Joliet city manager reduces second police suspension to reprimand

Interim City Manager Jim Hock for the second time in recent months has reduced a police officer’s suspension to a written reprimand over the objections of the police chief.

Hock has waived a 12-day suspension for Officer John Perri and let stand a written reprimand before he was to go to a hearing before the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners.

“I stand by my decision to suspend him,” Roechner said Friday. “It was an officer safety issue. My job is to assure that all officers are safe.”

The circumstances of Perri’s suspension from 2019 have not been made public.

Hock would not discuss the case but said he takes into consideration the potential airing of the details of an incident along with the potential for further reduction of the discipline by the police board before intervening.

“Oftentimes, it’s the consideration of what’s going to happen at a public hearing,” he said.

Hock over the police chief’s objections in October reduced a 25-day suspension issued in 2019 to now retired Officer Joe Clement for allegedly falsely accusing a fellow officer of being drunk while working security at the Fiesta en la Calle event.

Roechner that night went with Sgt. Lindsey Heavener to a local hospital for blood and urine tests that showed no alcohol in his system, according to a report by Roechner of the incident.

Clement joined Mayor Bob O’Dekirk in making the allegations against Heavener.

Clement and Heavener have taken out petitions for potential campaigns for city council seats in the April election.

Clement and Perri were among three officers who were granted hearings by the police board after a dispute over whether they had met deadlines for filing appeals. All three cases were resolved without hearings.