Covelli said. So police were left with a lead they could not prove, he said. Marrin told reporters Thursday that she believed all her dealings with Gliniewicz were cordial and never had any sense that he was angry with her. She said she didn’t learn about the plots against her until after Gliniewicz’s death.

“There was a great possibility that Lt. Gliniewicz may have driven by those three individuals on his way to that scene”, Cmdr. Now authorities also are investigating his wife, Melodie, and son D.J., an official said Thursday. George Filenko of Lake County told the affiliate.

“It’s very unsettling”, Marrin told the Associated Press. The officer also allegedly remarked about how many lakes were in the surrounding areas, and how hard it would be for anyone to find a body. Residents of Fox Lake put up yard signs celebrating him.

Gliniewicz was “a good and honest man”, said Ruth Hogan, who had known him for three decades.

It wasn’t clear from the file whether any action was taken in response to the letter.

You can read the new files in the documents above, via CBS Chicago.

Another file was an anonymous letter sent from the department to former Fox Lake mayor Cynthia Irwin, where Gliniewicz was allegedly suspended for “an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate”. Gliniewicz, to marry the woman while he served in the Army. “And he’d stay about an hour”, the neighbor said.

But before authorities reached that conclusion, Corso said police considered him and his two friends suspects in the case. When he awoke, Gliniewicz, who couldn’t remember the incident, reported his truck stolen. “Why does he do this after his recent comment about putting ‘… bullets in my chest’?”

“This is my first time as a law enforcement officer, in my career, that I felt ashamed by the acts of another police officer”, Filenko said.

The letter also accuses him of allowing members of the youth Police Explorer program unfettered access to department vehicles and equipment at the expense of on-duty officers and of getting a tattoo while on duty.

The personnel file was a factor in the investigation, and it prompted a series of possible theories about what had happened, Covelli said.