Reports: Des Plaines police allegations surfaced months later as a rumor
Allegations that a female Des Plaines police officer was raped during an off-duty party appear to have stemmed from rumors that circulated in the department months later, according to police reports obtained by the Daily Herald.
The woman told a Hoffman Estates police investigator that she "wanted to be clear that she made no allegations of being sexually assaulted" after a golf outing at Hilldale Golf Club in June, a Hoffman Estates police report states.
Rather, the woman said, a police officer who didn't attend the party made the allegation during a roll call, the report says. The woman did not tell that officer she had been sexually assaulted, according to the report.
"(The woman) stated to (the Hoffman Estates investigator) that she did not wake up from the party feeling that she had been sexually assaulted and it was not until she heard rumors that she began to believe something may have happened," the reports states.
Hoffman Estates police announced Tuesday that no charges would be filed as a result of their investigation. Des Plaines police are conducting an internal probe, and the Des Plaines City Council voted this week to hire an independent investigator to look into the matter.
Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner started an investigation of the sexual assault allegations shortly after they surfaced in November, according to emails and documents obtained from the city. The woman provided Des Plaines police with a statement and authorized the department to notify Hoffman Estates police of the allegations.
In her statement to Des Plaines police, the woman wrote that she attempted to "fill in the blanks" of what happened at the party. One officer told her he was intoxicated and "may have grabbed her crotch and if anything else happened, he was sorry," the statement reads. The woman talked to another officer who was helping take care of her because she was impaired, according to her the statement.
In her interview with Hoffman Estates police, the woman said the varying rumors were "all over the board." According to her statement to Des Plaines police, one rumor indicated an officer attempted to take her into a secluded room and "that I may have been raped." Another rumor purported that an officer groped her, according to the statement.
The woman said she "blacked out" after taking two or three shots of vodka, which led her to believe she may have been drugged, the report says.
When the investigator asked the woman about the vodka shots, she said she watched them being poured and didn't see anyone put anything into the alcohol.
According to the police report, each person interviewed by the investigator said he or she had no knowledge that a crime occurred.
"It is important to note that even interviews with the alleged victim in this case did not yield any information that sustained that a crime occurred," the investigator wrote.
Hoffman Estates police also interviewed the general manager of the Hilldale Golf Club, where the police held the golf outing, to determine whether criminal property damage occurred there.
He told the investigator that one golf cart was damaged, which led him to keep a $200 deposit, the report states. However, the damage was unintentional and "not uncommon," according to the report.