* Orlando Jones’ suicide clearly showed the stress that can be caused when the federal walls move in. Chris Kelly, facing imprisonment this Friday and enormous pressure to spill his guts on his friend Rod Blagojevich, had reportedly talked about killing himself for several days. He followed through with his threats over the weekend…
His girlfriend, identified by [Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch] as Clarissa I. Flores-Buhelos, drove Kelly to Oak Forest Hospital in his black Cadillac Escalade after he sent a text message asking her for help from the parking lot of Forest Lumber in the 17200 block of Cicero Avenue in Country Club Hills.
A Country Club Hills police officer spoke to Kelly, who was sitting up and alert in his room at Oak Forest Hospital. “Kelly was very hesitant,” Welch said. “He was very ill and not feeling well. And he was defensive.”
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Oak Forest Hospital does not have a trauma unit, but doctors were able to stabilize Kelly. Doctors later decided Kelly could be better treated at Stroger Hospital in Chicago, where Kelly was taken about 5:15 a.m. Saturday and died at 10:46 a.m., Cook County hospitals officials said.
The police officer also interviewed an unidentified “male white with grey hair” who claimed to be Kelly’s friend. He told the officer who Kelly was, Welch said.
Later Saturday morning, a white man with grey hair — police are unsure if it was the same man interviewed at the hospital earlier — came to the hospital with keys to the Escalade and tried to remove it from the parking lot but was turned away by police, Welch said.
“We’re trying to determine who that is, too,” Welch said. “It could be the same white male or it could be two separate people we don’t know.”
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At the scene, officers found vomit in the parking lot, as they did on the Escalade. Kelly’s clothing, now in evidence, was also “soaked in vomit,” according to Welch. The Escalade had been in the parking lot of the lumber yard, outside an area secured by a locked gate, and adjacent to a storage facility. Welch said police are looking into whether Kellly had a vehicle - possibly a boat - or other belongings stored at the site.
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Police in Country Club Hills — where Tylenol wrappers and a large container of pills were found in Kelly’s SUV in the parking lot of a lumber yard — said their main witness, Clarissa Flores-Buhelos, became uncooperative with police after dropping off Kelly at Oak Forest Hospital late Friday. Her attorney vehemently denied that Flores-Buhelos is not cooperating.
What is known is that Kelly arrived at the hospital about 11:15 p.m. Friday, suffering from what appeared to be an overdose, officials said.
The police officer who interviewed Kelly in the hospital said he told him that he took Tylenol for pain because of recent surgery, said Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans. On Saturday, the medical examiner’s office said Stroger Hospital officials told it that Kelly apparently had an intoxication of salicylate, a drug used in anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications such as aspirin.
Later, Kelly became “very defensive,” Welch said. He told an officer: “I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to trick me,” according to Evans. The officer said Kelly did not admit to trying to kill himself, she added.
* Things were deteriorating last week…
Last week, a federal judge placed Kelly on a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew until his jail surrender. The unusual step came, sources say, after Kelly displayed recent erratic behavior.
He paid an agitated visit to a nightclub at 2047 N. Milwaukee. As a condition of his curfew, he was told not to go near the business.
Clarissa Flores-Buhelos manages the same nightclub where Kelly became “agitated” and was subsequently banned from.
* Blagojevich says Kelly killed himself because he was being pressured to tell lies. Nobody really knows what goes through the mind of someone who does such a thing. But his attitude when being questioned by local police (refusing to answer questions, cracking that he’d just had surgery on his private parts - likely another way of describing how he’d pled guilty) suggests defiance until the bitter, bitter end.
Either way, Blagojevich will benefit from this, and that’s really too bad.
* Related…
* Scott Fawell’s Take on Kelly’s Apparent Suicide: “You wanna indict Chris Kelly, you want to send him away, you know what? Do it. But this, I’ll indict him a second time, lets indict him a third time, that’s strictly for pressure. I mean, I’d be rather surprised if Rod Blagojevich is exonerated, but no, they want one more piece, so let’s put some heat on Chris Kelly. It never stops.”
* Carol Marin: Did pressure from feds help kill Chris Kelly?
* Law used to indict Blagojevich challenged as vague