Joliet leaked video trial pushed to November

The trial for a Joliet police sergeant accused of unlawfully accessing the video of an arrested man overdosing in a squad vehicle has been pushed to November. Before, both sides will have to decide if he can call himself a whistleblower.

On Tuesday, Kendall County Judge Robert Pilmer was informed by Kendall County Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Shlifka that he is having scheduling issues with one of the state’s witnesses in the case against Javier Esqueda.

Prosecutors charged Esqueda with official misconduct for accessing a Joliet police squad video that was evidence in a Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force investigation of the death of Eric Lurry, 37, who was in police custody, in January 2020.

Pilmer scheduled Esqueda’s trial to begin in the week of November 14.

Both parties still must sort out several issues before Esqueda’s trial, one of which is whether Esqueda can call himself a “whistleblower.”

Shlifka has requested Pilmer to prevent Esqueda from calling himself a “whistleblower” at any point during trial because he is not one under the Illinois Whistleblower Act.

Shlifka contends Esqueda did not expose what he believed to be misconduct to a government authority or agency as described in the act.

Jeff Tomczak, Esqueda’s attorney, sought to suppress evidence gathered in the investigation of Esqueda or prevent prosecutors from presenting that evidence because it violates the whistleblower act.

“It puts the issue of whistleblower on Judge Pilmer’s lap,” Tomczak said of the motion. “He’s going to have to make a decision whether Javier falls within the whistleblower act.”

Tomczak’s motion said Joliet police employees violated the the whistleblower act through their “retaliatory investigation” against Esqueda for his disclosure of the Lurry video. He said those employees also “sought and received an illegal warrant” for Esqueda “based upon a mere violation” of department rules.

Tomczak said the Lurry squad video “shows a potential voluntary manslaughter of Mr. Lurry as one of the police employees prevents Mr. Lurry from taking a breath for [1 minute and 38 seconds], resulting in his ultimate death.”

Tomczak said prosecutors “judicially admitted” that Esqueda disclosed information to the government in a motion from Shlifka. That motion said several officers were told of the Lurry video by Esqueda, who indicated his plan to disclose the video if he were disciplined over internal investigations against him.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow cleared Joliet police of any wrongdoing over Lurry’s arrest after the Will County Coroner’s Office determined Lurry’s death was from ingestion of fatal amounts of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.

“Mr. Lurry, a felon who served prison time for multiple offenses dating back to 1998, voluntarily chose to ingest the fatal doses of these illicit drugs while sitting in the back seat of a police vehicle after being apprehended by the Joliet Police Department for distributing drugs to another individual on [Jan. 28, 2020],” Glasgow said.