A Hampshire man was arrested March 16 in Mount Prospect after a Riverside officer saw him drive more than twice the speed limit the day before.
According to police, the officer first saw the man in his car around 12:30 a.m. March 15, when the car was heading south at 80 mph in a 35-mph zone on South First Avenue. The officer, who had been stopped near the Zoo Woods on South First Avenue, followed the vehicle and turned on the emergency lights in an attempt to initiate a traffic stop.
The man’s car slowed down as it approached the intersection with Forest Avenue before continuing south at more than 75 mph in a 40-mph zone, police said. Then, the man ignored the traffic lights at the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Plainfield Road in Lyons. The officer also witnessed the man’s car “briefly” over cross the double yellow lines on the road into oncoming traffic. After the man continued on, the officer ended the attempt to pull him over and notified the Hampshire Police Department after running the car’s license plate and finding it registered there.
The next afternoon, the Mount Prospect Police Department found the man and his car in the parking lot for a Discount Tire. According to police, while the Mount Prospect officers were looking at the car, the man approached them and said it was his, so they detained him. When Riverside officers arrived, they arrested the man and brought him back to the station.
Later that evening, a Riverside officer interviewed the man. He said he had been coming from a bar and heading to a hotel at the time of the initial incident. The man said he did not know why he fled from the police vehicle, but that he thought he was in the clear when he noticed the officer had turned off the emergency lights. The man also said he had drunk two or three beers at the bar before driving and that he did not remember disobeying the traffic lights.
The man received felony aggravated fleeing and eluding charges. He was booked and later released. A March 25 court date was set.
Arrested for incorrect registration and no insurance
A Burbank man with a suspended driver’s license was arrested March 19 in Brookfield after test-driving an unregistered and uninsured car.
According to police, the officer was driving north on Maple Avenue when they saw a white Jeep, but after running the plates through the police database, the officer found they were actually registered to a white Hyundai, so the officer pulled the car over at the 3900 block of Elm Avenue.
The driver told the officer he was a mechanic working on a customer’s vehicle and that he did not know its registration did not match the car. He also said he was unsure if it was insured and said he had driven the car around the block.
At that point, the car’s owner arrived. According to police, he said he had placed the license plates on the car knowing that they belonged to another vehicle he owned, which the officer then said was illegal. The owner also said the car was uninsured after the officer asked.
When the officer asked the driver for his driver’s license, he said his was suspended for financial reasons and provided an Illinois ID. After running the driver’s information through the database, the officer learned his license was actually suspended due to prior arrests for driving with a suspended license. At that point, the officer arrested the driver and brought him back to the police station, where he was fingerprinted and processed. The man was issued citations for the car’s improper registration and lack of insurance and for driving with a suspended license. A May 14 court date was set and the man was released.
When police followed up with the car’s owner, he explained that he had bought the car the day before at an auction and that he had documentation to prove it. Police also ran the car’s vehicle identification number, which came back clear. The owner explained that the car’s registration came from an old car he had purchased in the past. Police told the owner he should not still be in possession of the plates, so he turned them over.
Arrested for driving drunk after swerving into traffic
A man was arrested March 15 in Riverside after police received a call about reckless driving.
The dispatched officer first saw the vehicle heading south on South First Avenue around 8 p.m. that night, where they watched it swerve into the oncoming traffic lane with both driver-side tires. The car also “nearly struck” another car heading north. According to police, the officer initiated a traffic stop, and the vehicle stopped in the inside lane on South First Avenue north of Ogden Avenue.
When the officer approached the driver, they observed that he had bloodshot, glossy eyes, slurred speech and a strong alcoholic odor emanating from him. The officer reached into the vehicle and turned off the ignition themselves before instructing the driver to exit the car. After the man provided his driver’s license, the officer asked the man to perform field sobriety testing. Because of the heavy traffic on South First Avenue, the officer asked the man to get into their police vehicle so they could drive to the nearby Burger King parking lot and conduct the tests there, which the man agreed to.
When they arrived at Burger King, the officer let the man out of the squad car, at which point they saw his pants were covered in urine and there was urine in the back of the car. The man stumbled while exiting the police car and showed multiple indicators of drunkenness during field sobriety testing. After a preliminary breath test showed .186 blood alcohol content, the officer arrested the man and brought him back to the station.
At the station, the man admitted to drinking one beer that night. He was charged with driving under the influence, as well as improper lane usage and driving an uninsured vehicle. The report, which was filed around 11:45 p.m. that night, said the man would be released by the midnight shift once he was sober, and an April 5 court date was set.
These items were obtained from the Riverside Police Department reports dated March 14-17 and the Brookfield Police Department reports dated March 18-25; they represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.
