Early on the morning of May 4 a driver was followed by Island Lake Police Officer Walter Szarowicz #228. The driver was westbound on Burnett Road, turned south on River Road and then turned east on Route 176 and into the Walgreen's parking lot.
How far is that? 0.3 mile? 0.4 mile? Ofc. Szarowicz stopped the driver, arrested him, had his car towed and took the driver in handcuffs to the Island Lake Police Department. Once there, Ofc. Szarowicz issued the following tickets:
1. Improper Lane Usage
2. Driving in the Wrong Lane
3. Improper Lane usage - violated median
4. Driving in Wrong Lane
5. Leaving the scene of an accident with vehicle damage
6. Disobeyed No Left Turn
7. Fail to Yield to Authorized Emergency Vehicle
8. DUI
9. Reckless Driving
10. No proof of Valid Insurance
11. Improper Lane Usage - drive on shoulder
12. Disobey red light
AND
a felony, "Criminal damage to State-Supported Property" - one pair of ASP handcuffs. Ofc. Szarowicz charged the driver with a felony, even though there was no way in the world the driver could have broken the handcuffs while sitting in a cell in the P.D. See another article on this site about the durability of handcuffs that cost about $34.00.
Even though the driver is charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident with Vehicle Damage, apparently no Crash Report was completed. There is no new damage on the vehicle, which does have some old damage on the right side. The officer had the car towed, but apparently no Tow Report was made out. The interior of the car looks like it had been ransacked. Everything was removed from compartments and strewn throughout the front of the car, yet there was no Inventory Report completed.
Has this officer exposed the Island Lake Police Department and the Village of Island Lake to serious financial repercussions? The residents of Island Lake and the Village Board should demand answers from Chief Sciarrone about the actions of his officer.
Oh, by the way; the message I left about 5:00PM on May 5? Think that call has been returned? It has not!
Here's the way phone messages work with me. If you call me, I'll call you back. If I call you (and if you are a government official) and leave a message with my name and phone number and request a return call, I expect you to call me back.
Good thing that the driver didn't sneeze into his hands and then touch the broken handcuffs. He probably would have been charged as a terrorist for spreading the swine flu! No matter that he didn't have it.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
5 comments:
Your bias is again showing against police. There are so many things wrong with your statement that I really do not know where to start!
Your page is very quick to point out that you used to call yourself a police officer. Instead, you should be calling yourself a police wannabe with no training that was handed a badge and told to go out and write tickets. Thank God that nowadays police are required to go through months of police academy training. After reading your comments, it is clear that you know very little of what you speak. You talk of being upset at other people speeding, yet time and time again you criticize the police when they actually enforce violations of the IVC. You state drivel about them having quotas without any facts to back them up, and you then spread misinformation as if they were facts!
If a drunk runs 3 stoplights, hits and knocks over a stop sign, then continues driving for 6 more blocks, then drives the wrong way down a one way street, all the time not pulling over for a lighted up squad car, I guess you would just have written him 1 or 2 tickets? Reading your posts, I guess so! Of course, a TRAINED police officer would probably write at least 8 tickets for that, at the very least. You think that is unfair? If a person violates 15 acts of the vehicle code, where does it state that he should not be issued citations for all 15? Now I am not saying that the above example is what happened in this case (obviously, since there are not 3 lights, a stop sign and a one way street in that area) but am just using it as an example.
"Even though the driver is charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident with Vehicle Damage, apparently no Crash Report was completed. There is no new damage on the vehicle, which does have some old damage on the right side."
Since you are such an expert, I am sure you know that there does NOT have to be damage to the offending vehicle for there to be an accident or for someone to leave the scene of an accident. If I recall correctly, at River and 176 the state had installed reflectors on plastic pipes to help with safety at that intersection. Striking one of those would cause damage to the pipe, but they are designed not to cause damage the vehicle. Still an accident and still leaving the scene of an accident if you hit it and do not stop, correct?
Now you talk of the car being towed (since it is a DUI, look up what is MANDATED by the state what has to be done with the vehicle) and there not being a crash report or a tow report. Again, you show you bias and report them as facts. How many days does the state give you to file a crash report? 10 days? Yet you expect that the police are supposed to have the crash investigation and report filed in less than two?
"Everything was removed from compartments and strewn throughout the front of the car, yet there was no Inventory Report completed." Of course, you really have no idea if there was a crash report started (I am sure there was if the driver was cited for leaving the scene of an accident) or if there was a tow report done, do you? It sounds good for your blog to ASSume that they did not though, right?
Now, for the final straw that made me post a response to your nonsense, your comments about the cuffs.
"AND
a felony, "Criminal damage to State-Supported Property" - one pair of ASP handcuffs. Ofc. Szarowicz charged the driver with a felony, even though there was no way in the world the driver could have broken the handcuffs while sitting in a cell in the P.D. See another article on this site about the durability of handcuffs that cost about $34.00."
According to your expert opinion, there is no way that a person sitting in a cell (or anywhere else for that matter) can damage or break a pair of handcuffs. Try doing a search of breaking handcuffs and see what happens. Your statement is false. A person under the influence or drugs or alcohol may not feel pain and may have adrenaline surges that will allow them to break or bend handcuffs, especially if they are place in the front as might be the case of someone in a holding area being processed. Give even a normal person access to a steel door frame to stick the edge of the handcuffs into and it becomes VERY easy to damage a pair of handcuffs. Do I know how the handcuffs were damaged? No I do not. Neither were you. That does not prevent you from making blanket statements like "no way in the world the driver could have broken the handcuffs while sitting in a cell in the P.D." that show you do not need facts to publish a story, just need your opinions listed as facts.
You do not think what happened to the offender is right or fair? I suppose you would rather have the drunks continue to stay on the road to kill innocent people, right? Notice that theme running through all your posts regarding drunks getting arrested? Instead of asking what the heck the criminal was doing drinking and driving of driving with open alcohol or running from the police, you would rather expound on how unfair it is that the criminals were written lots of tickets!
I will actually be surprised if you allow this to be posted, being that it is against all of your "facts"
DA, thanks for your lengthy posting. I'm happy to post it.
If a person is properly handcuffed with their hands behind their back there is no way a average sized man could break those handcuffs unless they were faulty. It is bad police work to charge this guy with a felony. Drunk drivers are bad and cops who write bogus felony charges are bad too. Doesn't Island Lake have to go through felony review. ( Call a ASA)to get felony charges approved?
Cops are trained to have their reports done by the end of shift. I knew a deputy that got suspended for not following that rule. Is Island Lake different?
Inventory of a confiscated vehicle is mandatory, period. It has to be completed on scene and a copy given to the towing agency. (Unless you believe cops never steal.)
I don't know of any one way streets near the intersection of Rt. 176 and River Rd.
Finally, Philpott wouldn't even be writing about this if it didn't sound so damn pathetic! 13 tickets is just stupid, everyone knows this guy will not be convicted of all 13 infractions. The judge probably laughed when he heard this list of crap. Do the job right, with compassion and fairness and you won't end up on the "Woodstock Advocate". At some point these idiot cops have to realize this.
Sir, thanks for adding your comment here. You're right about the judge. I heard he laughed at the felony charge.
I wonder how the cop got the felony charge approved or if he did. Maybe the SAO will laugh at it, too, and toss it.
"Official Misconduct"... I wonder what the definition is of that in Illinois State law.
DA - I am a police officer and agree that if all of those violations occured that to write them and let the court sort through them is a standard practice. We do part ways on a couple of issues though. First the "mandatory" towing of even a DUI driver is not an absolute mandate. Review 625 ILCS 5/4-203 (e-5). It states that the officer "may" impound the vehicle. The way I read that it gives the officer some discretion. Second you use the example of striking unattended property to validate your argument about the leaving the scene of an accident charge. Actually they are 2 different sections of the vehicle code. As for the 10 days to report an accident to the state the only time that is mandated is if the damage to all vehicles including the offenders is in excess of $1500 or $500 if the vehicle(s) are subject to section 7-601 of the vehicle code. Other requirements to report to the state would be if there were injuy or death. Also if a school bus was involved or if the accident occurs within 50 feet of a school bus.
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