Frankfort Man Found Dead In Will County Jail Was Ex Cop: Police

FRANKFORT, IL — The Will County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that a Frankfort man died while in custody at the Will County Adult Detention Facility in Joliet.

Robert F. Vaughan, 51, was booked into custody at the Will County Adult Detention Facility Sunday following an arrest by the Frankfort Police Department for aggravated domestic battery, according to WCSO. Vaughan was found unresponsive in his booking cell, according to WCSO. It appeared Vaughan took his own life, according to WCSO.

Vaughan, who was an officer with the Cook County Sheriff's Office, pleaded guilty in 2015 to one count of robbery as part of a plea agreement, according to reports from that time. Vaughan admitted to robbing eight drug dealers between 2011 and 2013, earning a total profit of $300,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Vaughan was part of an anti-drug team at that time. Prosecutors said that Vaughan and two others — Stanley Kogut, Vaughan's partner on the anti-drug team, and Jimmy Rodgers, a former Lyons police officer — robbed eight drug dealers in Chicago, Cicero, Plainfield, Lyons, Melrose Park and Forest Park.

Kogut took his own life in 2014 in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago after being arrested, according to reports from that time.

Vaughan was arrested on Nov. 3, 2014, after he and another law enforcement officer robbed an undercover federal agent of 70 pounds of marijuana. Vaughan was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison, according to the United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.

Related:

• Frankfort Man with a Cook County Sheriff's Badge Snared in FBI Drug Sting
• Former Cook Co. Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Robbing Drug Dealers of Cocaine, Marijuana

Staff at the Will County Adult Detention Facility attempted life-saving measures, according to WCSO. Vaughan was taken to St. Joseph's Amita Hospital in Joliet, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 12:32 a.m. Monday morning.

The Will County Coroner's Office will provide an official cause of death at a later time, according to WCSO.

The Will/Grundy Major Crimes Task Force is investigating Vaughan's death, according to WCSO. Further information will be provided by that task force "when appropriate," according to WCSO.