Lake County undersheriff to retire
Lake County Undersheriff Charles Fagan will cap a colorful law-enforcement career when he retires later this month.
"It's just time," said Fagan, 62, of Fox Lake. "I just want to try to enjoy life a little bit."
Fagan, the county's undersheriff since 2006, has spent nearly all of his 39-year police career with the sheriff's office. He started as a deputy in 1972 and rose through the ranks to lieutenant in the 1990s.
He worked some of the most high-profile criminal cases in Lake County history, including the June 1980 murders of Bruce and Darlene Rouse in their home near Libertyville.
Fagan suspected 15-year-old son William Rouse from the start, but the murders went unsolved until Rouse's arrest in 1995 following a pair of Key West bank robberies.
Fagan had kept track of Rouse and his unrelated run-ins with the law through the years. He and other Lake County investigators went to Florida to interview Rouse about the murders.
On the third day of questioning, Rouse opened up, Fagan recalled.
"He said, 'I shot my dad,'" Fagan said. "'I shot my mom.'"
Rouse was convicted of the murders in 1996.
Fagan also investigated the 1977 disappearance and murder of 12-year-old Lisa Slusser of Waukegan. That case was solved in 1990 when the suspect, Gary Kerpan, called the FBI in South Carolina and said he wanted to confess. He was returned to Illinois and pleaded guilty in June 1991 in exchange for a 30-year sentence.
Fagan was a founding member of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, a team of elite detectives investigating high-profile cases, and one of its earliest commanders. His work with that group earned praise from Mundelein Police Chief Raymond J. Rose, who said its continued successes "are a direct tribute" to Fagan.
"He's clearly been a leader in the law enforcement community," Rose said.
After leaving the sheriff's office in 1999, Fagan spent a few years with the Illinois Department of Human Services, investigating allegations of abuse and neglect at Waukegan's Kiley Development Center, a facility for mentally disabled people.
He ran for sheriff in 2002, but lost to Gary Del Re. The following year, he was hired as Antioch's police chief, a post he held until 2006.
That was the year he joined Sheriff Mark Curran's team as undersheriff. Like Fagan in 2002, Curran ran as a Democrat. Curran switched to the GOP a few years later.
"That was a great day for me," said Fagan, who now publicly admits being a lifelong Republican.
Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko called Fagan a "consummate professional" and praised his memory for faces, names and facts, an important skill for any police investigator.
Filenko recalled chatting with Fagan seven or eight years ago at an awards presentation and asking Fagan the secret to longevity and survival in law enforcement.
"He just looked at me and grinned and said, 'Don't sweat the small stuff,'" said Filenko, president of the Lake County Chiefs of Police Association. "And he's right."
Fagan expects he'll spend the winters at a second home in Largo, Fla., with his wife, Brenda. The sheriff's executive assistant, she's retiring, too.
Both will end their careers Nov. 18. A ceremony at the sheriff's office is planned.
Fagan said he'll miss police work.
"But it's time for the younger guys to take a shot," he said.