Police arrested a Riverside man May 25 for driving under the influence after his car struck a parked car and a village tree.
Around 10 a.m. that day, two officers responded to a report of a crash on Eastgrove Road. According to police, the officers saw that the parked car had damage on the front left side. The officers saw a black car leaving the scene, which witnesses and the owner of the parked car identified as the one involved in the crash.
The officers followed the car, which went north onto Kent Road before continuing east onto Lindberg Road, where the driver pulled into a driveway before exiting his car. Police said the car had damage on the front left and front right sides, which was consistent with the damage sustained by the parked car and tree. While speaking with the man, an officer smelled alcohol on his breath and saw he had glassy eyes.
The man told police he had heard the police siren as he left the scene but did not see the police car. When asked, he said he had not drunk alcohol that day. The man agreed to take field sobriety tests, during which he struggled with his balance and had to be corrected on how to properly take the tests. The man declined to take a portable breath test.
Police arrested the man around 10:20 a.m. After being handcuffed and placed in the squad car, the man told police he had been driving home to drop off his car so he could return to the scene of the crash in another car.
The man was transported to the police station for processing. At the station, he declined to take a second breath test before hearing and signing his Miranda warning. While talking to police, the man said again he had not been drinking that day. When asked how he struck the parked car, the man said he believed something in his car had distracted him.
The man was booked on seven charges, including driving under the influence of alcohol, failing to decrease speed to avoid a collision and failing to stop at a stop sign. He was released to his mother and a July 5 court date was set.
Pro-Trump flags put up near Metra railroad
A Brookfield officer responded to the Metra railroad crossing on Prairie Avenue around 2:30 p.m. on May 27 on a report of political signs that had been taped over construction signs. No one was arrested.
According to police, the officer did not see any construction signs that had been tampered with; instead, freestanding flagpoles were “embedded into the railroad parkway.” Each flagpole bore several flags, which consisted of American flags as well as flags in support of former President Donald Trump and the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms. One of the flagpoles was zip-tied to a construction signpost.
The officer spoke with a man who was sitting in the parkway on the north side of the train tracks. The man said he had tried to organize a pro-Trump rally at the railroad crossing but that no one showed up. The man told the officer he planned to stay out with his flags until 4 p.m. that day.
The officer told the man that he needed to remove the zip-ties connecting the single flagpole to the construction signpost so the flagpole stood alone. The officer told him Brookfield police would not take the flags down but that the Metra Police Department had been notified of the flags due to their proximity to the BNSF line and may take action.
The officer left the scene after the man removed the zip-ties. Shortly after, the officer was alerted by the dispatch center that Metra police were en route to remove the flags. Later that day, the officer observed the man and his flags to be gone from the railroad crossing, police said.
Collisions in Riverside
Police responded to a two-car collision at the intersection of 31st Street and First Avenue around 10 a.m. on May 24. No one was arrested.
According to police, the responding offers saw a maroon car and a white car were blocking southbound traffic on First Avenue, so they shut down traffic in that direction. Both drivers declined medical attention from police and provided valid driver’s licenses and proof of insurance.
The officers first spoke with the driver of the maroon car, who said the other driver was at fault. She told police the other driver disobeyed the red light, causing her to strike the side of the white car head-on.
The driver of the white car told police that her car was struck by the maroon car after she drove through the red light. A witness at the scene said he saw the white car drive through the red light, corroborating both drivers’ stories.
Police drove the maroon car’s driver home while the white car’s driver was taken to the Riverside police station to wait for a ride from family.
Police responded to another collision, this one between a car and a bicycle, around 8:15 a.m. on May 29 at the intersection of Bartram Road and North Delaplaine Road. When officers arrived, the cyclist and driver both said they were uninjured. Neither was arrested.
The driver of the car told police she had been driving east on North Delaplaine Road when she came to the intersection and waved through two bicyclists heading west, who turned left onto Bartram Road. She said she looked to the right at the bicyclists as she continued through the intersection; when she looked back to the road, there was a third bicyclist making the turn. The driver said she slammed on her brakes but still struck the bicyclist with the front of her car.
The bicyclist’s story was largely similar. She told police she was heading west on North Delaplaine Road and made the left turn after she saw the other bicyclists were waved through when the driver proceeded through the intersection and struck her bicycle. She said she didn’t fall or hit her head but had scraped her right hand and left ankle.
All four individuals involved in the two collisions were instructed by police about how to obtain their crash reports.
These items were obtained from the Riverside Police Department reports dated May 24-29 and the Brookfield Police Department reports dated May 27 to June 3; 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.
