Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 30, 2007 11:35:36 GMT -5
01.30.2007 - CRYSTAL LAKE – Off-duty McHenry County sheriff’s Deputy Donald Anderson smelled of alcohol after he crashed his squad car into a tree on Buckingham Drive in Crystal Lake. Police who arrived on the scene shortly before 6 a.m. on Jan. 20 said he was breathing heavily, talking fast and with a slightly higher pitch.
After speaking with Anderson, sheriff’s officers on the scene said they told a Crystal Lake patrolman that Anderson was driving under the influence. But Crystal Lake Officer Ken Ellinger, whose department had jurisdiction over the crash, said he wouldn’t charge Anderson with DUI.
“Our officer did not do what we expected him to do,” Crystal Lake Deputy Police Chief Dennis Harris said Friday. “We have taken our administrative steps to correct the situation. We believe we have the matter resolved at this point.”
Crystal Lake police charged Anderson, 24, of Huntley, with driving under the influence of alcohol and reckless driving Thursday, five days after he crashed his squad car into a tree on Buckingham Drive.
No field sobriety tests were done at the scene of the crash. However, Anderson was taken to the hospital by sheriff’s deputies, and a blood test taken almost two hours after the crash showed he had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.142 percent, police reports said.
“He was well above the legal limit of intoxication,” Nygren said. “I do whole-heartedly apologize to the community for the actions of this deputy.”
McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said Anderson, of Huntley, had been with the department less than a year. Anderson was fired Thursday morning, Nygren said.
Anderson is expected in court on the charges Feb. 13. If convicted, the former law-enforcement officer could face up to a year in jail.
After the crash, Anderson reported the accident to the sheriff’s department using his own radio. Crystal Lake officers also responded to the crash.
After Ellinger said he would not pursue DUI charges, a sheriff’s officer on the scene said he asked Ellinger to check with his supervisor. Ellinger did talk to a supervisor and reiterated the decision not to pursue DUI charges, according to a sheriff’s department report.
Ellinger has been with the Crystal Lake force more than five years, Harris said. He declined to comment further, citing city practice of not commenting on personnel issues.
Harris said that Ellinger was confused about whether he had the authority to arrest Anderson because Sheriff’s police also were on the scene.
“He’s no longer confused,” Harris said. “He didn’t represent the situation totally to the person that he talked to on the telephone. Once we got the report and realized what the situation was, we had somebody else investigate the crash.”
Crystal Lake police released details about the crash Friday, two days after the Northwest Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act request for reports related to the accident. Ellinger’s report was a standard accident report that made no mention of alcohol use.
Crystal Lake police released the police report the same day they also released a statement that Anderson had been charged with driving under the influence.
Anderson was driving the squad car on Buckingham Drive just east of McHenry Avenue when the squad car, a 2001 Chevrolet Impala, slid off the north side of the road and struck a tree in the 400 block.
Anderson told responding officers that he lost control of the car on a patch of ice, police reports said. Police reports indicate no ice was visible near the crash scene.
“It is [horrible] for everybody and it’s embarrassing for us,” Nygren said. “We stand for something other than that, but I can promise you that once we knew what had occurred, we did the right thing.”
Nygren said Anderson finished his shift late on the night of Jan. 19 and met two other off-duty sheriff’s deputies and two other friends at an Algonquin restaurant. The group dropped Anderson off at his home in Huntley shortly after 1 a.m., but Anderson took his squad car and headed to the Crystal Lake apartment of one of the deputies, Nygren said.
Anderson was not in uniform at the time, and Nygren said deputies were allowed to drive their squad cars off-duty as long as they are alone, armed, have the police radio on and are available to respond in an emergency.
Anderson left the apartment shortly before 6 a.m. and was driving the opposite direction from his home when he drove off the road, reports show.
“Thank God it wasn’t someone, it was car vs. tree,” Nygren said, adding that the squad car was totaled. Insurance will cover the costs, Nygren said.
Nygren said Anderson had shown signs of being a strong police officer. His department is considering possible reprimands for the other deputies who were out with Anderson, he said, although they legally did nothing wrong.
“Our folks don’t typically act like this,” Nygren said. “The men and women who work in our profession are good, professional people. This is an aberration, it just rarely, rarely happens, but it does. We’re embarrassed by it, we apologize.”
www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/01/28/news/local/doc45baf5d108a1f169542842.txt