Articles Posted in Speeding

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Eric T. Maschmeier, 20, was paroled a little over a year ago for a six-year prison term for a botched armed robbery attempt. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, he was released from prison on January 13, 2010.

On February 9th of this year, Masschmeier was arrested on DUI charges after he flipped his white Chevrolet Impala into a snowbank south of 75th Street in Naperville. After the crash, Maschmeier and a female passenger allegedly escaped the wreckage uninjured, fled on foot and called a friend to give him a ride home. Police were able to locate and arrest him after they determined he was driving under the influence.

An eye-witness estimated that Maschmeier was speeding at over 100 mph.

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Cecil R. Conner Jr., 22, is charged with the several counts of aggravated drunk driving for a crash that killed his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son. However, his defense attorney is blaming the Chicago Heights police officer who gave him the keys to the car and allowed him to drive to the police station. En-route to the police station, Conner drove off the road and crashed into a tree.

Prior to the crash, the boys mother Kathie Lafond, was pulled over and taken into custody for driving on a suspended license. The police stated Conner appeared to be sober and that LaFond gave her boyfriend permission to take the car with the child strapped into the booster seat. Conner’s attorney stated that his client was “obviously drunk” but was still ordered to take the car and that the officer threatened to arrest his client if he didn’t leave.

Conner was allegedly driving 75 mph in a 35 mph zone and had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

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Michael Adam Musick, 47, of Buffalo Grove was pulled over by police on January 6 for allegedly speeding 37 mph in a 25 mph zone. After an officer attempted to issue him tickets for speeding as well as driving without a license, Musick allegedly became verbally combative with the officers and refused to sign the tickets.

The Buffalo Grove officers left the tickets on Musick’s windshield and returned to their vehicles, but Musick allegedly tried to block them from pulling away. After the officers went around his vehicle, he allegedly chased and tailgated them in his SUV. Musick was pulled over again by the officers with their weapons drawn and removed from his vehicle. As a result, he was additionally charged with reckless conduct.

Buffalo Grove man arrested for chasing cops, www.suntimes.com, January 18, 2011

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Aileen Beernink faces a potential prison sentence after her third arrest for Driving Under the Influence of alcohol. She is also accused of driving with a revoked or suspended license, driving under the influence of drugs and driving without insurance.

Beernink was spotted by a patrol officer driving with her headlights off. The officer determined she was under the influence of an unspecified narcotic and had an invalid drivers license.

Beernink was previously arrested on June 18 on two counts of DUI and multiple traffic offenses. Court records show she was placed on a year of court supervision and assessed over $2300 in fines and legal cost in that case. She was also arrested in 2008 by Naperville police in separate cases involving drug charges and driving too fast for conditions. Beernink was ticketed in 2009 for driving without headlights and earlier this year for driving too fast for conditions. She is also the defendant in a civil lawsuit filed in August where she is accused of damaging a man’s vehicle during a traffic crash.

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Elisha Clark, 25, of Grayslake was pronounced dead at the scene after a high speed DUI related crash.

Donald Mischke, 54, was fleeing police after allegedly breaking into a Target store and stealing a flat screen television set. Mischke allegedly used his vehicle to ram the front door of the Target store just enough to break in. The officer who spotted Mischke loading the television into his car tried to stop his car near the store but the defendant drove off at a high rate of speed. The officer stopped her persuit when the defendant turned onto a road with heavy traffic. Mischke allegedly ran a red light at Belvidere Road in Waukegan, striking the driver side of Clark’s vehicle.

Mischke was charged with driving under the influence of drugs after his blood tested positive for cocaine. Mischke previously lost his driver’s license after a 1994 DUI conviction and he has been convicted of driving on a revoked license three times.

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Reginald Hearon, 50, could find himself serving up to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to felony DUI and reckless homicide charges stemming from the deadly Kane County crash in 2008.

Hearon driving work at the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles on the day of the crash when his van slammed head-on into an on-coming car as he allegedly tried to pass several vehicles on a two-lane highway. Craig Smith, 53, from St. Charles was killed in the collision.

A crash reconstruction concluded that Hearon was going at least 10mph over the speed limit and blood test taken after the crash found that he had alcohol, morphine and codeine in his system.

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Kelli and Jessica Uhl were killed in the November 2007 accident cause by former Illinois State Trooper Matt Mitchell.

Mitchell, who was responding to another accident, was driving at 126mph through busy traffic on Interstate 64 while sending and receiving emails and talking to his girlfriend on his mobile phone. He crossed the median and hit a car carrying four girls head on, killing two of the girls and injuring the other two.

Mitchell is now asking the state to compensate him for his injuries. Mitchell was suspended for nearly two years after the accident, but still drew his $68,000 annual salary.

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Sandra Vasquez, 26, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after the fatal drunk-driving crash in 2007 that left five Oswego teens dead and three others injured. The prison term means Vasquez, the mother of two young children, will have to spend at least 12 1/2 years behind bars.

Initially, Vazquez faced up to 28 years in prison. Her request for probation was denied by Kendall County Judge Clint Hull who instead imposed the prison term. The jury deliberated for nearly 12 hours over two days before convicting Vasquez of reckless homicide and aggravated DUI. During deliberations, jurors watched a videotaped interrogation of Vasquez in which she told police that she had several drinks prior to driving the teens home but insisted she was not drunk.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Vasquez was drunk and speeding when her car swerved off Illinois 31 at hit a utility pole in the far west suburb of Aurora. Killed in the crash were Katherine Merkel, 14; James McGee,14; Jessica Nutoni, 15; Tiffany Urso, 16; and Matthew Frank, 17. Vasquez and three other passengers were seriously injured but survived.

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Edward Cook was found guilty of reckless homicide and aggravated DUI instead of murder after losing control of his car while driving at a high rate of speed, skidding onto the sidewalk and striking a man, David Long, and his dog. Both Long, 54-years-old, and his dog were killed in the crash. Citing other cases with similar circumstances, a Kane County judge decided that Cook’s actions did not fall under the criteria for a felony murder conviction. Cook will be sentenced July 23.

No murder in death of man, dog, chicagotribune.com, May 21, 2010

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A driver was charged with DUI after running into a Chicago Police officer and a woman that the officer had pulled over for a traffic violation. The incident took place at about 3:20 a.m. in the 5600 block of West Foster Avenue in Chicago. Steve Ortiz, 21, was charged with misdemeanor DUI, negligent driving, driving without a license, and a lane usage violation.

Allegedly, the vehicle turned onto Foster from Central at a high rate of speed while the officer and woman where stopped at the light at Foster and Central. The vehicle hit the woman’s vehicle, throwing the officer to the ground. The woman and officer were taken to Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center and the officer has since been released. Ortiz is expected in court on June 28, 2010.

Officer, motorist injured during traffic stop, suntimes.com, May 6, 2010