Channahon Police Chief Accused Of Forging Signature In Elwood Murder Case: Judge Renders Her Decision

JOLIET, IL ? Two years have passed since criminal defense lawyers out of Chicago accused a key member of the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force with forging the signature of a woman in order to gain access to her apartment to recover the murder weapon from an Elwood murder case.

On Thursday, finally, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak announced her decision in the first-degree murder case against Joliet resident Derrell Draper, who stands accused of fatally shooting Elwood Home Depot warehouse worker Robert "Bobby" Bigger of Shorewood more than four-and-a-half years ago.

While the defense was asking the judge to dismiss the first-degree murder indictment against Draper, the judge opted not to do that. Instead, she ruled that Channahon's current chief of police, Adam Bogart, will not be allowed to testify about any interview he conducted with Draper's girlfriend, Tiara Moore, who lived at the apartment in Justice where the murder weapon was found.

Back in 2023, Joliet Patch reported that Warren Spencer, a St. Charles-based court qualified specialist in handwriting identification, submitted his analysis of a Crest Hill Police investigator's document in question, finding that the signature on the consent to search form did not contain the valid signature of Draper's girlfriend.

Draper is being represented by the Chicago law firm of Bedi & Singer.

Leading up to Thursday's decision, a high-ranking prosecutor at the Will County State's Attorney's Office, Michael Fitzgerald, filed a response to Draper's motion to dismiss his murder indictment, or in the alternative, impose sanctions against the prosecution.

According to Fitzgerald's filing from July, back on Feb. 26, 2021, Bogart was activated as a Channahon detective on the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force to investigate the slaying in Elwood. Bogart was present when officers arrived at Moore's apartment and searched it on Feb. 27, 2021.

"Detective Bogart interviewed Tiara Moore regarding her previous 24 hours with the defendant. He also witnessed Tiara Moore sign a consent form to search her apartment. Tiara Moore has stated that she did not sign a consent form to search her apartment or otherwise give her consent to search her apartment. That is the subject of a separate defense motion to suppress," Fitzgerald explained.

Fitzgerald informed Judge Bertani-Tomczak that Bogart "indicated that he prepared notes regarding his meeting with Tiara Moore. The State ... could not locate the notes of Detective Bogart in the materials possessed by the State. The State requested that Marc Reid, the deputy chief of the Elwood Police Department, search the Elwood Police Department for those field notes. Deputy Chief Reid's search did not turn up the field notes."

Next, the Will County State's Attorney's Office had one of their investigators, former Joliet Police Department Sgt. Patrick Cardwell, interview Bogart "to determine the content of the field notes and what he did with them once he had completed his report ...

"Bogart told Investigator Cardwell that he took one page of notes on one side of notebook paper of his interview with Tiara Moore. Bogart said the notes he took were the basis of his police report ... Bogart said the notes were an account of the events regarding what Tiara Moore told him about the previous 24 hours, which was Feb. 26, 2021. Bogart described a secure room at the Elwood Police Department where he left his notes, along with other investigators, on a table at the back of the squad room ... Bogart was advised his notes from that day have been misplaced and he has thoroughly searched for them with no success," Fitzgerald's response explained.

However, in Fitzgerald's opinion, "the dismissal of the indictment in this case would be an extreme sanction. There is no evidence the notes of Adam Bogart were intentionally destroyed. Bogart said he turned those notes into the Elwood Police Department along with other investigators ... the notes appear to have been misplaced or lost at the Elwood Police Department. Given that the notes of other investigators and officers were preserved and provided to the state, it makes no sense that Bogart's notes were destroyed.

"Both the Elwood Police Department and Adam Bogart have conducted thorough searches of their departments for those notes to no avail."

Bogart and Reid have been the focus of several unrelated high-profile Joliet Patch stories in recent years. In 2023, a high-ranking lieutenant at the Illinois State Police concluded that Reid and his boss, Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner, hatched a phony criminal investigation to bring false charges of intimidation against Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, documents obtained by Joliet Patch reveal.

As for Bogart, he oversaw the Channahon Police Department's investigation into the death of their former police department intern, Samantha Harer, in February 2018.

The investigation treated her death as a suicide and the man who was inside her apartment at the time of her gunshot death, off-duty Crest Hill officer Phil Flores, was not accused of criminal wrongdoing.

Years later, Will County Judge John Anderson imposed a $15 million wrongful death civil judgment against Flores determining the former Crest Hill officer probably killed her. Flores, age 40, of Joliet, died earlier this year of a heart attack, before Samantha Harer's parents collected any money.