On a Monday in late April, Daniel Miller, a lieutenant for the Forest Park Police Department, pulled a gun on and detained a woman in North Riverside while he was off duty. When North Riverside police arrived, the woman was released without charges.
That same week, Miller was put on paid administrative leave while the Cook County Sheriff’s Office investigated. In June, the village hired Gold Shield Detective Agency, citing the Sheriff’s Office’s slow movement on the case. Half a year later, the investigation is ongoing and Miller remains on paid leave.
At the Oct. 26 village council meeting, two locals gave public comments questioning the investigation. And commissioners unanimously passed an addendum approving another $5,000 for the crisis communications firm that was hired following the incident in late April.
“The investigation remains ongoing. Now it looks like we’re adding another $5,000 to Dan’s tab for more PR work,” AJ Beatleston, a Forest Park resident, wrote in for public comment. “Why on earth have we been paying Lieutenant Daniel Miller to sit on his rear for 26 weeks? How many more tax dollars are going to be wasted due to his actions before enough is enough?”
Jonathan Pirc, a Forest Park resident of 12 years, also complained about taxpayer dollars spent on the Miller investigation.
“In those 12 years, I’ve never been more concerned about the direction of our village and its leadership,” Pirc said. “Look at where residents’ tax dollars went this year. Not only is our budget more in the red, but we’ve had a police lieutenant on paid administrative leave since April, a crisis PR firm, and now potentially private investigators with potentially no cap, looking into possible misconduct by our own employees and elected officials.”
On Oct. 26, commissioners also approved hiring Overwatch Private Security and Investigations to investigate employee misconduct unrelated to Miller.
“Two of these contracts are on tonight’s agenda. The mayor signed both before the council voted. Act first, ask permission later, send residents the bill,” Pirc said. “Grooving in the Grove didn’t happen this year. The village put it on hold to save money. That’s fair, everyone had to cut back. Residents gave up the summer tradition, but tonight you’re asked to take the crisis PR firm to $20,000 at $400 an hour. That tells residents exactly where they rank.”
The crisis PR firm is Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications. At the council meeting, commissioners passed an addendum to an April 30 contract with the firm — which Mayor Rory Hoskins signed without commissioner approval in the days after the Miller incident.
At a September council meeting, Hoskins said he was in Springfield when the April 27 incident occurred and quickly needed to tap a crisis communications firm. He extended Jasculca’s services after, in July, the Forest Park Police Department showed an ICE agent out the back of Village Hall so he could avoid being recorded.
The village originally capped Jasculca’s contract at $15,000 but has received a bill putting them over that limit. The approved Oct. 26 addendum allows the village to spend $5,000 more on Jasculca’s services. According to the agreement, those services include strategic counsel through periodic calls with Hoskins, Village Administrator Rachell Entler and the village’s legal counsel; development or revision of internal and external communications; and monitoring digital media.
Before voting, Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin asked if the village anticipated engaging Jasculca beyond the addendum.
Hoskins responded: “The reason why we had this addendum is because we had another encounter, unfortunately, at the end of July. It was somewhat related. No one wanted to be here in the first place, but here we are.”
Melin-Rogovin said, “I am comfortable approving this, given that it’s the last.”
Overwatch Private Security and Investigations
At the Oct. 26 council meeting, commissioners also approved engaging Overwatch Private Security and Investigations. Entler told the Review that the agenda item was a ratification of a previous agreement and not related to the Miller or ICE incidents but did not respond to what it was investigating.
According to the approved engagement letter, which went into effect Oct. 7, Overwatch will be conducting an “internal investigation into an allegation of potential misconduct by village employees and elected officials.”
Overwatch’s scope of work includes interviews of complaints, witnesses, employees and elected officials; review of personnel records, reports, correspondence, electronic communications, policies and procedures; collecting and evaluating relevant evidence; and preparing a written investigative report setting forth facts, investigative findings and conclusions.
The village will reimburse the firm for specialized equipment or software, documents obtained for a fee and reasonable travel expenses.
Investigative services are $120 an hour per investigator. When Commissioner Ryan Nero asked how many investigators there would be, Entler said they’re “utilizing two for certain parts of the investigation.”
Legal proceedings are $360 per hour per investigator, but only if the village goes to court.
Entler said she doesn’t know a timeline for the investigation, but “They initially met with staff to get the groundwork laid out, but until they actually get through what they need to get through, they aren’t able to give us a timeline.”
Nero responded, “This whole deal with this investigator, I agree with some of the comments earlier during public comment. This is like a name calling thing.”
Entler cut him off, reminding him that this is a pending investigation.
“Well, then I’ll put it this way: I think it’s a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars to proceed with this,” Nero said. “And quite frankly, if it involved me, I would be embarrassed. I’d be embarrassed that I wasn’t given an opportunity to solve it myself.”
Hoskins said that the investigation was at the advice of the village’s legal counsel.
“You’re going to hear we’re required to do this,” Nero responded. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got a blinking, flashing bulb that we haven’t changed out in front of the Village Hall at night. That’s been sitting out there for weeks and weeks and weeks, but we could pay for this.”