If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month. – Theodore Roosevelt
I really don’t want to write this column. In fact, I’d rather be subjected to a three-hour Chris Lauzen lecture on good leadership. But with Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin going after each other like two flippin’ third graders irate over a perceived playground slight, the journalistic standard demands the record be set straight, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Let’s not forget that I’m the bleep who got both of ‘em elected, which is yet another ironic twist in this cautionary tale of the steep price we often pay for our self-inflicted wounds.
By all accounts James Moriarity, 32, had turned his life around. He’d been sober for 1.5 years, he had a live-in girlfriend and a steady job. But whether the mental illness preceded the drugs or it was a byproduct of them, his life rapidly descended into the abyss in 2023.
Perhaps it was the inexorable pull of opioids, but regardless of the reason, Moriarity resumed his heavy drug use to the point where he tried to kill himself by overdose. Having survived the attempt, he told his ex-wife and friends he was planning to commit “suicide by cop,” leading police on several harrowing pursuits in the days before his death at the hands of Kane County Sheriff’s deputies.
On May 23, 2023, in an effort to either feed his heroin habit or end his life, Moriarity carjacked a Mazda and eluded the Aurora Police when the speeds became too dangerous to them to continue the pursuit. Then he hid the vehicle in a covered garage adjacent to his Aurora apartment complex and went home.
Given the family’s prior warnings, not only did the APD know exactly who they were dealing with, but they were also aware of Moriarity’s death-by-cop intent. So, after they found the car that evening, discretion dictated that staking out the garage in wait for Moriarity was the best course of action. The APD also deployed a “block” vehicle and tire deflation devices to prevent any possibility of escape.
When you consider the complexities and potential collateral damage involved, it was the perfect plan. But as is too often the case with competing law enforcement agencies, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” particularly when Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain is involved.
Because when word of the sting filtered up to him, despite a flurry of APD objections, for reasons only he can truly explain, Hain insisted that his deputies seize the Mazda directly. Since Sheriffs have jurisdiction over their entire county, that’s exactly what they proceeded to do – complete with mars light blaring.
With the car towed and no watch commander on duty to overrule them that time of night, reasonably believing their operation had been compromised, the APD sergeants on the scene called it off.
But their cover hadn’t been blown. Had they stuck it out, they likely would’ve likely been able to apprehend Moriarity the next morning without unintentional consequences. Instead, when he discovered the vehicle was gone, Moriarity walked to the Sullivan and Orchard Road Jiffy Lube and carjacked a gray Honda Accord at 2 p.m.
Sometime later that afternoon, a Kane County patrol car’s license plate reader picked up the Honda at Stearns Road near Route 25 in South Elgin. The deputies tried to coordinate a multi-unit stop at Silver Glen and Randall Roads, but to absolutely no one’s surprise, Moriarty avoided capture one more time, fleeing south on Randall Road initiating an ill-advised high speed chase – at rush hour.
He finally crashed the vehicle around 4 p.m. at the intersection of Randall and Fabyan Parkway on the border between Geneva and Batavia. When the officers surrounded him, Moriarity produced what appeared to be a handgun causing the officers to open fire killing the suspect as well as Hudson, the K-9 officer, who’d been unleashed to help subdue him. That was yet another case of poor judgment on the part of the Kane County Sheriff’s office because they knew Moriarity was dead set on dying and he wasn’t going anywhere at that point.
Now, a year after the fact, Hain and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, both of whom harbor the emotional maturity of six-year-olds, are trading inappropriate barbs over who’s to blame for Hudson’s death. And it was those immature temper tantrums that were the impetus for The First Ward finally stepping into this mess and putting all of the facts together in one place.
Now armed with those facts, in next Tuesday’s part two, we’ll print the truth about this sad scenario.
And that analysis will include how this string of bad decisions started with Sheriff Hain imperiously demanding the Mazda be “repossessed” despite potentially blowing the APD’s sting. We’ll also discuss the likely reasons for that terrible decision.
Again, the APD was dead on with a stakeout approach to a suspect who’s singular intent was suicide by cop and the Sheriff should’ve stayed out of it. Did the APD err in abandoning their stakeout too soon? Yes! But they wouldn’t have been placed in that untenable position had it not been for Hain’s absurd interference.
We’ll also cover how the animosity between the Sheriff’s office and the APD has become so rife that an officer may eventually die as a result.
Lastly, considering his response to Hudson’s death, his helpful propensity to refer to the APD as “clowns,” (though that moniker certainly applies to Mayor Irvin) and his out-of-control drinking, I’ll call on Ron Hain to resign because he can no longer faithfully execute his oath of office.
Until then.
