Rock Falls murder victim's father wants police chief to resign, says chief to blame for investigative errors

Yahoo

14 hours ago

Jun. 13—ROCK FALLS — The father of a Rock Falls man murdered in that city Feb. 14 wants the Rock Falls police chief to resign after the department's officers testified that several protocol violations were committed during their investigation of the murder scene.
"This can't stand. It can't be allowed to continue. There will be more murders in Rock Falls. There will be more violent crime in Rock Falls. People are not getting better to each other."
— Dan Gordon, father of murder victim DJ Gordon
"This falls directly on leadership. If I were in charge of a group of people that screwed up on the basics this bad...if I was there, and they screwed up this bad, I would have enough integrity to resign," Dan Gordon, father of Daniel "DJ" Gordon, who was killed Feb. 14 in Rock Falls, said in a June 10 interview with Shaw Local.
"That's what I think Rock Falls Police Chief David Pilgrim deserves to do is resign," he said.
After being called to the 600 block of West 20th Street in Rock Falls, first responders and police found DJ Gordon, 27, in the early morning hours of Feb. 14 unresponsive and suffering multiple abdominal stab wounds. The accused, Kyle Cooper, 36, of Rock Falls, admitted to the stabbing May 22, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder and was given the maximum 20-year sentence.
But in the days after the stabbing, Cooper was originally charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with Gordon's death. The case was headed toward trial until May 14, when Cooper's defense attorney, Jim Mertes of Sterling, announced a plea agreement had been reached.
[ Rock Falls man pleads guilty to second-degree murder, sentenced to 20 years for fatal Valentine's Day stabbing ]
Attorneys announced that agreement in court after Mertes, during court hearings leading up to the trial date, made several arguments in an effort to discredit the Rock Falls Police Department's investigation.
"I stand by our investigation. I stand by the work of the investigators," Pilgrim, who was named chief in February 2021, told Shaw Local this week. "I don't believe there were any, what I would call fatal issues with the investigation."
[ Prosecutor: Rock Falls man accused of Valentine's Day murder had history of threatening exes' new partners ]
He said Mertes' arguments about issues with the investigation were a "defense strategy" and that he doesn't believe Mertes' claims "had any basis and anything that was argued in those motions did not ultimately affect the outcome of the investigation."
At the May 14 court hearing, Rock Falls Police Detective Autumn Day, the lead homicide investigator on the case, testified that the vehicle that transported Gordon to the location where he was killed and was parked within the cordoned-off crime scene area was not searched or processed for evidence when it should have been.
Pilgrim said the vehicle "was not processed as part of the crime scene. Nothing was alleged to have occurred in or on that vehicle. It was determined by the investigators that the vehicle was not of evidentiary value."
Day's testimony, along with that of Rock Falls Police Officer Dustin Sugars and Sgt. Betony Gluff, who both took the stand May 9, indicated that evidence preservation protocol was violated at the scene when the driver of that vehicle was allowed inside it after police arrived and the area had been cordoned off.
Day also testified May 14 that a log of activity, which lists who enters and leaves a crime scene during an investigation, was not created when it should have been and that witnesses were allowed into the crime scene when they should not have been.
[ Rock Falls murder trial pushed to Thursday by lead detective's illness, ongoing pretrial motion discussions ]
"The stuff that they've messed up on is basic police 101," Dan Gordon said. "I can't stress enough I don't hold the officers and the detectives accountable. This is on management."
"There's absolutely zero accountability for the mistakes that were made," he said.
Dan Gordon said that Whiteside County State's Attorney Colleen Buckwalter "was going to sit down and talk to the Rock Falls Police Department," but he didn't know if that happened yet.
Buckwalter declined Shaw Local's request for comment.
"There's been zero things happen, even additional training," Dan Gordon said.
He said Buckwalter sent Whiteside County Sheriff John Booker to visit him "to explain to me how bad the Rock Falls Police Department screwed up."
Booker told Shaw Local that "as an officer of 34 years, I saw some things [in the investigation] that I would've done differently."
"We definitely need to learn from this," Booker said, adding that everybody makes mistakes, but "we need to not make them twice."
"I don't want to slam the Rock Falls Police Department. I think they are some of the highest character people that you're going to find," but "when you have poor leadership, no amount of character is going to override that," Dan Gordon said.
"Nobody was in charge of the crime scene. The highest ranking official should be in charge," he said.
Booker said that if Whiteside County deputies are conducting an investigation and "I'm on the scene, I'm the highest ranking official, I'm in charge and any mistakes that are made fall on me," he said. "Everything comes back to who's running it."
Rock Falls Mayor Rod Kleckler told Shaw Local that he, with the consent of the Rock Falls City Council, has the power to fire the police chief, but, he said, that would be a personnel issue that "I wouldn't talk about with anyone."
At most jobs, personnel issues are typically private matters, but "in this situation, it kind of is our business. The people of Rock Falls are not getting what they pay for right now," Dan Gordon said.
For the victim's family, the investigators' admissions "came to light on the Friday before Mother's Day (May 9)," Dan Gordon said.
Mother's Day "was gonna suck bad enough with DJ being gone, but now not knowing what amount of justice we're even going to be able to get," Dan Gordon said. "DJ deserved better. He just did."
When Day testified May 14, Mertes' questions alluded to her being assigned as the lead homicide investigator, something that he said was done before she had obtained state-required certification. During that questioning, Day affirmed that Pilgrim was at the scene as officers were investigating. Day said Pilgrim told her at the scene that she was not lead investigator. She completed the state-required training Feb. 28 and was named lead investigator March 3, Day said. She said the investigation was assigned to Deputy Chief Doug Wolber on the day of the offense.
It was then assigned to Detective Sgt. Jeremy Vondra and, then, once Day completed the required lead homicide investigator training "she was considered the lead investigator," but "there was no formal assignment of the case" to Day, Pilgrim said.
"Initially, when the case started, it was an aggravated battery. It wasn't until the victim had ultimately passed away that it became a homicide investigation," Pilgrim said.
But according to Dan Gordon, "DJ was dead when the ambulance got there. They brought him back so we could say goodbye basically. He was gone. Don't tell me you didn't go in as a homicide."
"Detective Day got put in a bad position," Dan Gordon said. "Why would you assign the detective with the least amount of experience who wasn't even homicide certified?"
Day was hired at Rock Falls PD in 2018. Sugars was hired in 2016, Gluff in 2011, Wolber in 2006 and Vondra in 2003, according to the department's annual report.
Rock Falls police "can't afford to have a 'Oh this is a slam dunk' attitude, because it's not. Clearly it's not," Dan Gordon said.
"Nobody from the Rock Falls Police Department has even reached out to me at all. I don't know if they should or not. I've never had a kid murdered before," he said, adding that he's spoken to Pilgrim and Wolber, but he "had to call them."
On May 12, the victim's family met with Buckwalter to negotiate a plea agreement and agreed to Mertes' offer of the lesser second-degree charge after learning about the "immediate passion" law that would most likely prevent them from securing a conviction of first-degree murder if they were to go to trial, Dan Gordon said.
[ Rock Falls man's murder trial canceled day before jury selection when attorneys announce plea deal ]
"Honestly, I don't think Rock Falls Police Department's errors, blunders, affected the outcome. I think that the facts of the case probably did not support first-degree murder," he said.
"I would much rather him [Cooper] never have the possibility of ever getting out," but "I am at peace with the fact that that was as good as we were going to get given the circumstances," Dan Gordon said.
Whiteside County Judge James Heuerman sentenced Cooper on May 22 to the terms laid out in the plea agreement — the maximum possible sentence of 20 years, one year of supervised release and credit for 97 days served.
Dan Gordon said he's not asking Pilgrim to resign "for us. DJ is just as dead, regardless of who is the chief of police in Rock Falls."
"It's for the next family, the next victims," Dan Gordon said. "This can't stand. It can't be allowed to continue. There will be more murders in Rock Falls. There will be more violent crime in Rock Falls. People are not getting better to each other."