Thursday, July 16, 2009

Chicago DUI lawyer wonders if both the passenger and the driver will be found guilty of DUI

Recently, a Pennsylvania couple pled guilty of DUI. The police couldn't figure out which one actually was driving so they cast their nets wide. It looks like it worked:

June 2, New Brighton, PA

A western Pennsylvania husband and wife will enter a first-time offender program after both were charged with drunken driving in connection with the same car crash.

Police were told of the accident, and found the damaged car in a nearby mobile home park. Robert Kotoff claimed he was driving. But police say witnesses told them Tina Kotoff was driving when the car hit the tree, and that her husband only drove the car to the mobile home park afterward.

I guess this local couple didn't hear about the Pennsylvania case.


Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time. Or maybe it was more a matter of desperate people doing desperate things.

In any event, the sensation of her car striking a curb with a Naperville police squad car nearby apparently prompted motorist Erin M. Flanagan to quickly trade places with her front seat passenger, Justin M. Kreis.

Flanagan had been drinking, according to police, and apparently feared she was about to be arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The trouble was, Kreis was inebriated, too. Which is why police ended up arresting both on drunken-driving charges.

Is Illinois going to follow Pennsylvania and find both people guilty of DUI?

(Thanks Melinda)

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