Joliet inmate caught with shank inside Will County jail: cops

A Joliet man sitting in jail after he spat bloody saliva on a Joliet police officer has been charged with possessing a knife fashioned from the broken remnant of a food tray, police said.

On Monday, Gregory Rideout, 21, of the 400 block of Market Street was in a cell by himself at the Will County jail when he was given his food tray, sheriff spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said.

Rideout returned the food tray and jail staff noticed it was broken and a piece was missing, Hoffmeyer said.

When the staff asked Rideout where the missing piece was, he reportedly said he made the broken bit into a knife, or a shank, she said.

“It was found in his sock,” Hoffmeyer said.

Rideout did not wish to make any further statements about it, she said.

As a result, two new criminal charges were filed against Rideout, who has been in jail since Jan. 23 after he spat bloody saliva on the face of an officer at AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, police said.

The charges alleged he possessed an improvised weapon that’s also known as a shank and that he broke a food tray inside the jail so he could make a knife.

On Tuesday, Judge Brian Barrett increased Rideout’s $250,000 bond by $10,000 and ordered him to possess no weapons, court records show.

The incident that led to Rideout’s first arrest began when he threatened to harm St. Joe’s staff with medical equipment, police said. He was a patient at the time.

Prosecutors asked for a high bond for Rideout based on his “alleged conduct of putting others at medical risk during a pandemic,” Will County State’s Attorney spokeswoman Carole Cheney said.