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Who is Policing the Will County Sheriff??? apparently no one!
Will County Sheriff Mum on Courthouse Official’s Alleged Past as Felon, Disgraced Cop
Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas refused to discuss whether his courthouse services coordinator—who committed suicide last week—had pleaded guilty to felonies he committed when he was a Summit police officer.
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Hours after the Will County Courthouse Services Coordinator took his own life in the parking lot of Crest Hill’s City Hall last week, the sheriff’s department he worked for took over the death investigation for reasons that remain unclear.
The morning after the suicide, circumstances surrounding both the death and life of courthouse coordinator James Carson, a Plainfield resident, remained murky.
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Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas claimed he couldn’t remember which police department Carson had worked for in his prior career as a cop. And when asked days later if the deceased armed official was a former Summit police officer who had pleaded guilty to felony forgery and official misconduct, Kaupas refused to talk at all.
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore about anything,” said Kaupas, who also emitted a long groan.
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Kaupas has released virtually no information regarding the suicide of Carson, 55, who shot himself in the head outside the Crest Hill City Council Chambers. A city council meeting was in session when Carson shot himself but Crest Hill's government and officials had no apparent connection to the suicide.
With Kaupas keeping quiet, his department has likewise yet to respond to a request for records Patch made Thursday under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Patch has asked the sheriff’s department to provide Carson’s personnel file, previous law enforcement experience and his job description, as well as records of his firearms training, weapons he had been issued and any previous names he has used.
Sources say one name Carson had used earlier in his life was James Frezados, and Carson’s obituary in the Chicago Sun-Times identified him as “James Frezados Carson.” The obituary lists Carson's father as Harry Carson and his mother as Esther Frezados.
When Carson’s wife filed to divorce him in November 2009, she identified him as James Frezados-Carson and herself as Georgia Frezados-Carson. The divorce was dismissed in February 2010 but in September 2012, James Carson filed his own divorce case against his wife, this time leaving the hyphenated Frezados out of both their names.
A January 1986 Chicago Tribune story revealed a Summit Police Officer named James Frezados, 27, pleaded guilty at that time to forgery and official misconduct. James Frezados-Carson also would have been 27 at that time. According to court records and the Will County Coroner's Office, both James Carson and James Frezados share the same June 6, 1958, birthday.
The charges against Frezados stemmed from his having allegedly held onto more than a gram of cocaine that had been confiscated in a June 1984 drug raid, the Tribune story said.
“According to (Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Tom) Gardiner, Frezados placed the cocaine in his police department locker even though he told a Cook County grand jury that it had been sent to a crime laboratory,” the story said. “He presented a fake lab report, Gardiner said. When the state’s attorney’s office asked the lab chemist to testify in the case, the chemist said the signature on the report was not his, Gardiner said.”
Court records show Frezados was charged with four counts of perjury, six counts of official misconduct and two counts of forgery. Ten of the charges were dismissed in exchange for Frezados pleading guilty to the two remaining felonies. He was sentenced to probation.
Law enforcement officials are aware of Carson's alleged past as Frezados and it has been a topic of discussion, a law enforcement source said.
"This is who he was," the source said he was told by a former Summit police officer. "This is where he worked."
After refusing to discuss whether Frezados and Carson are the same man, Kaupas was asked what he knew about his courthouse services coordinator when he hired him. Kaupas said, “I don’t want to talk to you anymore about anything.”Go check out our Facebook page.5 Comments 2 Recommend by TaboolaSponsored ContentFrom the WebHow to Speak a New Language in 10 DaysKnoworthyCelebrity Pregnancies & BirthsTime Warner Cable CentralThe Book Secret Publishers WANT You to KnowBookworm TipsMore from PatchMore from the WebPlainfield Dan kennison December 23, 2013 at 12:47 PM Does the Sheriff do background checks on people before they get hired and put in places of authority? If he had felonies how did the Sheriff allow him to have a gun issued and work in Courthouse security? First his cousin Ken Kaupas gets a job with a law suit filed against him, books about knowingly keeping innocent men in jail and past discipline problems at the State Police and now this. What is going on over there?Katie N December 23, 2013 at 04:55 PMUmmm yea exactly! Will county courthouse is almost as bad as cook county! Just as grimey as cook to. In the jail and the courthouse! All cops are dirty n do what they want n I doubt they know who they're hiring if they even care! Their system doesn't even know what they're doing! I had to literally go to the jail and tell them my kids father is suppose to b in court.. They looked at me like uhhhhhh.... Dumbass's. then later apologized! This courthouse needs new employees a new head of the courts n might I add a good cleaning!!!!! N this guy killed himself so y is there a post calling him out on charges when he was 27??? Get over it n let him r.i.p.!! Their fault they hired him! Their fault they have him a gun that he was able to use to kill himself too! Good job will county! Get it together! Discus's me!!!helen m December 23, 2013 at 06:10 PMI feel for the family....the Sheriff's Office should have given him some help with whatever problems he was having...possessing a firearm by a convicted felon is a felony....doesn't that make giving him a gun a felony act and subject the Sheriff to being charged with a felony himself...let alone being complicit in his suicide by giving him the gun that he killed himself with.......? doesn't the Sheriffs office do background checks ..or who did Koopas owe a favor to by hiring this guy.....sounds like grounds for a lawsuit by the family ......failure to act by the sheriff....My prayers go out to the family...they have suffered enough with his disease...helen m December 23, 2013 at 06:18 PMI missed the comment by Dan....Koopas hired his cousin and he is running for sheriff? I would bet there is more to come out over that...holding back on exculpatory evidence and keeping two innocent guys in prison for a murder they did not commit...isn't that official misconduct by a police officer....isn't that a felony? how can ken work as a police officer? it sucks these couple of police officers giving all of them a bad name...Tony Manjalagots December 26, 2013 at 08:52 AMWill County needs to ask the FBI to investigate this case, and the Will County Sheriff better look for a good Criminal Defense Attorney. There is something very wrong here, and the Sheriff needs to be relieved of all his duties until a full investigation is complete.RecommendFlag as InappropriatePost comment
