Melodie Gliniewicz, widow of cop who staged suicide, to get $1M survivor’s pension from Fox Lake

Fox Lake has approved a survivor’s pension settlement with Melodie Gliniewicz, the widow of Fox Lake police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, who infamously staged his suicide to look like a line-of-duty killing.

In a news release Thursday, Fox Lake said it had a joint settlement agreement with the police pension board to resolve the survivor’s pension application that Melodie Gliniewicz filed.

“This has been a difficult chapter for our village,” Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit said in the release. “While we cannot change the past, we can choose a path forward that brings closure and represents a prudent financial decision for the village. This agreement does just that, and we are ready to focus on the continued growth and well-being of our community.”

Negotiations over Melodie Gliniewicz’s request for a survivor’s pension began in spring 2023, and the agreement was approved by the pension board in November, according to the release. Schmit was authorized to sign the agreement on Fox Lake’s behalf Nov. 26. Although the agreement was signed in November, the village announced the settlement in April.

“Under the terms of the settlement, the village and the pension board eliminated the risk of an adverse ruling, the cost of attorneys fees and reduced the cost of the survivor’s pension by potentially millions of dollars,” according to the release.

Village officials said the settlement was about $1 million and that police pension board funds covered most of that.

Melodie Gliniewicz was charged in 2016 with crimes related to her husband’s financial mismanagement of the local youth police group. She was accused of joining her husband in using the youth group’s funds for personal expenses – actions that apparently prompted him to stage his suicide to look like a line-of-duty death.

She pleaded guilty in Lake County court in 2022 to a single felony count of deceptive practices and was sentenced to probation.

Joe Gliniewicz was found shot to death Sept. 1, 2015, after telling a dispatcher that he was chasing suspects. It sparked a massive manhunt involving hundreds of officers from various law enforcement agencies. Weeks later, officials announced that Gliniewicz had staged his suicide to look like a line-of-duty death because he had been embezzling funds from the village’s youth police group and had been confronted by a village official about the misconduct.