Council’s Quillman Scraps With Firefighter, Demands Arrest: Reports

Joliet City Councilwoman Jan Quillman accused a firefighter of grabbing her breast and demanded he be arrested while he was trying to take her injured mother-in-law to the hospital, according to sources and fire department reports obtained by Patch.

“police (sic)! police (sic)! I have been assaulted and this man grabbed my boob!” Quillman called out, according to a report penned by Firefighter Dave Chizmark detailing his Aug. 25 interaction with the councilwoman.

The Joliet Fire Department had refused to release reports on the incident until this week. The department surrendered the documents after Patch appealed to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Firefighters responded to Quillman’s home about 8:30 the night of the dustup to tend to an elderly woman with a cut ankle that was “squirting blood about three feet away,” a report said. The reports are redacted but Quillman identified the woman as her mother-in-law. Quillman said her mother-in-law was bleeding heavily from a varicose vein.

Chizmark, four other firefighters and two Joliet police officers were dispatched to assist the woman. Firefighter paramedics wrapped her leg, carried her from the house to a cot and were placing her in an ambulance when Quillman interfered, the reports said.

“Quillman stepped up on the folding step on rear of ambulance causing the cot to be pushed downward,” a report said.

At least some of the firefighters did not know Quillman was the woman’s daughter-in-law, according to the reports. After telling Quillman for a third time to let the firefighter paramedics take care of her mother-in-law, “Chizmark put his arm out to move the councilwoman out of the way and close the back doors,” said a report written by fire Lt. Matt Ehrsam.

“As the doors were being shut Councilwoman Quillman yelled that she was hit and her breast was grabbed,” Ehrsam’s report said.

Ehrsam also wrote that Quillman’s husband, retired Joliet police Detective Tom Quillman, claimed that the fire department was somehow in league with Mayor Thomas Giarrante, who is a retired firefighter.

“During the discussion Mr. Quillman asked if we were part of Giarrante’s gang,” Ehrsam wrote. “I asked what he meant since the mayor’s name had not been mentioned at any time. He stated it had everything to do with this (incident).”

Ehrsam also wrote that, “During the confrontation, I noticed an odor of alcohol coming from one of (sic) both of the Quillmans.”

Jan Quillman insisted on riding in the back of the ambulance as it went to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center, the reports said, but the firefighters would not let her.

“I will get into the back of that f---ing amb (sic), u (sic) must not know who I am!” Chizmark said Jan Quillman told him.

Battalion Chief Mike Stromberg was called to the scene due to the firefighters having a “problem on an EMS call,” a report said, and while he was there, Jan Quillman called for Chizmark to be taken into custody.

“She was talking to me in a very loud, upset tone of voice and at times (was) yelling at me,” Stromberg said. “She saw Chizmark over my shoulder and said, ‘I want that mother f----r arrested for assault and battery.'”

Giarrante, Police Chief Brian Benton and Fire Chief Joe Formhals all declined to comment on the incident. Jan Quillman described the confrontation as a "very chaotic situation" and said she and Chizmark later "had a little chat and an agreement."

On the night of the dispute, Formhals and police Cmdr. Al Roechner eventually ended up on the scene. Chizmark was not arrested but at some point police Lt. Gregory Jordan called him a d-----bag, according to reports.