Kristina McCloy, founder of Concerned Parents of Illinois, is urging DuPage County voters to reject Democrat sheriff candidate Peter Coolidge ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
She points to police records that document a 2018 harassment complaint against him, his relationship with a county jail nurse who was later killed by her ex-boyfriend and a pending federal lawsuit accusing him of excessive force.
“Peter Coolidge has no moral compass,” McCloy told DuPage Policy Journal. “I would never feel comfortable leaving my own nieces with him — and I will not pretend I am comfortable with him as sheriff in charge of their safety, my safety, or the safety of the women of DuPage County.”
Records obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request show the Winfield Police Department fielded a harassment complaint against Coolidge in 2018.
A woman identified as a Central DuPage Hospital employee told officers she had received weeks of unwanted texts and Facebook messages from Coolidge.
She said she had asked him by phone to stop contacting her, but the messages continued.
She later found a signed card from Coolidge left in a bag on her car windshield, which prompted her to contact police “for her own protection.”
Officers advised her to preserve screenshots and block him on social media and her phone. She declined to press charges but asked that Coolidge have no further contact with her.
When the responding officer later encountered Coolidge, who had ducked calls from Winfield police during the investigation, in person at the DuPage County Courthouse, he warned him to stay away from the woman.
According to the police report, Coolidge reportedly acknowledged the warning and agreed to comply.
The incident was classified as “harassment,” but the case was closed with no further action. McCloy is one of several DuPage County women to speak out against Coolidge in the wake of the revelations.
“Coolidge is a complete pervert. He cannot control himself with women,” McCloy said.
“He puts women in jeopardy. Yet Democrats want him responsible for the women and children of DuPage County. Democrat women are always claiming they stand for so-called ‘women’s rights,’ ‘Me Too,’ and ‘I’m with her.’ If they vote in this man — a man with clearly no respect for women — their hypocrisy will be on full display. This is not about politics anymore. It is about protecting the women of DuPage County,” McCloy said.
A separate Aurora Police Department report obtained by the DuPage Policy Journal shows Coolidge was interviewed by detectives two days after the March 2014 strangulation death of DuPage County jail nurse Heather Jacobi.
Coolidge was allegedly having an affair with Jacobi while married to his then-wife.
The interview took place at the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office after detectives attended Jacobi’s autopsy.
Coolidge agreed to provide screenshots of his Facebook messages with Jacobi and gave a recorded statement, though the substance of that statement was redacted from the report.
According to the report, Jacobi’s ex-boyfriend, Jose Loera, became enraged after seeing a “good night beautiful” Facebook message from Coolidge and another message from a second deputy appear on her phone.
He confronted her, and ultimately strangled her with a scarf.
Loera then used her phone to bait the men she’d been communicating with, including Coolidge, before taking pills in an apparent suicide attempt.
He was later found by police, confessed, and was sentenced to 48 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.
Coolidge and his first wife divorced in 2015, the year after Jacobi’s death.
“If Coolidge cannot govern himself with women, he does not get to govern their safety. DuPage deserves better,” McCloy said.
Coolidge is also a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit stemming from his time in courthouse security.
In a summary judgment order issued Aug. 5, U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah found that security camera footage did not clearly contradict plaintiff George Taylor’s account that Coolidge slammed, punched and kneed him while he was subdued on the ground during a 2024 courthouse security screening incident.
The case is set to proceed to trial against Coolidge.
Coolidge spent 28 years with the Sheriff’s Office before retiring in February 2024 amid the lawsuit.
“It is a disgrace he ever wore a badge. It is unthinkable he wants to be sheriff,” McCloy said.
Coolidge ran unopposed in the Democrat primary and is seeking to become DuPage County’s first Democrat sheriff.
His campaign has emphasized his law-enforcement career and close ties to the local Democrat Party, including labor endorsements, rather than address the records directly.
He has also faced scrutiny for his association with Undersheriff Eddie Moore, the former Republican sheriff candidate who lost his primary to Sean Noonan.
Moore’s own campaign was damaged by a February incident in which he allegedly struck a pedestrian with his vehicle while smelling of alcohol, for which no charges were filed, and a 2021 Wisconsin bar altercation in which he was identified as the primary aggressor and received a disorderly conduct citation.
Noonan, an Oakbrook Terrace police officer and former DuPage County Board member, is running on a “A Sheriff For Everyone” platform that emphasizes reform, accountability, and improving morale in the Sheriff’s Office corrections division.
McCloy said she anticipates Democrats will attack her for her commentary aimed at Coolidge.
“Go ahead, Democrats — call me a racist,” McCloy said. “That’s the only playbook you have, and it’s the one you’ve already used on anyone who has pointed out the obvious about Coolidge. Him being a person of color does not erase this. Conduct is not racist to name,” she said.
