A CLOSER LOOK
3 Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com • Friday, May 12, 2017 Joe Shuman for Shaw Media
Melodie Gliniewicz arrives Thursday at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan surrounded by her legal team. Judge James Booras said Thursday that text messages or emails between Melodie Gliniewicz and her late husband, Joseph, are protected by spousal privilege and cannot be used against her.
‘SACRED’ COMMUNICATION
Judge rules on Gliniewicz texts, delays decision on motion to dismiss case By JORDYN REILAND
jreiland@shawmedia.com WAUKEGAN – A Lake County judge Thursday dealt a blow to the prosecution of widow Melodie Gliniewicz for what authorities have said is her involvement in disgraced Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz’s misuse of charitable funds from a Fox Lake Police Explorer program. Lake County Judge James Booras also postponed a ruling on a motion to dismiss the case. Melodie Gliniewicz faces felony charges of money laundering, conspiracy and misusing charitable funds after Lake County authorities said she
played a role in laundering money and using more than $10,000 worth of charitable funds from the Fox Lake Police Explorer Post 300 for her own personal benefit. Her late husband ran the nonprofit program for youth interested in policing. Detectives said the Police Explorer money was used to pay for a trip to Hawaii as well as at businesses such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, the Fox Lake Theatre and more than 400 other restaurant charges. Prosecutors charged Melodie Gliniewicz about three months after Lake County Major Crimes Task Force investigators announced Joseph Gliniewicz shot himself. Investi-
gators said Joseph Gliniewicz, fearing that his years of embezzlement would be discovered, staged his September 2015 suicide to look like a homicide. Melodie Gliniewicz faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. Melodie Gliniewicz’s attorney, Donald Morrison, had asked the judge to keep prosecutors from using any communication between the couple at trial. Morrison argued the statements would be protected by spousal privilege. Confidential communications between a husband and wife are protected to ensure that both parties feel free to communicate their deepest feelings to each other without fear of them
coming up in a court of law, according to both state and federal law. In Illinois, the husband and wife privilege extends to all types of communications between them. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office recovered text messages from Joseph Gliniewicz’s personal and work cellphones during its investigation – including incriminating messages that were deleted before his death, authorities said. Conversations ranged from his thoughts on Fox Lake Village Administrator Anne Marrin to using the Police Explorer account for various expenses.
See GLINIEWICZ, page A6