Ex-Police Chief Who Retired After Two DUIs Still Getting Paid
ROBBINS, Ill. (STMW) -- Former Robbins police Chief Johnny Holmes was charged with two DUIs in the past three years.
Before he retired in January, he ran a department for the majority of the time during which 51 untested rape kits sat for decades in an evidence room.
But Holmes continues to be paid by the village, and will be into next month, as part of a severance agreement.
Documents show that Holmes, who resigned in January after his second recent DUI, signed an agreement that calls for him to be paid $1,923 every two weeks through April 19.
Trustee and mayoral candidate Shantiel Simon said Holmes is being given the money because he does not have a state pension or any other retirement money coming to him through the state.
Simon said Holmes initially signed up for a retirement plan through the state, opted out, and the Robbins administration never signed him back up.
"We knew we had to let him go, but we thought about his family, and here's a guy that's about to walk away with nothing," Simon said of the decision to pay Holmes.
Holmes, also a member of the Community High School District 218 Board, was arrested in Midlothian in December and charged with drunken driving. Police said he was so disoriented after being pulled over that he thought he was still in the neighboring village of Posen.
According to court records, Holmes was sentenced to court supervision and paid more than $1,000 in fees for the 2010 DUI.
Village records show that Holmes was put on paid administrative leave from March through May 2010 while the village investigated the DUI, but he was able to keep his job. In May 2010, the village ordered him to turn in the keys he had for any village vehicles.
Holmes actually had two stints as police chief since 1991, and things didn't always go smoothly. He was fired in December 2003 due to "deficiencies in current police services and continuous complaints from citizens," according to a letter from outgoing Mayor Irene Brodie.
But he was rehired as chief two years later with a $10,000 pay increase, boosting his annual salary to $50,000, according to village records.
Holmes had retired as a lieutenant in 1986, writing in a letter that it was "the worst experience" in his 12 years on the force, records show.
The Robbins Police Department recently has faced other woes in addition to Holmes' DUIs. Cook County Sheriff's police announced in February they had discovered the 51 untested rape kits sitting in an evidence room, some of them dating back from incidents in 1981.
Cook County sheriff's police — who now are assisting the Robbins police in various capacities — also found about 55 guns in a barrel that never were sent to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, where their original ownership was to be traced.
Holmes did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
