Charges against whistleblower ex-Joliet, Illinois police sergeant dropped on day trial was to start
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- On Monday, the day a whistleblower former police sergeant in Joliet was set to go to trial in Kendall County, all the charges against him were officially dropped.
Now-retired Joliet police Sgt. Javier Esqueda was charged in connection with leaking squad car video of a man who died in Joliet police custody. The charges being dropped amounts to a huge relief for Esqueda and his family.
It was Esqueda who blew the whistle on the death of Eric Lurry, a 37-year-old Black man who died while in Joliet police custody. Video first obtained by the CBS 2 Investigators showed Lurry in the back seat of a squad car, handcuffed during a drug-related arrest.
The public never would have seen the disturbing video if not for Esqueda speaking up and leaking it. He faced serious prison time for that move—that is, until Monday.
"We're supposed to be good cops. We're supposed to do the right thing," Eseuqeda said of the Lurry case. "That whole thing was just dirty."
The squad car video was taken before Lurry died in police custody. A lawsuit later filed by Lurry's family said two officers tried to retrieve bags containing drugs from his mouth, and in doing so, pinched his nose shut for nearly two minutes—suffocating him.
The video even shows one officer shoving a baton into Lurry's mouth, blocking his airway.
Esqueda said the Joliet Police Department swept the whole thing under the rug.
"As far as the internal investigation for what they did, they didn't start it until after I blew the whistle," Esequeda said.
So Esqueda spoke up—first to the CBS News Chicago Investigator Dave Savini in July 2020.
"It was a cover-up to hide it from the family," Esqueda said Monday.
The death of Lurry, and the community's outrage, led to an investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's office—which just last week determined the Joliet Police Department has a pattern of using excessive force.
But in the meantime, shortly after speaking out to CBS News Chicago, Esqueda was arrested and charged with felony "official misconduct" for the leak.
"It was retaliation," Esqueda said.
Esqueda faced the possibility of 20 years in prison, $400,000 in fines, and the loss of his police pension after 29 years on the job.
"That means I would lose everything," Esqueda said. "Just thinking about that every day was stressful. I'm going lose being able to take care of my family, my son."
CBS News Chicago has been following Esqueda's yearslong fight ever since—four years and 56 days, to be exact—until a surprise motion was filed last week.
Prosecutors in Kendall office wrote that they received "additional materials which were not originally tendered to the State's Attorney's Office which have caused our office to reevaluate the evidence in this case."
The case was officially dropped in a hearing Monday.
"I have no regrets," said Esqueda. "I said it from the beginning. You have to do the right thing.
The Will County Coroner's Office ruled Lurry died from heroin, fentanyl and cocaine intoxication.
Neither the Kendall County States Attorney's office or the Joliet Police Department has responded to CBS News Chicago's request for comment on the surprising turn in this case.
