Five Years After Losing Their Daughter, A Will County Judge Rules In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

The parents of a slain Channahon 911 dispatcher win a wrongful death lawsuit against ex-Crest Hill police officer in the death of Samantha Harer. A Will County judge issued the judgement in the amount of $15-million dollars.

It was on February 13, 2018 the Channahon Police Department responded to a call of a female with a gunshot wound. Upon arrival the Channahon Police observed that Samantha Harer, a former Channahon Police Intern who then served as a dispatcher for the Village’s emergency call center, WESCOM, was shot.

Phil Flores, an off-duty Crest Hill police officer and boyfriend of Samantha, was the only other person present in the apartment. Samantha was transported by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

Ten months later, in December of 2018, the Will County Coroner determined that Samantha’s cause of death was by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The lawsuit accused the two police departments of conspiring to protect a fellow police officer, Phil Flores, who the family is accusing of killing their daughter 23-year-old Samantha Harer.

Will County Judge John Anderson’s written ruling states in part,

“Further, the Court takes no position on whether Felipe ought to be charged; that is not the Court’s decision to make. Besides, the Court is not in a position to understand why Felipe was not charged with Samantha’s death, as no one from the Channahon Police Department, nor the coroner’s office, nor other law enforcement authorities, testified to explain their perspective as to why Samantha’s death might have been a suicide.”

WJOL reached out to Will County State’s Attorney for a statement in this ruling asking whether Jim Glasgow will seek murder charges against Flores.