[IL] Still-dangerous former Officer Hetz almost fell off of the internet!

There was a an article in the news today about former Officer Hetz's arrest for domestic battery and once I started poking around I noticed that he obviously had a past - but that it seemed to be slipping off the internet and not much was accessible. Soooo I did a little digging. Why? Because of his three past departments, their chiefs, and the benefit here in what can be learned about minimizing an officer's criminal behaviors, & hiring.

...Troy G. Hetz, 40, of Deerfield, is facing one count of domestic battery stemming from an incident Sunday in which he grabbed a 14-year-old girl's wrist and bent it backward, causing an injury...

News - from 1999 through today:

PATROLMAN CHARGED IN SEX ABUSE ON JOB
HOLIDAY HILLS OFFICER REPORTED BY WOMAN
Chicago Tribune
Carolyn Starks
December 3, 1999
An on-duty Holiday Hills patrolman was accused Thursday of having sex with a woman he stopped for speeding, then letting the woman go without issuing a traffic ticket. Troy G. Hetz was charged with official misconduct and bribery, both felonies. He is being held in the McHenry County Jail... Hetz has been a part-time officer with Holiday Hills since October 1998. He resigned Thursday morning...

EX-COP IN SEX-BRIBE CASE RELEASED ON BOND
WONDER LAKE MAN'S WIFE GETS PROTECTION ORDER AGAINST HIM
Chicago Tribune
Carolyn Starks
December 4, 1999
A former Holiday Hills police officer who allegedly had sex with a woman he stopped for speeding in exchange for not arresting or ticketing her was released from jail Friday on $15,000 bond, said McHenry County State's Atty. Gary Pack... Hetz 's wife filed Thursday for an order of protection against him. The order, which a judge granted, prohibits Hetz from having any contact with his wife and gave her emergency custody of their three children. She also asked police to remove all of Hetz 's weapons from their home. "If Troy is released, I am very fearful for my life and my children's safety... In the past, Troy has forced sex on me on a daily basis, threatens me with a gun weekly and verbally abuses me"... Hetz, who worked one day a week as an officer in Holiday Hills, resigned Thursday from the police force there... Hetz was a full-time officer in Lindenhurst in 1994 for a year until he resigned voluntarily... Hetz also worked for the Hainesville Police Department in 1998 for almost a year...

CLIFFORD LAW OFFICES FILES LAWSUIT IN FEDERAL COURT ON BEHALF OF VICTIM SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY POLICE OFFICER
cliffordlaw.com
Press Release,
12/06/1999
Clifford Law Offices filed a Lawsuit today (Dec. 6) on behalf of a 20-year-old McHenry County woman who was sexually assaulted by an on-duty Holiday Hills patrolman... The patrolman, 31-year-old Troy G. Hetz of Wonder Lake, resigned in 1995 from the Lindenhurst Police Department when another woman filed a similar action in state court on an unrelated incident. That case has since been dropped... Clifford's lawsuit in federal court alleges battery, assault and false imprisonment against the officer as well... "Holiday Hills Police Department should be taking responsibility for the criminal acts of one of its employees and will be held accountable for the negligent hiring of a man who never should have been wearing a badge to begin with... Officer Hetz is a sexual predator who utilized his power and authority to physically and mentally coerce and sexually assault a 20-year-old woman who was in a position of terror and vulnerability... Miss Holian's lawsuit is a step in assuring that Hetz will never terrorize other women in this state"...

HOLIDAY HILLS, EX-COP SUED IN ALLEGED SEX CASE
Chicago Tribune
Matt O'Connor and Carolyn Starks
December 7, 1999
...The suit alleges that the village was guilty of "negligent hiring," claiming it did an inadequate background investigation in hiring Officer Troy G. Hetz. The village should have discovered that another woman had accused Hetz in a civil suit of sexually assaulting her in 1996 while he was on the Lindenhurst police force... "A reasonable and adequate investigation would have determined that defendant Hetz was unfit to serve as a Holiday Hills police officer, and (the) village's virtually nonexistent investigation into his background exhibited a reckless and willful disregard for the plaintiff's safety"... Holiday Hills Police Chief James Downing said his department

knew

of the allegation that surfaced in Lindenhurst before hiring Hetz but

deemed it "an isolated incident"

after speaking with Hetz 's previous employers. "A thorough investigation of Hetz 's background was done before he was hired," [Holiday Hills Police Chief James] Downing said. "He received a good recommendation from both of his previous departments, and both departments said that

they would rehire him"...

The McHenry County state's attorney's office has charged Hetz with bribery and official misconduct... The woman was driving under a judicial driving permit, a court order issued after a previous traffic stop that permitted her to drive during restricted hours, and could have been arrested for driving at that time... Hetz warned the woman that she could be imprisoned "for many years" for the traffic offense and told her to follow him to another location, the suit said... A similar allegation surfaced in Lindenhurst, where Hetz was employed as a patrolman for about a year until he resigned in 1996. In 1996, a woman sued Hetz and the Village of Lindenhurst in federal court, saying Hetz, on duty and in uniform, had fondled her after a traffic stop. The suit was dismissed... The suit alleged that Hetz sexually touched and tried to kiss the woman, and did not allow her to leave the scene for about a half-hour... Saying his department policy is to give full background disclosures, [Lindenhurst Police Chief James] McKeever said he told Hainesville and Holiday Hills police officials about Hetz 's background.

"Of course
the question
is always,

`Given what you know,

would you consider hiring this person?' "

McKeever said. "In response to that I said, `Yes,' in the sense that, whatever his history was with us, it occurred years earlier, it was an isolated incident where there was not a history or possibility of criminal prosecution." Hetz told Holiday Hills about the previous allegation during his first employment interview, Downing said.

[Chief] Downing then checked with [Lt. Chief] McKeever, who had described the incident as

"a non-criminal case
of bad judgment,"

Downing said. "Then the second department said that they were aware of his suit when they hired him. Their judgment was that this was

a one-time event
that would
not occur again,

and they hired him"...

JURY CONVICTS EX-OFFICER OF COERCING SEX
Daily Herald
Dave Mann
July 6, 2001
A former Holiday Hills police officer accused of stopping a woman for speeding and later having sex with her on the hood of his squad car was found guilty Thursday of half of the criminal charges against him. Troy G. Hetz, 33, was charged with bribery, two counts of official misconduct and intimidation, but he was found guilty of only one count of official misconduct and intimidation after Thursday's trial.... Hetz heard a call being dispatched to McHenry County police to investigate a possible sexual assault, and he later told investigators he wondered if it involved him. The married father of three early the next morning was approached by detectives, who tape-recorded his statement to them that was played in court Thursday. "My side is the truth, and I hope the evidence shows you that" Hetz told the detectives after saying the woman initiated consensual sex...

CONVICTED EX-COP FACES MORE LEGAL WOES
Daily Herald
Charles Keeshan
July 31, 2001
The wife of a former Holiday Hills police officer convicted earlier this month for having sex with a woman he stopped for speeding added to his legal troubles last week by filing an order of protection against him. The temporary order bars Troy G. Hetz, 33, from having any contact with his wife, [KH], or his three children for at least two weeks pending a court hearing next month that could impose those restrictions for two years. In court papers filed Friday, [KH] claims her husband has been mentally abusing her and the couple's children since he was found guilty July 5 of official misconduct and intimidation charges that could land him up to five years in prison... In the three weeks since the conviction, [KH] claims her husband has threatened her with guns, struck her with a telephone and verbally abused her and their children. "My husband is telling me that if I continue to push for a divorce that he will kill me... He told me on (July 24) that I am destroying his life and I will be sorry, and if I think I'm going to be around anymore then I better think again"... [She] also filed for a divorce Friday claiming adultery, mental cruelty and physical cruelty...

EX-COP GETS 6 MONTHS FOR SEX COERCION
Daily Herald
Charles Keeshan
September 6, 2001
...A McHenry County judge sentenced Hetz, 33, to six months in the county jail for using his badge to coerce a woman into sex.
"He not only abused the victim, he abused the village he worked for, he abused the chief he worked for, he abused the taxpayers and he abused every hard working police officer who tries to do the right thing," Judge Ward S. Arnold said.
Besides the jail time, Arnold placed Hetz on two years probation and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine... Hetz, in a brief statement to the court, apologized for the incident, but added that he was a good police officer before the incident. "Morally, I committed a terrible offense," he said. "Professionally, I've embarrassed my department and to the people who put their lives on the line every day, I apologize." Arnold, however, was skeptical of Hetz 's statement, noting that Dec. 1, 1999, was not the first time Hetz had been accused of coercing a female motorist into sexual activity...

HETZ SENTENCED TO 6 MONTHS WOODSTOCK - Sep 10, 2001
...Hetz never was charged with a sex crime. Prosecutors said the act would be considered consensual because there was no implicit force or threat and the woman did not protest. [Judge Ward S.] Arnold said he would have sent Hetz to prison had he been charged with a sex crime. He also criticized Hetz's defense that he did not use any physical force or overt threats when he had sex with the woman. "That is just complete nonsense," Arnold said... Arnold said he was concerned that statements from Hetz's former employer contained in a pre-sentence report indicated that he engaged in similar behavior in 1995 while working as a police officer in Lindenhurst. "That is extremely disturbing to this court"... Arnold allowed Hetz two weeks before he begins serving his jail sentence...

EX-OFFICER'S JAIL TIME DELAYED 18 MONTHS DURING APPEAL
Daily Herald
Charles Keeshan
September 25, 2001
A small-town police officer convicted of using his badge to coerce a woman into having sex will stay out of jail for as long as two years thanks to a last-ditch legal maneuver Monday... Hetz was scheduled to begin his sentence Monday, but in an unusual decision, Judge Ward S. Arnold instead allowed the former officer to remain free while an appeal is pending... The judge's decision came as a surprise because minutes earlier Arnold had summarily rejected Hetz 's request he overturn the verdict or issue a lighter sentence. Hetz testified that he needed to stay out of jail to keep afloat the contracting business he started following his arrest and subsequent dismissal as a law enforcement officer. "If I'm in custody for anytime longer than a week at a time, all these (contracting) jobs will fall," he said. If that happens, Hetz added, he will be unable to support his three children, retire family debts and pay off attorneys hired to handle the divorce action his wife filed against him this summer...

EX-POLICE OFFICER STARTS SERVING JAIL SENTENCE HOLIDAY HILLS -
PATROLMAN CONVICTED OF USING BADGE TO OBTAIN SEXUAL FAVORS
Daily Herald
Charles Keeshan
February 11, 2004
After more than two years of unsuccessful appeals, a former Holiday Hills police officer convicted of using his badge to obtain sex was sent to jail Tuesday to serve a six-month sentence... County authorities charged the former police officer with four felonies in connection with a Dec. 1, 1999, incident... At the time, Hetz was a patrol officer for Holiday Hills, a small municipality north of Cary in eastern McHenry County. Arnold convicted him of official misconduct and intimidation... A state appeals court last year threw out the intimidation charge, but upheld the misconduct conviction...

FORMER COP FACES DOMESTIC BATTERY CHARGES"
Chicago Daily Herald, IL
June 20, 2008
A former police officer jailed four years ago for coercing a woman he pulled over into having sex with him atop his squad car was back behind bars Thursday, accused of injuring a teenager. Troy G. Hetz, 40, of Deerfield, is facing one count of domestic battery stemming from an incident Sunday in which he grabbed a 14-year-old girl's wrist and bent it backward, causing an injury, according to court documents. Hetz was arrested Wednesday and spent the night in the McHenry County jail before appearing in court Thursday morning and later posting $150 bond. He is scheduled to return to court July 14 on the Class A misdemeanor charge. His attorney, Margi Worth, declined comment Thursday. Hetz, a former Holiday Hills officer, served a six-month jail sentence in 2004 after his official misconduct conviction for using his badge to obtain sex. McHenry County authorities charged him after a 20-year-old woman alleged he pulled her over for speeding in a secluded area of the eastern McHenry County village Dec. 1, 1999. After Hetz learned she was driving on a suspended license, the woman told authorities, he told her he could let her off with a verbal warning in exchange for sex. It was not the first time a woman accused Hetz of using his badge to obtain sexual favors. Court documents indicate Hetz resigned from the Lindenhurst Police Department in 1996 after a 19-year-old woman claimed he forcibly fondled and kissed her under threat of arrest.
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