An Illinois police Sergeant is currently facing a termination hearing for associating with his own son, who is a convicted felon.
Bolingbrook Police Department Sergeant Willie McRay is facing dismissal for associating with his son, Jeremy McRay, who is a convicted felon- an association BPD has a general order against and reportedly isn’t going to let slide.
According to a hearing testimony acquired by the Bolingbrook Patch through a FOIA request, Bolingbrook Public Safety Director Tom Ross has requested the Bolingbrook Fire and Police Commission terminate and discharge McRay from his position for disobeying orders, insubordination, and for failure to uphold the standards expected and delineated for service as a sergeant and police officer for the village. Ross allegedly told McRay repeatedly that he was not to contact or live with his son.
However, in August of 2016, McRay allowed his son to stay at his home while he was on vacation, resulting in his son throwing a wild party that resulted in a sexual assault and theft of Sergeant McRay’s pre-promotion patrolman’s hat and shield. Ross claims he is unable to elaborate on the sexual assault due to the ongoing investigation.
Ross claims the Sergeant is unwilling to help in the investigation.
“He wouldn’t file a report or cooperate with the investigation,” Ross said.
While McRay did not testify during the hearing, his lawyer -Laura R. Scarry- questioned Ross during the hearing in regards to the safety director responsible for the matter.
McRay’s home also had a prescribed controlled substance that belonged to his son. While Ross said is is unlikely McRay was abusing the medication, but he should not have had the medication and that his possession of it is a violation of department policy.
Ross claimed that McRay didn’t think the general order applied, since Jeremy is his own son. However, Ross told McRay that the order still stood.
“Although I feel bad for him, and he needs a place to stay, Sgt. McRay is my police sergeant, I can’t have him associating with Jeremy McRay,” Ross said.
While there are provisions made on a case-by-case basis for juvenile felons in police households, Jeremy McRay is an adult.
“If a police officer has a 12-year-old son who is convicted of felony shoplifting or is under indictment and is a minor that has to live with his parents, we don’t say the police officer can’t live with the minor child. We have to make some kind of arrangements. It’s never come up in our agency’s history,” Ross said.
Working almost exclusively in higher education prior to taking his current position, Ross has been the director of Public Safety since 1987. McRay has been a police officer for 14 years, and is reported to have performed his duties in a satisfactory manner.
Sergeant McRay has been suspended without pay, and his last hearing was on December 13. Attempts to contact Bolingbrook PD were made, though no calls have been returned at this time.
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I call BS on this one. There are almost certainly other forces at work here. Sounds like the Chief has it out for this Sergeant. Every agency that I ever tested with had a clause for family. On almost every orientation I attended, the words, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.”
I agree with Tim. There is something else going on that they are not talking about. By the time they were adults all of my Step-kids were felons even though they did not live with me when these crimes wee committed. You cannot choose family and while I watched them closely anytime they were around, they are still my wife’s children who unfortunately were raised by an evil family, not ours.
We decided to discuss this story on the LEO Round Table law enforcement talk show. Here’s the link in case you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs1lmCrMsgg
The Sgt. was fired