Illinois Township Officials Have More Fun

A story about the recent death by drowning of the Calumet Township Trustee at a suburban Chicago after-hours party at a public pool has prompted a wrongful death lawsuit by the deceased official's family. A Sun-Times story detailing a Blue Island police department report is quite eye popping. Apparently a Blue Island park's department official allowed employees and officials of the park's department and Calumet Township to enter a public pool for a late-night party where most of the attendees were drunk. Things got a little out of hand and the party-goers left behind Calos Salgado, the Calumet Township Trustee, who was found dead at the bottom of the pool the following morning. Nobody seemed to know how Salgado drowned, but at one point he had been asked to leave by the boyfriend of one of three women who were running around the party naked because he kept staring at them according to the police report.

A Blue Island police report on the recent drowning death of a Calumet Township official reads like a college fraternity party scripted by Hollywood -- a wild after-hours pool party featuring booze, nude women and sex in the bathhouse.


The 85-page report, released Monday, details a raucous late-night party attended by officials and employees from Calumet Township and the Blue Island Park District.
But it determined there was no foul play in Carlos Salgado's death.


''Based on the investigation conducted by this department, it is determined that Salgado's death was caused by drowning with no indication of the drowning to have been caused by or at the hands of another,'' according to the report.

Salgado, 26, was found at the bottom of Memorial Park pool on June 26, the morning after the late-night affair for select public officials and their guests, including Blue Island Park District president Fred Bilotto.

Bilotto allowed officials to enter the pool after the Blue Island Fest, according to the report.

The report did not provide specifics on the drowning.

Blue Island Chief Douglas Hoglund said no criminal charges will be pursued stemming from Salgado's death.

Salgado's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Bilotto, the city of Blue Island and others. Mayor Donald Peloquin has said the city will ask a judge to be removed from the matter because the park district is a separate jurisdiction.

According to the report, off-duty cops drank beer in the beer garden but did not enter the pool area, the report said. Hoglund said their attendance at the party was not a concern because, ''They were off-duty.''

Attendees to the after-hours party, among other things, played basketball in the pool and some people were drinking, the report said. Salgado, who could not swim, entered the pool to play basketball, the report said.

From there, the night progressed to where one woman -- who later told police she might have been the most drunk at the party -- removed all her clothes and was encouraging others to do the same. That woman, who works for Calumet Township, told police she woke up the next morning with a hangover because of how much she had to drink the night before.

At least two other women in the pool were topless, according to the report. One of the topless women left the pool with a man she told police she had just met that night in search of a towel. They were later found having sex about 2:30 a.m. in a men's shower stall in the bathhouse by another partygoer who Bilotto had asked to secure the pool.

At one point, after the water basketball game, Salgado approached a group of people that included the three nude women. One of the men in the group, whose girlfriend was present and topless, asked Salgado to leave because he was staring at the women and made them feel uncomfortable, according to the report. None of the people in the group knew what happened to Salgado after that, they told police.