Joliet Officer Turned Off Car's Video System As Eric Lurry Died

JOLIET, IL — Joliet police officer Jose Tellez has received a six-day suspension because he went inside his squad car and turned off the in-camera video system, which stopped both the video and audio recording, as backseat prisoner Eric Lurry was dying in Joliet police custody, documents obtained by Joliet Patch reveal.

At no point last year did Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner issue any discipline against Tellez in connection with the Lurry case, even after questions about police misconduct and evidence tampering were raised by Joliet police whistleblower Javier Esqueda last summer.

On Jan. 8, Roechner agreed to retire, and Lt. Dawn Malec replaced him the following week.

Joliet police said the city's legal department hired an independent firm to investigate the circumstances around Lurry's death before Roechner's retirement. Malec issued discipline against Tellez once that independent investigation was complete.

According to the internal affairs memo from April 14, Malec notified Tellez she was giving him a six-day suspension from the Joliet Police Department, and three of those days were being held in abeyance over the next 12 months, documents obtained by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act show.

"The complaint alleges that on January 28, 2020, while in the east parking lot of the Joliet Police Department ... you stopped the recording of the in-squad video system. The complaint has been investigated and on the basis of available evidence has been found to be sustained," Joliet's new chief notified Tellez on April 14.

Tellez has been on the Joliet police force since Aug. 12, 2002.

On Tuesday morning, Joliet Patch left Tellez a message at the police station seeking comment for this story, but he did not call back.

On the afternoon of Jan. 28, 2020. Lurry, a 37-year-old Black man, began to overdose in the backseat of the squad car driven by officers Andrew McCue and Tellez.

The two officers overlooked that Lurry had drugs in his possession at the time they arrested Lurry that afternoon on Joliet's east side.

At the police station's back parking lot, Lurry began to overdose, and that's when Joliet Police Sgt. Doug May and Lt. Jeremy Harrison approached the squad car.

May, supervisor of the drug unit at the time, walked up to the squad car transporting Lurry to the Joliet Police Station. May went inside the squad car and held Lurry's nose shut for nearly two minutes, restricting Lurry's ability to breathe while trying to recover a bag of drugs, the video showed.

May also smacked Lurry in the head and yelled, "Wake up, bitch."

As the events involving Lurry in the squad car were being videotaped, Tellez went into his squad car and deactivated the squad car's camera system, turning off both the audio and video recording.

In doing so, nobody would be able to hear what these Joliet police officers were saying to each other or to Lurry as they watched Lurry dying in their presence.

Lurry was officially pronounced dead several hours later at St. Joe's hospital.

These days, Sgt. May, Lt. Harrison, Tellez and McCue all find themselves as co-defendants in a deprivation of civil rights lawsuit filed last year by a Chicago law firm on behalf of Nicole Lurry, the widow of Eric Lurry.

This week, Joliet Patch broke the news that city of Joliet has recently hired Westmont lawyer Sean Connolly to conduct an independent investigation into the actions of the Joliet Police Department related to Lurry's death. To read that story, go here.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that Joliet police said an "independent investigation revealed that Tellez turned off the in-squad video system, which stopped both the video and audio recording," not just the audio. The article has also been updated to reflect that police said an independent firm was brought on board to investigate the Lurry case before Chief Al Roechner retired.