Kane Co. man gets prison for cop threat

A Maple Park man was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for threatening to kill a local police officer.

Jose E. Blanco, 45, of the 200 block of Kane Street, was convicted Dec. 14 of threatening a public official after a bench trial in front of Judge Thomas E. Mueller, who also handed down the sentence.

Prosecutors said Blanco was upset May 21 when he complained to Maple Park police that he hadn't yet been given a copy of a police report, taken two days earlier, having to do with damage to Blanco's vehicles.

He then launched into an elaborate threat, saying he would shoot and decapitate the officer who took the report, then bury his body in a farm field where it "would never be found," according to the Kane County state's attorney's office.

Blanco also warned he would carry out the plan using special training he received in the El Salvadoran army, prosecutors said.

"Based on the brutal, heinous and detailed nature of the threats, the judge was correct in sentencing the defendant to prison," Assistant State's Attorney Scott Schwertley said.

By law, Blanco must serve at least half of the sentence. He was given credit for 288 days already served in the Kane County jail, meaning he could be up for release in about 14 months.