Scott Peters

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Fox Lake officer’s murder gives two deputies shot and wounded in the line of duty pause

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-fox-lake-police-shooting-mchenry-deputies-met-20150902-story.html

As the manhunt continues for three male suspects who shot and killed a Fox Lake police officer, McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputies wounded by gunfire in the line of duty less than a year ago, say they are deeply saddened and wish they could help.

Dwight Maness, home recovering and preparing for yet another surgery since being shot and seriously wounded by a Holiday Hills man while making a well-being check at his home in 2014, said he feels “helpless.” He wants to go out and help in the manhunt that has drawn hundreds of officers from various agencies, as was the manhunt for Scott Peters, who shot Maness and his partner Deputy Khalia Satkiewicz on Oct. 16, 2014.

That search went on for more than 12 hours before Peters, now serving 135 years in prison for attempted murder, was apprehended. Maness, though after he was shot and was in the hospital coming in and out of consciousness, said seeing watching the manhunt on TV and seeing the helicopters searching for the three subjects who shot and killed Fox Lake Lt. Charles “Joe” Gliniewicz is like reliving his shooting all over again.

“It’s nerve-wracking that they have not found them yet,” Maness said. “All we can do is hope and pray they (are) taken into custody and someone turns them in.”

Noting his attack by Peters just 11 months ago, Maness said cop shootings are “not only out here, but it’s across the nation.” 
And since Peters was sentenced to prison in April, there have been dozens more across the nation.

“That bothers me a lot,” he said. “The lack of respect that society seems to have on police officers … When I was growing up you had that respect for police officers.”

Though Maness and his wife Sue did not know Gliniwiecz they said their hearts are broken over his death and that they will do what ever they can to help his family. “It’s horrible,” Sue Maness said. “My heart totally goes out to the family. I can’t say I know what she is feeling, but it’s pretty close. Yesterday was a really hard day. We were glued to the TV all day. Everything kind of floods back form last year. It was hard.”

McHenry County deputy Khalia Satkiewicz, who was shot and wounded along with Maness while making that well being call in Holiday Hills, had few words today other than she is “heartbroken” over the officer’s death. “We worked with the department a few times,” she said softly in a phone interview. “I did know who he was and I’m very sad. All I can say is my heart really breaks for his family … prayers to his family.”

Satkiewicz said she has another surgery later this month and plans on returning to work full time soon. While home recovering she said she has been “running the kids here and there … just trying to get myself ready to go back to work.”

Her husband Illinois State Trooper Master Sgt. Robert Satkiewicz said he was part of the search efforts in Fox Lake on Tuesday, and he knew Gliniewicz for about ten years.

“He was a good guy, he’ll be sorely missed,” Satkiewicz said. “It does hit home, this is very close for us … with everything happening with Khalia … put a lot into our thoughts.” He stayed at the Fox Lake search for more than 12 hours yesterday, often reflecting that the scene there must have been what it was like when police were searching for the man who shot his wife less than a year earlier.

He said though his place then was at his wife’s hospital bed, he had the urge to be out searching for Peters. He said his two young children, ages 8 and 13, were happy to see him come home at the end of the day yesterday. And this morning as he left, they told him they hoped he catches “the bad guys.”

“My thoughts and prayers obviously go out to the family,” he said. “I hope we can find the suspects and bring some resolve to it. It’s tough, tough to watch a fellow officer (be killed), someone we knew, the next town over. (It) starts to make you wonder a little bit about whats going on.”

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Holiday Hills shooter moved to prison for life sentence before family gets to say good bye

The wife of Scott Peters, the Holiday Hills man sentenced Thursday to 135 years in prison, this morning was in tears as she told the judge her husband had been sent away to prison this before she and their daughter could say good bye.

Lisa Peters cried as she stood before Judge Sharon Prather holding the paperwork in her hand that the judge had signed yesterday at the close of Peters’ sentencing. The pink copy court order stated that Peters would be allowed one contact visit with his wife and their 13-year-old daughter.

Peters told the judge that she had gone yesterday, immediately after the sentencing and pre-arranged with his jailers to be there at 9 a.m. this morning. She said she waited for the jailers to get their copies of the court order as well and then scheduled the visit.

“Me and my daughter came to say good bye to him and he’s gone,” she said tearfully.

Prather, who sentenced Peters to what is essentially a life sentence for shooting at three McHenry County deputies — seriously injuring two, apologized and told Peters that sending her husband away before she saw him was “inconsiderate.”

“However, there is nothing I can do,” Prather said.

The woman, with her daughter at her side, left the courtroom in tears and said “Nobody cares.”

Dave Devane, chief administrative officer who oversees the jail and police operations, said the jail never received its copy of the court order stating the contact visit had been approved by Prather — a copy of what Peters had in her hand on Thursday.

However, Peters said when she went to the jail after the sentencing she waited until the jailers received that paperwork so she could schedule her visit.

That same court order also included the approved request to allow Peters to make two non-collect phone calls, and Peters said her husband had called her Thursday night. So, Lisa Peters, questioned if he was allowed to make the phone calls then they should have known he also would have been allowed a visit. She said jailers knew she was coming to visit.

Devane denies the jail ever received the court order and said no visit was ever scheduled.

“The officer went up to (the courtroom to) find the yellow order and looked all around and couldn’t find it, therefore we were never given an official court order to permit this visit. (Visits) don’t happen without a court order. The scheduling doesn’t have any legal significance, the court order does,” Devane said.

He said Peters was moved at 5:45 am Friday morning as a single passenger to Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.

He said Peters had been “cheeking” his medication, was on a razor restriction and on suicide watch. Devane declined to say what the medication was and for what he was prescribed.

Throughout Scott Peters’ detainment in the county jail since his October arrest he repeatedly alleged mistreatment by jailers. Each time Prather found them to have no basis.
Devane said today that Peters’ accusations against his jailers are “untrue.”

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Holiday Hills shooter sentenced to 135 years in prison: Victims and loved ones share their stories

Scott Peters, the Holiday Hills man who shot and wounded two McHenry County deputies as they made a well-being check at his home last October, was sentenced today to 135 years in prison.

During today’s sentencing the eight-year-old son of Deputy Khalia Satkiewicz, one of the wounded officers, described his thoughts at first seeing his mother in the hospital and wanting to give her a hug.

“When I saw her in the bed I felt very sad … I felt mad at the man who shot my mommy,” said Nicholas Satkiewicz as his tears filled the courtroom.

Peters, 52, who was found guilty in April of 15 counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm at a peace officer, sat stoic as his sentence was read.

Just after 1 a.m. Oct 16, Peters fired shots from an assault rifle at Satkiewicz and Deputy Dwight Maness thorough a closed front door.

He then opened the door and chased them, still shooting, as they ran for cover in the darkness. He struck and seriously wounded the deputies. He also fired shots at a third deputy, Eric Luna, who was not injured. Peters then led authorities on a 16-hour manhunt before being arrested.

Satkiewicz’s 13-year-old daughter Sierra said seeing her mom wounded and crying for the first time in the hospital was “heartbreaking.”

“My mother didn’t deserve any of this,” she said.

As the children read their statements Peters sat without emotion, however, his wife Lisa, quietly wiped away tears.

Robert Satkiewicz, an Illinois State Police Master Sergeant, described what Peters did that night — hiding behind a door and shooting at officers who went to his home to help his own wife and daughter– as “hurtful, destructive and cowardice.”

“You are lucky I wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be here today,” he told Peters. “You are a domestic terrorist and should be treated as such. … “I pray you never see the light of day outside prison walls again.”

Deputy Khalia Satkiewicz said “Nightmare cannot begin to describe the terror I felt that night.”

“The night turned into an ambush that was meant to kill us … His agenda was clear, he was hellbent on killing us,” she said adding that she saw her children’s faces before her as she ran for cover.

“We should be dead … God was with us that night. “Evil showed itself on Oct. 16 in the form of Scott Peters,” she said. “The physical wounds will heal but the mental and emotional scars will be with me my entire lifetime.”

Maness’ colleague McHenry County Police Sergeant Travis McDonald, read a statement written by Maness who could not attend the sentencing. He suffered new injuries this week to his right leg following a procedure to help repair his left leg and was in the hospital. He has so far undergone 15 surgeries.

Maness wrote that for his whole life, including serving 20 years in the military and as a police officer the last seven, he has been a “warrior” and has “(stood) up for people who cannot stand up for themselves.”

Calling Peters a “coward” and a “sociopath” Maness wrote that Peters “has no honor” and “does not know what it is like to sacrifice.

“It is all about him,” Maness wrote. He added that the injuries sustained in the ambush have caused him to lose “every ounce of dignity” and he credited his wife Sue with caring for him.

The events of that night have caused him to be “shut out form the outside world” and he has suffered greatly physically, mentally and emotionally.

However, he said, the incident had brought the department closer together and that after that day deputies “held their children a little tighter and told their spouses they loved them a little more.”

Despite his injuries, Maness said “I am a warrior and will continue to walk the warrior’s path.”

His wife, Sue Maness, described getting the phone call at 2 a.m. that her husband had been shot.

“I was paralyzed with fear and sick to my stomach,” she said.

“My husband is the epitome of what a soldier, a police officer and a man should be … (you are) coward hiding behind a door. What kind of a man is that?
Before the hearing got underway, the prosecutor played an audio recording of a phone call Peters made to his wife after being found guilty on April 30. On the recording Peters tells his wife that he was found guilty and asks her to find him a new lawyer. He made claims that his attorneys, jail officers and the jury were all against him and that he was not treated fairly. He also accused police officers of taking the front door off and shooting more bullet holes into it, setting him up.

“The whole thing is rigged,” he repeatedly told his wife.

Often referring to one another as “baby and “honey” Peters told his wife he was sorry and that she didn’t have to stay with him.

Before sentencing his public defense attorney Angelo Mourelatos said Peters may suffer some mental health issues including depression, delusions and post traumatic stress disorder. He also said a long prison term could be a hardship on his wife and 13-year-old daughter.

Peters apologized to all the families who were hurt by what he did. He said he has “been stick to my stomach ever since” that night.

“In the end there were families on each side of the door at my house that night,” Peters said. “I pray everyone will recover from it.”

Before handing down, what is essentially a life sentence, Prather told Peters that he had never taken responsibility nor shown any remorse for what he did. She also called his accusations in the phone call to his wife in which he said the officers staged the crime scene by shooting bullets into his front door as “ludicrous.”

Prather said the responsibility of what happened “lays right at your feet.”

“There was no nonsense in this case, no lies, the only lies I heard in this case came from you,” Prather said.