Eric Lurry Death: City Hires Lawyer To Investigate Joliet Police

JOLIET, IL — Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk and City Manager Jim Capparelli recently agreed to hire Westmont private practice attorney Sean Connolly to conduct an independent investigation into the Joliet Police Department surrounding the January 2020 death of a Black Joliet citizen, Eric Lurry.

According to his law firm bio, Connolly is also a colonel in the United States Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he currently serves as commander with the 117th Legal Operations Detachment in Arizona.

Capparelli told Joliet Patch that Connelly is someone he knows who can perform an outside independent investigation into the facts and circumstances of Lurry's death, which occurred on Jan. 29, 2020. Before taking over Joliet in January, Capparelli served as a private practice attorney in Joliet with Castle Law. He has been a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

The city is being sued in federal court by the Chicago law firm of Erickson & Oppenheimer, and their lawyers allege that Joliet Police Sgt. Doug May was responsible for killing Lurry, who began to die in the backseat of a Joliet police squad car used by Officers Jose Tellez and Andrew McCue.

Joliet Police Lt. Jeremy Harrison is also named as one of the four lawsuit defendants in the Lurry deprivation of civil rights case.

Last October, Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner had criminal charges brought against Joliet Police Sgt. Javier Esqueda, his police department's whistleblower. Esqueda maintained there was evidence tampering and police officer corruption surrounding Lurry dying in Joliet's custody.

"One or more Defendants edited, tampered with and/or destroyed the audio and/or video footage from the squad car video related to Mr. Lurry's arrest and detention in an attempt to destroy and conceal evidence of wrongdoing," the Chicago law firm suing the city of Joliet on behalf of Eric Lurry's widow Nicole Lurry argues.

"Additional cameras in and around the perimeter of the Joliet Police Station parking lot recorded portions of the incident set forth herein. These recordings captured relevant material evidence related to the death of Mr. Lurry and were not preserved by anyone at the Joliet Police Department," the federal lawsuit against Joliet police states.

Capparelli said that the Connolly Law Office will be paid an hourly rate for performing the fact-finding investigation into the Lurry case. Capparelli said he did not have a time frame on how fast he expected Connolly to finish his investigation.

"I hope to have this done sooner than later," Capparelli said.

Capparelli said it was his understanding that Connolly would issue a written report for the city to review when Connolly concludes his investigation into the Lurry case.

"I am supportive of it because there's so much rumor as to what actually transpired," Capparelli said. "I think it's important we get a disinterested third party to do a top-to-bottom review of the investigation, to know how we conducted our internal investigations and how we can improve our policies and procedures."

Since O'Dekirk became the city's part-time mayor, Joliet has employed Chris Regis as a full-time lawyer at City Hall, who serves as the city's Inspector General.

Like O'Dekirk, Regis was a former Joliet police officer.

When asked why Regis was not put in charge of probing the Joliet Police Department surrounding the Lurry case, Capparelli said: "The current inspector general would be in an unenviable position of having been a police officer. I wanted to get an unbiased view. I thought it was best for the citizens and the community."

Joliet Patch asked Capparelli if Connolly will investigate whether the former Joliet police administration was proper for pursuing criminal charges against Sgt. Javier Esqueda. In January, Roechner negotiated a financial agreement in exchange for retiring. The next week, three of his deputy chiefs were demoted by the new chief: Darrell Gavin, Marc Reid and Joe Rosado. Gavin and Reid negotiated a pension spike in exchange for retiring, as Roechner did.

As for Esqueda, the 28-year veteran of the Joliet Police Department was asked to sign a letter last week, along with legendary New York City Police Department whistleblower Frank Serpcio, seeking bipartisan Congressional support to enact sweeping police reforms on a national level.

If passed by Congress, the national police reforms would ensure more support and protections for police officers who become whistleblowers within their respective agencies across the country.

"I gave him no parameters on what to look at," Capparelli said of Connolly. "I'm not going to direct his investigation. As far as Sgt. Esqueda, it is up to him."

Capparelli said the city's hiring of an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation of the Joliet Police Department's role in Lurry's death is a good use of taxpayer funds.

"Of course, anytime somebody dies in police custody, it's troubling," Capparelli told Joliet Patch.

To learn more about Connolly, visit his law firm's website here.