Police investigating the death of Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich, interviewed Kelly's girlfriend Monday as more details emerged about their relationship and Kelly's final hours.Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans met with Clarissa Flores-Buhelos at her attorney's Chicago office and afterward would only say Flores-Buhelos was "cooperating, but the investigation continues."
Kelly, 51, who was facing heavy pressure by Blagojevich prosecutors to cooperate in the corruption case against his former close friend, died Saturday morning just hours after authorities say Flores-Buhelos brought him to a suburban hospital with signs of a drug overdose.
On Monday, sources filled in some of the gaps in the events surrounding Kelly's arrival at Oak Forest Hospital shortly after 11 p.m. Friday and his transfer early Saturday to Stroger Hospital in Chicago, where he was pronounced dead hours later.
| Oak Forest Hospital is a county facility on the far south side of the county. It is NOT an acute care facility, it is a chronic care / rehab / LTAC / SNIF, and a former TB sanitarium. It's a scandal in and of itself, as any Chicagoan could tell you, but if you've chugged a few bottles of aspirin, don't go to Oak Forest Hospital. If you fail to heed my advice and go there anyway, don't then go in transfer to 'Stroger' (the former Cook County) Hospital. That's at Harrison and Polk just west of the downtown, and is about a one hour ambulance ride from OFH. There's plenty of good hospitals along the way for someone who's in critical condition from salicylate poisoning -- for example, Christ Hospital, Little Company of Mary Hospital, or University of Chicago Hospital. UCH even has a helicopter and will pick you up. |
Hospital officials declined to comment about what happened at Oak Forest, citing federal health privacy laws. But the sources said Kelly eventually calmed down, was stabilized and that a treating physician at Oak Forest traveled with Kelly by private ambulance to Stroger Hospital so he could receive a higher level of care.
| Dumb-da-dumb-dumb. Again, OFH isn't an acute care facility, so that ANY level of acute care would be higher. Treating physician went along? That doesn't happen unless one is critically ill, and if that's the case you go from OFH to Christ or UCH. |
| Tylenol? That's not salicylate poisoning, of course, that's acetaminophen poisoning -- just as bad as it whacks the liver good and hard (RAB, pay attention here). |
The source said that Kelly recently went to the nightclub at 2047 N. Milwaukee Ave. and wanted to check on the club's financial books. A club owner, though, refused to allow Kelly to see the books, angering Kelly. The two allegedly exchanged words, the source said.
| Wonder if the club owner had a bottle of |
| Surely people aren't that evil in real life these days? |
That information sheds more light on happenings in federal court last week, the last time Kelly appeared at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. There, federal prosecutors moved to ensure Kelly was not allowed to visit the club or have contact with three individuals.
Norma Martinez, a representative of Aragon Entertainment Center and the nightclub, said last week that Kelly had an altercation at the club with another co-owner, whom she declined to identify. She said Kelly had no ownership in the club.
On Monday, an attorney for the club, Carlos Vazquez, said Flores-Buhelos worked in a non-managerial position "for a month or so" in the club's first-floor restaurant. "Neither Clarissa nor Chris Kelly were owners or investors," Vazquez said.
On Monday, meanwhile, Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch said investigators were prepared to hold news conference Tuesday to release details and a timeline of Kelly's death.
People following Kelly's shocking death would be both "pleased and a little surprised" by police's findings, Welch said, declining to elaborate. Welch had previously identified Flores-Buhelos as Kelly's girlfriend and accused her of having "lawyered up" and not cooperating with police. Her attorney, Terry Gillespie, angrily responded by calling Welch's comments "unconscionable grandstanding." The police chief met with Flores-Buhelos at Gillespie's office; the attorney declined to comment afterward.
Earlier, Welch said police were seeking the cell phones for both Kelly and Flores-Behelos because the two had been sending text messages back and forth before Flores-Buhelos found Kelly slumped over the wheel of his 2007 Cadillac Escalade in a lumberyard in Country Club Hills Friday night. He said the messages were key to piecing together the events leading to Kelly's death because Kelly told her he wanted to kill himself.