Izzy's Murder Defendant Claims Cops Killed Him, Trial Almost Here

JOLIET, IL — In less than two weeks, a high-profile Joliet murder trial will get underway, the first at the new Will County Courthouse. Patrick Gleason, who filed a federal lawsuit last May, falsely claiming the Joliet Police Department killed him, and that Joliet police have framed him for the slaying of Izzy's bartender Danny Rios, 52, will stand trial May 3.

The 58-year-old Gleason is being represented by prominent Joliet criminal defense lawyers Chuck Bretz and Neil Patel. However, Gleason has had a rocky relationship with his criminal defense lawyers. Gleason wanted to fire Bretz as his counsel more than a year ago, a motion that was rejected by Will County Circuit Judge Daniel Rippy.

When Gleason stands trial in two weeks, it will be Bretz and Patel in the fourth-floor courtroom as Gleason's private counsel.

During a recent interview, Bretz told Patch he has not disclosed what his defense will be for the nearing murder trial. Gleason has resisted efforts to pursue an insanity defense. Gleason wants to force the Will County State's Attorney's Office and Joliet police to prove that he is the killer.

Several lawyers familiar with the Izzy's Bar slaying have told Patch that the killing was captured on video surveillance cameras from inside Izzy's Bar and that Gleason, who entered the Theodore Street bar wearing a mask over his head, is the shooter.

Last May, Gleason, without the help or advice of his criminal defense counsel, filed a pro se federal lawsuit against the Joliet Police Department claiming Joliet police framed him for the murder of Rios, the Izzy's bartender.

After Rios was killed, the bar owner's son was shot in the stomach and one of the bar's patrons was shot at during the struggle with Gleason to gain control of the gun, Joliet Patch reported in 2018.

After prosecutors say Gleason shot the bar owner's son in the stomach, other customers in the bar tackled Gleason and held him down until Joliet police officers arrived at the execution-style homicide inside the Joliet business on Theodore Street.

The killing of Rios happened around 1:15 a.m.

Joliet Patch has reported that Gleason's family dipped into their bank accounts to hire Bretz, Flynn & Associates to represent Gleason, who has remained in the Will County Jail, facing a $10 million bail, since March 11, 2018.

In March 2020, Joliet Patch ran the following headline: "Izzy's Murder Defendant Still Wants Bretz Removed." From his cell at the Will County Jail, Gleason wrote Judge Rippy a letter stating, "The defendant requests a short continuance and wishes to obtain new counsel due to a conflict of interest with present counsel and requests this court to relieve the defendant's present counsel, Mr. Chuck Bretz, of further representation."

Then, last May 7, Gleason, acting on his own without the support or advice of Bretz, filed a federal lawsuit against Joliet police claiming they framed him for the Izzy's Bar murder.

"I am suing the Joliet Police Department for illegal arrest, defamation of character, fraud, tampering with evidence at the murder scene including video surveillance and re-enacting a murder scene to convict, excessive force causing severe trauma to both the face and head and brain damage," Gleason wrote in his federal lawsuit. "According to Joliet Police, I was found on the floor at Izzy's Bar with a bloodied face and walked out of Izzy's Bar when I supposed to be in critical condition with three police officers shown to be arresting me on video while I was supposed to be in critical condition."

At the time of the killing, Gleason lived in the 1600 block of Dearborn Street, which is only a couple blocks away from Izzy's Bar.

When Gleason filed his federal lawsuit, he gave this account of his actions on the night of the homicide:

On March 8, 2018, Gleason "had two tickets to go to REO Speedwagon at the Rialto Theatre." He claimed he waited for his female friend from Oak Lawn "to arrive at my residence. The woman arrived at 7:10 p.m. and the concert began at 8 p.m."

Gleason then wrote that the concert ended at 11:30 p.m. and "we stopped at Izzy's and had one drink and went back to my house."

At 1:35 a.m. on March 9, 2018, "I was behind my house having a cigarette when I heard multiple car doors closing. I went to the front yard to look. Joliet Police took me from my front yard with excessive forces. There were four of them including Officer Nina and his Supervisor, an older man with white hair and mustache, wearing a white plastic hard hat.

"They said I killed someone at Izzy's Bar and that it was on video. I told them I don't know what they are talking about and that if I am on video that I came with a woman and left with her. They beat me all over the top of my head with Maglite flashlights and took me back to Izzy's Bar where they and Izzy continued to beat me until I was dead. They had no warrant to arrest me."

Once Gleason was dead, his pro se lawsuit stated, "I woke up in a helicopter headed for Loyola. For two days and nights, I was in critical condition at Loyola Hospital under constant guard. When being taken from Loyola back to the Joliet Police Station, Officer Nina commented to his partner that he needed to break my nose again. The Joliet Police, Alphonse Izquierdo aka Izzy and his son Thomas Izquierdo all tampered with and erased video surveillance footage and re-enacted out a murder scene which does not include me or the bartender Daniel Rios on bar video," he claimed, adding, "I will prove this in court."

Gleason's lawsuit stated he was brought to the Will County Jail on March 11, 2018, and the following day, he was found unresponsive inside his jail cell. "Dr. Young Kim at the Will County Adult Detention Facility found me unresponsive in my cell. He said to deputies to "call 911, he's been beaten all over the top of his head and you never know when the brain will stop."

Last October, a federal judge in Chicago reviewed Gleason's pro se lawsuit and rejected it.

All future court proceedings were halted because the judge was dismissing Gleason's claims.

As of this week, Gleason's first-degree murder trial remained on the May 3 court docket in Rippy's courtroom.

In 2018, the Office of Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow filed 10 felony charges against Gleason. The Crest Hill resident was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the death of Daniel Rios III, 52, of Joliet. Gleason also faces three counts of attempted murder in the shooting of Thomas Izquierdo, the son of the bar's owner. Lastly, Gleason faces two additional charges, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a gun. Prosecutors say Gleason fired his loaded gun at one of the bar patrons, Artis Henderson, while inside of Izzy's.

With the start of Gleason's murder trial less than two weeks away, there is no reason to expect that the trial date will be postponed, lawyers tell Patch.