Chicago DUI lawyer comments on extradition and DUI

Chicago DUI lawyer has posted here, here, and here about DUI’s outside of the U.S. A closer connection puts a Chicago man on the international stage for extradition because of an old DUI.

March 26, Chicago, IL

A man accused in the drunken-driving deaths of two 17-year-old girls in Poland escaped from a hospital there after the 1994 crash, fled his homeland and hid for nearly 15 years in Chicago.

The past caught up to Andrezej Piotrowicz, 35, in November 2009, when U.S. marshals arrested him. They were tipped off by Polish authorities who tracked him to a brick home in Chicago's Belmont Heights neighborhood, where he was living with his sister and elderly mother.

An extradition hearing was held in January, and a federal judge is expected to rule soon on Poland's request. The ultimate decision will be made by the U.S. State Department.

Blood drawn at the hospital showed Piotrowicz had a blood-alcohol level of 1.23, six times the country's legal threshold, according to court records. The figure is 15 times the legal threshold in Illinois.

It was unclear how Piotrowicz, who had suffered a concussion, was able to flee the country.

Piotrowicz first appears in Chicago-area public records in 1995, when he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, court records show. On May 31, 1996, he got an Illinois driver's license, according to the secretary of state's office.

Piotrowicz bought his Belmont Heights home in 1999, records show. The brick home with a basketball hoop on the backyard garage has his name on the mailbox.

Are you surprised at how far reaching DUI laws can be? I suspect the judge will rule that Mr. Piotrowicz must be extradited to Poland to face the charges.