www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/07/15/news/doc44b7ab9df1e4d950620546.prtPolice Sargent charged with sex assaults
Bloomington Police Sgt. Jeff Pelo, 41, and his wife, Rickielee Pelo, arrive at the McLean County Law and Justice for his hearing June 23. (Pantagraph file photo/Steve Smedley)
By Greg Cima
gcima@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON -- A Bloomington police sergeant was charged Friday afternoon with the rapes of four women in their homes between December 2002 and January 2005.
Jeff S. Pelo, a 17-year department veteran, appeared in court in handcuffs and a blue jumpsuit as he was read the charges against him: four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and two counts of home invasion. Prosecutors say the home invasion charges are connected with the last two rapes, which occurred in January 2005.
Pelo is scheduled for arraignment July 21 on the latest charges.
As was first reported by the Pantagraph, Pelo had been a suspect in the rapes after his arrest June 10 on accusations he tried to break into a woman’s home on the east side.
The 41-year-old was arrested when he appeared for an arraignment at 9 a.m. Friday on those previously filed charges of residential burglary and aggravated stalking charges. He pleaded innocent to those charges.
Bloomington police spokesman David White said the rapes for which Pelo is charged are the same ones that investigators working with FBI profilers determined could be connected. Bloomington police officials said in February 2005 they had no evidence of a rapist committing multiple offenses, but announced 10 months later that the cases — all involving single women in their 20s — could be connected.
Pelo’s attorney, Steve Skelton, said he did not believe his client would be convicted on Friday’s charges.
“I’m resolute in my belief in his innocence,” Skelton said.
Skelton called Pelo’s bond amount astronomical, and said he will seek a reduction. Pelo posted $30,000 in the stalking case, and now needs to post $200,000 to be released on the new charges.
Skelton said after the hearing that Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Messman’s statements showed substantial differences in what happened in the rapes, and the methods in connected rape cases tend to show stark similarities.
The victims in the last two rapes identified Pelo in a photo lineup and in a series of voice samples, Messman said. The woman attacked in April 2003 described strong similarities between her attacker and Pelo in a photo lineup and narrowed to three a series of voice samples she could not eliminate, including one from Pelo, Messman said.
Skelton said Pelo’s picture has appeared in print and electronic media numerous times and that could interfere with the accuracy of such a lineup.
Skelton said the charges came as more of a surprise to him than any move by prosecutors in his nearly 30 years of practice, he said. He first felt a sense of dread when a judge told him and Pelo they needed to meet with law enforcement in a security hallway to the courtroom Friday morning, he said.
Police searched Pelo’s home near Downs after his first arrest and confiscated a mask, a pry bar and items that could be used to bind a person, Messman said.
Pelo was placed on paid administrative leave following his first arrest. White said he did not know Friday if he was still on paid leave, but knew his status had not changed because of Friday’s charges.
Skelton described the accusations as a “kick in the jaw,” and he was worried for the emotional state of his client.
Prosecutors have said a woman called police about 12:20 a.m. June 10 and said someone was trying to break into her house through a front door and window. Officers found Pelo near the house, and he was arrested later that day.
Prosecutors later said Pelo used personal information in a police report, which was filed by the woman sometime last year, in stalking her. Skelton said official reports will show if Pelo had contact with any of the victims, and he did not have access to those reports.
Vickie Smith, director of Stepping Stones, the YWCA’s sexual assault survivors’ program, said the new charges bring hope the man behind the rapes was caught.
“But we won’t know for sure, obviously, until he goes to court and goes through a trial as to whether he’s going to be found guilty,” Smith said. “But hopefully the person who has committed these stranger rapes has been caught and is off the street and everybody can breathe a sigh of relief.”
Smith said it is sad that the man charged in the case is a police officer. But she said it is encouraging that he was arrested by Bloomington police and charged by county prosecutors.
Smith said she hopes that if there are any more victims in such attacks, they will come forward.
Prosecutors are asking anyone with information on the investigation to call Bloomington Detective Clay Wheeler at (309) 434-2368 or Detective Matthew Dick at (309) 434-2475.
Rape case details
Court documents and a statement read in court by Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Messman show Bloomington police Sgt. Jeff Pelo is charged in the following rapes in Bloomington:
Dec. 18, 2002: A woman woke to find a man in her room, and he held a knife to her throat, threatened to hurt her if she resisted and told her he had been watching her. He then raped the woman.
April 4, 2003: Another woman woke to find a man in her room, and he threatened to shoot her if she resisted or cried out. The man then forcibly raped her.
Jan. 4, 2005: A woman saw a man had entered her room, and he displayed a knife. The man told her he “had done this before,” and he forcibly raped the woman.
Jan. 25 or 26, 2005: A man armed with a gun entered a woman’s room. The man threatened the woman’s family if she resisted, recited her family’s address, and forcibly raped her.
SOURCE: Court documents; Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Messman; Compiled by Greg Cima
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