Ex-Will County deputy released jail inmate in 2023 on wrong bond amount, records show

A Joliet man charged with a violent crime had been released from jail in 2023 on the wrong bond amount by a former Will County sheriff’s deputy who’s now facing sex crime charges, police records show.

Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley’s office recently released records on the internal investigation of former correctional deputy Daniel Herod, 41, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Herod’s employment with the sheriff’s office has been terminated after his March 27 arrest in Elwood on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and possession of child sex abuse images.

The incident that led to the internal investigation of Herod began July 3, 2023, when Will County Judge Chrystel Gavlin signed a $100,000 bond warrant for the arrest of Kenneth Kelly, 65, of Joliet.

Kelly is charged with aggravated battery and criminal damage to property after he was accused of using a vehicle to strike a woman and damage the entrance of a gas station.

Kelly was taken to the Will County jail July 15, 2023, and he was required to post 10% of the $100,000 bond amount for his release.

However, Kelly was freed from jail the same day when his fiancée posted just 10% of $10,000, court records show.

Kelly was released on the wrong bond amount, and Herod was the “releasing deputy,” according to an Aug. 24, 2023, letter from Will County Sheriff’s Sgt. Nicholas Schroeder.

The letter was submitted to Vincent Perillo, sheriff’s deputy chief of the jail.

“Deputy Herod admitted that he did not verify the bond amount on the hard copy of the warrant and took responsibility for the mistake,” according to Schroeder’s letter.

Herod was issued a written warning.

In the fall of that year, a performance evaluation found Herod was an “asset” to the jail’s emergency response team.

When it came to booking and releasing, Herod is “one of the best officers in terms of proficiency at that post,” according to the evaluation.

Herod received “one write-up,” but since then has “caught the same mistake being made several times” and prevented “the improper bond amount from being taken,” according to the evaluation.

Kelly’s jail release occurred only a few months before the SAFE-T Act eliminated cash bail and required judges to decide pretrial release based on public safety and the circumstances of each case.

The SAFE-T Act was set to go into effect at the start of 2023, but it was temporarily halted by a lawsuit from Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and other prosecutors.

The lawsuit ultimately failed before the Illinois Supreme Court.

During former Judge Dave Carlson’s time on the Will County bench, he criticized the SAFE-T Act, including in the Joliet Outlaws murder case.

In one court hearing, Carlson lamented state officials telling judges to “follow their rules,” which were “made by people who have never sat in a courtroom, made by people who have never made decisions, quite frankly, about anything other than political things.”

Carlson initially presided over Kelly’s case before he assigned it to another judge.

Kelly’s release from jail on the wrong bond amount was noted in an Aug. 15, 2023, court docket entry for Carlson’s court call.

“Court is satisfied with [the] amount posted at this time,” according to the court docket entry.