38 Comments - Trap - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 10:49 am: Since when can you legally refuse a breathalyzer and not be arrested? - TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 10:49 am: “why there was no field sobriety test given to the Springfield police off duty officer.” Nobody knows how to get out of a DUI, better than the people who are responsible for enforcing it. Now, such a refusal to submit to testing by the driver should automatically lead to a summery suspension, but it’s amazing how often the required court filing timelines are accidentally missed when these incidents involve police officers. - We've never had one before - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 10:57 am: Left turns in front of motorcyclists are more common when the motorcycle is speeding. I’m not excusing the driver. And once upon a time, I was the speeding motorcyclist. - Incandenza - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 10:57 am: == Since when can you legally refuse a breathalyzer and not be arrested? == I genuinely hope someone can speak to this. - Bud's Bar Stool - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 10:59 am: === Since when can you legally refuse a breathalyzer and not be arrested? === It’s long been the case in Illinois that you could refuse the breathalyzer. If you refuse, you are subject to an automatic suspension of your license - but are depriving the state of evidence of your intoxication. - JS Mill - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:06 am: =If you refuse,= Someone correct me if I am wrong, but if you refuse the ISP can seek a warrant and have a blood test administered. I do not know the entire process required in terms of evidence etc. - Almost retired - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:18 am: https://www.ilsos.gov/publications/pdf_publications/dsd_a118.pdf Illinois Secretary of State dui handbook - Jilted - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:26 am: Someone correct me if I am wrong, but if you refuse the ISP can seek a warrant and have a blood test administered. I do not know the entire process required in terms of evidence etc. Mixed,bag. .kinda true but good luck finding a nurse/ hospital yo draw,the blood. Most,are,regusing since some,have been sued for battery…and lost… - Homebody - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:26 am: When the best way to hurt or kill someone without consequences (driving a vehicle) meets the best way to get away with most common crimes (being a cop)… - SAP - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:27 am: ==according to Attorney Mark Johnson, drivers can legally refuse to take a breathalyzer test== True, as far as it goes, but refusal results in suspension of driver’s license and is admissible in criminal and civil proceedings as evidence of guilt. That is why it is important to find out whether he refused the test or of the cops covered for him by not requesting a test. - Lurker - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:27 am: @never before, the motorcyclist may have seemed like it was coming fast because the cager was impaired to the point of delayed reflexes and decision-maker. Implying in the least little bit that this is the motorcyclists fault, is inane. Saying it may not have been the driver and then saying I don’t excuse the (obviously impaired) driver, is a meaningless statement. - Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:29 am: If no field sobriety test was performed the offices involved in this response didn’t ask for a breathalyzer. The public is owed an explanation. I suppose the question is whether Brendan Kelly understands that the public is owed a prompt explanation as to why our State Police Officers would intentionally bungle an investigation into a crime in order to protect a retired cop from the consequences of their crime. - Lurker - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:30 am: How did the ex-officer get home? Did they let him drive? - Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:39 am: “However, according to Attorney Mark Johnson, drivers can legally refuse to take a breathalyzer test.” Right. And then you are guaranteed to lose your license for a year, regardless of whether you were drunk. I don’t know who it serves other than corrupt cops to mislead the public into thinking they’d have any success with this approach. Yes you can deny the breathalyzer, no it’s not going to help you turn back the legal machinery that was already set in motion when they pulled you over and you didn’t have a badge. - Don't Drive Drunk - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:44 am: You can refuse field sobriety tests–the walk-and-turn, finger to nose, etc.–with no consequences and you also can refuse a roadside breath test with no consequences. Once at the station, you have to take a breath test. If you refuse, you are supposed to get your license suspended, but that’s not how it necessarily goes. Sangamon prosecutors, at least at one time, often will drop the license suspension in exchange for a guilty plea to DUI, with supervision, if it’s a first offense, the bad driving wasn’t egregious, there was no accident and the defendant wasn’t stumbling drunk. This doesn’t appear to be one of those cases. Given there was an injury accident and he refused field tests, the first priority should have been getting him to the station for a proper breath test. He likely would have refused that, too–cops more than anyone know that you’re better off not taking the test and suffering the consequences than taking a BAC test. - Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 12:21 pm: I know of (former) active-duty state cops that couldn’t get out of a breathalyzer after being involved in vehicle accidents. What the mother scratch is going down in that county? - Occasionally Moderated - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:09 pm: ==I know of (former) active-duty state cops that couldn’t get out of a breathalyzer after being involved in vehicle accidents.== ISP can order sworn officers to take a chemical test under their administrative rules. The results couldn’t be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution but would be used for discipline for violating rules of conduct. Because this driver was involved in a crash resulting in serious injury or great bodily harm, he is subject to having blood drawn without his consent. Like another poster said, not all medical professionals will assist a police officer in this forceful taking of a patients blood. Of course you can see why… hippocratic oath, lawyers… stuff that shouldn’t apply as long as the townfolk are ready with their pitch forks. - Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:10 pm: ===order sworn officers=== The officer is retired. - Drunk Driving Victim - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:11 pm: Getting a DUI in Sangamon County is one of the most messed up legal processes imaginable. My daughter (3 years old at the time) and I were hit head on on Interstate 72 by a drunk driver going the wrong way at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday. That drunk driver refused the breathalyzer, was taken to jail and posted bond and was released before my daughter and I were released from the ER. Thank the Lord we suffered no major injuries, but we almost went over a barricade and if we had we would have ended up on 55 northbound. She was going the wrong way on the interstate and for some reason the ISP didn’t try to get a warrant to do a blood draw or make her go to the hospital. The summary suspension for refusing the breathalyzer was dismissed and ultimately the driving the wrong way on a one-way roadway was dismissed. She NEVER lost her license when they could have made the driving the wrong way on the interstate charges stick and she should have had her license suspended for that at a minimum. An accident reconstruction was never done. I get it was her first offense, but it was 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday and she was noticeably drunk and you could smell alcohol in the car per the officer that arrested her. She wasn’t just still drunk from the night before, she was drinking probably until the point she got in her car. I know several people that had a first time offense DUI and didn’t result in a wreck that resulted in at least a year long driver’s license suspension. If a DUI isn’t handled correctly at the scene then it’s almost impossible to build a case in the courts. The officers that arrive on scene and ultimately issue those tickets are the first line of defense for the victims and should do what is necessary to ensure the driver doesn’t walk away consequence free. The driver that hit my daughter and me didn’t have to deal with being separated from her screaming child to be taken to the ER, she didn’t have to hold and see her normally talkative, laughing toddler cuddle up to you in the ER non-responsive for hours due to shock, attend scores of doctor visits, months of physical therapy, returning to work when I should have stayed at home longer, have to take a different route home to this day because the accident happened on my most traveled route, your child asking every time, for months, if the black car in traffic was going to hit us and she probably wasn’t terrified to drive for years. That driver was so drunk she probably doesn’t remember any of it, she got to go home to her two young children whose car seats were in the vehicle she was driving and take them places without them worrying about what was going to happen. I hope she maybe feels some remorse, but I doubt it. How else would an adult, with two young children that can’t even pay for her own attorney or be defended by the public defender due to her decision, she did know enough to refuse the breath analyzer and ask mom and dad to get her an attorney that could make it seem like this never happened. In accidents that result in injuries to any party involved and substance or alcohol intoxication is a possible concern and refusal of a sobriety test or breathalyzer no ifs, and, or buts about it - submission to a blood draw should be required and mandatory license suspension until court appearance or legal blood draw results should be required. I understand the whole innocent until proven guilty and that blood draw is the answer to your innocence. If that doesn’t make you think twice about driving intoxicated then you have no business driving. - We've never had one before - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:12 pm: @Lurker: I’m only saying that I’ve been the biker in such an accident, and I’ve seen it repeated over and over again, where the biker is speeding. - Occasionally Moderated - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:19 pm: ==The officer is retired.== I was responding directly to “Flyin’ Elvis’bUtah Chapter”. He mentioned ISP officers not being able to avoid a chemical test, even off duty. BTW “Flyin” should get some kind of Golden Horseshoe just for that nickname. - Oldtimer - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 1:58 pm: Could the former officer have been coming home from his retirement party? Thought one of the stories said the accident occurred the same day he left the SPD. - @misterjayem - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 2:07 pm: “The state police told me that I shouldn’t believe things on social media and that I need to put trust in them” Who you gonna believe — the cops or your lyin’ eyes? – MrJM - Grimlock - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 2:30 pm: He has now been charged with DUI. - Ex Journo - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 2:47 pm: ===The officer is retired.=== Is retired, was about to retire, planned to retire the next day - SPD has been changing their tune on this particular fact. - Stephanie Kollmann - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 3:00 pm: In the bottom left video, an officer bends over into the vehicle while letting Egan come very close to his duty weapon. It’s fascinating investigation choreography. He also looks to be ISP, no? Was ISP on scene and also incurious about Egan’s sobriety? - Stephanie Kollmann - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 3:07 pm: Will ISP also be investigating ISP’s failure to arrest and test him, or…? - Stephanie Kollmann - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 3:08 pm: And: are we really unable to come up with a system for police accountability does not rely primarily on police, prosecutors, and self-investigation? - SKI - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 3:17 pm: The officer was not retired yet. Thursday was his last day of certification according to LETSB. Thankfully there was a witness directly behind the motorcycle who can attest to the fact that they were not speeding. This same witness is the person who took the on scene videos of SPD officers smiling and talking with their soon to be former colleague while 2 young riders were headed to the hospital with life changing injuries thanks to his apparent need to get another drink. - MyTwoCents - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 4:48 pm: Based on the previous news articles and the ISP press release, Springfield PD has some explaining to do. It should not take over 30 minutes (accident occurred at 9:20 PM, SPD arrived within minutes and ISP requested at 10:02 PM) to request ISP. As soon as the identification of the driver was established, the on scene officers should have immediately requested ISP, or notified a supervisor to have the supervisor make the immediate request. - maybe - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 5:21 pm: Does no one read or do we just react to headlines, he was “retired” the family accuses responding police of taking care of one of their own and not doing their jobs, however a blood draw was conducted(by warrant meaning they were proactive) and appropriate follow-up. I suppose whatever works for clickbait though. - Excitable Boy - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 6:03 pm: - however a blood draw was conducted(by warrant meaning they were proactive) and appropriate follow-up. - Why did they let him hang around for hours drinking water and chewing gum? - Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 6:33 pm: Apologies where due to the state police. Apparently they did at least obtain a warrant for a blood test — though it seems it was not a priority for them to do so. - Demoralized - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 8:40 pm: Everyone wants answers right this second. It seems to me the process worked. There was an investigation and the guy was charged. But we have a need to protest everything now involving police. I would never want to be a cop in this day and age. - Excitable Boy - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 8:53 pm: - There was an investigation and the guy was charged. But we have a need to protest everything now involving police. - Yeah, they’re the victims here. The girl on the motorcycle has two small kids, and may have permanent brain damage and other disabilities. The Springfield police let this guy stand around for hours sobering up. As someone who got a DUI when I was an extremely dumb college student, that’s not how it works. You get handcuffed and hauled to the station, quickly. If this witness hadn’t shared his video, quickly, these charges may have never happened. - Candy Dogood - Monday, Sep 9, 24 @ 11:24 pm: ===There was an investigation and the guy was charged. === ===You get handcuffed and hauled to the station, quickly.=== Everyone else that is not a cop would have had their arrest processed shortly after the accident and likely would have been very promptly placed in police custody and very promptly taken to have their blood drawn. I don’t know of anyone else who has gotten to wait for days after driving while intoxicated before their arrest unless they fled from the scene. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 10, 24 @ 7:48 am: ==Everyone else that is not a cop would have had their arrest processed shortly after the accident and likely would have been very promptly placed in police custody and very promptly taken to have their blood drawn. I don’t know of anyone else who has gotten to wait for days after driving while intoxicated before their arrest unless they fled from the scene.== Not true. If there is not probable cause to arrest on scene, you can’t arrest an offender on scene. What happened here is when the blood chemical tests came back from the lab, probable cause to arrest then existed and he was arrested. This is exactly how this should be handled. - Occasionally Moderated - Tuesday, Sep 10, 24 @ 7:50 am: Anon at 7:48 was me. TrackBack URI Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.