pj7
It has been brought up here many times, people behind the wheel of an automobile with suspended, revoked, or non-existant operator permits. Ever wonder the driving history of the person in the automobile the next lane over?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/352292,CST-NWS-whydrive22a.article
[quote=The Story]
Why are they still driving?
April 22, 2007
BY SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporter
Nery E. Morales knew he was catching a break. With two DUI arrests last year and a suspended driver's license, the Northwest Side man faced jail time after getting pulled over by the Illinois State Police for doing 90 mph on the Northwest Tollway near Rolling Meadows in November, records show.
But in exchange for pleading guilty to driving on a suspended license, Morales, 24, avoided being sent to jail.
"I understand the seriousness," Morales told Judge Pamela Karahalios on March 16. "I'm getting some slack, and I'm thankful I'm getting a second chance."
Then he walked out of the Cook County branch courthouse in Rolling Meadows, got into a white Mitsubishi and drove away -- even though his driver's license is suspended until 2013.
A man who twice answered "This is Nery" on a phone listed to Morales told a reporter asking about the courthouse drive-off that it was a wrong number.
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter and photographer saw Morales drive away from the courthouse. The newspaper is watching local courthouses for drivers with invalid licenses thumbing their noses at judges -- often despite warnings not to drive.
They're not hard to find.
Around the area, people with suspended driver's licenses -- or no license at all -- routinely drive to and from court. Some, like Morales, do it after pleading guilty to the same law they're breaking.
Five years ago, the Illinois Legislature passed a law to crack down on this illegal practice. The measure was prompted by a series of reports in the Chicago Sun-Times dubbed "Why Are They Driving?"
The law lets police seize a driver's car and sell it the first time the person is convicted of driving on a suspended license, as long as the suspension was based on a serious offense, such as DUI. The old law required four convictions.
Since the change, thousands of cars have been seized. In DuPage County alone, 2,206 cars have been taken since 2003, most from people caught driving on invalid licenses, DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett said.
In Cook County, about 270 cars a year are seized, the "overwhelming majority" from people caught driving on suspended licenses, Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman said.
In Kane County, 143 cars have been seized since last summer, when the county ramped up its efforts, officials said.
The law allowing the cars to be seized appears to be succeeding in one respect -- the overall number of statewide convictions for driving on suspended and revoked licenses has dropped 10 percent since 2003, records show.
Still, the Illinois secretary of state's office processed nearly 75,000 convictions last year alone. And in Cook County, violations for driving on a suspended or revoked license have steadily increased in each of the last five years.
A Sun-Times spot check last month caught drivers continuing to break the law.
ACCUSED OF DUI -- AND LYING TO LAWYER?
Shahid Munir's driver's license was suspended, and he knew it, his lawyer said.
The 37-year-old North Side man was charged with driving drunk in Franklin Park in December, records show. His blood alcohol was measured at .213, far above the .08 limit to drive in Illinois, according to the ticket he was issued.
The self-employed man appeared before Judge Paula M. Daleo at the Cook County branch courthouse in Maywood on March 22 to contest the DUI. She ruled against him at the hearing, and Munir, after conferring with his lawyer, Andy Sotiropoulos, walked out of the courthouse.
After looking over his shoulder a few times, he got into the same Lexus in which he was pulled over for DUI and drove away.
Sotiropoulos said Munir "knew full well he wasn't supposed to drive," and Munir had told his lawyer that day he was getting a ride from the courthouse.
"I drove by him in my car. I saw him waiting outside," Sotiropoulos said. "He told me he was waiting for a ride. . . . I always tell my clients they're not supposed to drive. I hammer that home."
Munir wouldn't comment for this story.
STERN WARNINGS LAND ON DEAF EARS
On March 14, Fidel Martinez of Wood Dale went to the Maywood courthouse after being pulled over for driving without a license in La Grange Park on Feb. 9, records show.
Speaking through an interpreter, the Spanish-speaking Martinez told Judge Paula M. Daleo he still didn't have a license. He pleaded guilty and was fined $130.
"I'm warning you sir, if you're caught driving without a license again, the state will treat it as a misdemeanor and you'll be facing jail time," the judge told him.
But Martinez, 23, walked out of the courthouse, past the bus stop and to a black Jeep Cherokee. He promptly pulled out, went the wrong way on a one-way street and drove away. He could not be reached for comment.
On March 22 at the same courthouse, Beatriz Garcia, 19, of Cicero, pleaded guilty to driving without a license. It was her first offense, so she was given six months of court supervision, $150 in fines and a stern warning.
"If you come back before me charged with this again, you're not getting supervision," Judge William Wise told her. "Word to the wise. You understand me?"
She indicated she did, only to leave the courthouse, beep open the doors of a red Pontiac with a remote and drive off. She couldn't be reached for comment later.
JUDGES TRY HARD TO DRIVE POINT HOME
Some judges make a point to warn defendants to stay away from the driver's seat. Judge William Wise routinely warned defendants in Maywood not to drive.
Others took it a step further. Judge James A. Zafiratos, also in Maywood, asked some defendants directly how they got to court. When one man told the judge he took the bus, Zafiratos made him produce a bus pass.
When another man told the judge a friend drove him to court, Zafiratos made the man give up the name and phone number of the friend, and had a sheriff's deputy call to check it out. (He was telling the truth.)
Not every suspended driver flouts the law. The Sun-Times watched many suspended drivers wait for a bus, get a ride from a spouse or friend or even walk home from the courthouse.
Others, however, show up alone -- and drive off alone.
NO EXPLANATION FOR 'YES, SIR'
Latisha C. Fisher, 31, of Bolingbrook had her license suspended in 2003 after racking up too many moving violations, according to the secretary of state's office.
She kept driving, though, and got into an accident last September, records show. On March 21, she pleaded guilty in Maywood to driving on a suspended license.
"Ma'am you understand you cannot drive," Judge James A. Zafiratos said to her.
"Yes, sir," she replied, looking straight at him.
But after signing up for community service, Fisher got into a black car in the courthouse parking lot and drove away.
When reached later, she wouldn't say why she was still driving.
"I don't want to explain," Fisher said. "I don't feel I need to explain."
Illegal drivers in 20% of fatal wrecks
Accidents involving drivers without valid licenses continue to be a problem in the country. Nearly 20 percent of all fatal crashes in the country involve a driver without a valid license, a 2003 study found.
In that nationwide study for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, researchers from the Data Nexus firm analyzed 256,345 fatal crashes involving 287,655 deaths over seven years.
More than 50,000 of the crashes involved a driver who wasn't properly licensed. Those crashes resulted in 57,504 deaths.
The Cook County Sheriff's Department has conducted 189 courthouse stings in the last five years to catch motorists driving away from courthouses, including two stings last month. More than 1,000 drivers have been snared, spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
DuPage County also does stings, and has been on the forefront of seizing cars ever since Joe Birkett, the DuPage state's attorney, helped get the state's original seizure law passed in an effort to crack down on repeat drunken drivers.
"This is working," Birkett said of the seizures. "The rate of recidivism of these guys is low. There's only been a few repeat offenders from the guys we took cars from. ... The cops love this. So do police chiefs."
Cars seized under the statute tend to wind up in the hands of police departments, which can sell them, use them for education or find other uses.
If there's a lien on the car because of a car loan, the car goes to the lien holder.
A judge can also return the car to a spouse if there's a hardship, or to an innocent owner if they didn't know they were letting a suspended driver use it.
In Kane County last fall, a Batavia woman admitted she let Randall J. Visor use her 1998 Chevy Malibu despite knowing his license was invalid, officials said.
Visor's license had been permanently revoked after he was convicted of reckless homicide and DUI in a 1997 crash that killed four young women, three from Waubonsie Valley High School.
When Batavia police caught Visor driving the woman's Chevy last year, they seized it. They now plan to sell it and use the proceeds for drug education and enforcement.
Not all cars of people caught driving on suspended licenses are eligible for seizure. For those cars, there's a new $500 fine in Cook County that must be paid before a driver can recover the car. Sheriff Tom Dart calls it "our newest enforcement tool." Even after coughing up the cash, the driver still faces towing charges, storage fees and court fines.
Yet drivers with bad licenses keep on driving.
"It's outrageous," Birkett said.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/352292,CST-NWS-whydrive22a.article
[quote=The Story]
Why are they still driving?
April 22, 2007
BY SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporter
Nery E. Morales knew he was catching a break. With two DUI arrests last year and a suspended driver's license, the Northwest Side man faced jail time after getting pulled over by the Illinois State Police for doing 90 mph on the Northwest Tollway near Rolling Meadows in November, records show.
But in exchange for pleading guilty to driving on a suspended license, Morales, 24, avoided being sent to jail.
"I understand the seriousness," Morales told Judge Pamela Karahalios on March 16. "I'm getting some slack, and I'm thankful I'm getting a second chance."
Then he walked out of the Cook County branch courthouse in Rolling Meadows, got into a white Mitsubishi and drove away -- even though his driver's license is suspended until 2013.
A man who twice answered "This is Nery" on a phone listed to Morales told a reporter asking about the courthouse drive-off that it was a wrong number.
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter and photographer saw Morales drive away from the courthouse. The newspaper is watching local courthouses for drivers with invalid licenses thumbing their noses at judges -- often despite warnings not to drive.
They're not hard to find.
Around the area, people with suspended driver's licenses -- or no license at all -- routinely drive to and from court. Some, like Morales, do it after pleading guilty to the same law they're breaking.
Five years ago, the Illinois Legislature passed a law to crack down on this illegal practice. The measure was prompted by a series of reports in the Chicago Sun-Times dubbed "Why Are They Driving?"
The law lets police seize a driver's car and sell it the first time the person is convicted of driving on a suspended license, as long as the suspension was based on a serious offense, such as DUI. The old law required four convictions.
Since the change, thousands of cars have been seized. In DuPage County alone, 2,206 cars have been taken since 2003, most from people caught driving on invalid licenses, DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett said.
In Cook County, about 270 cars a year are seized, the "overwhelming majority" from people caught driving on suspended licenses, Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman said.
In Kane County, 143 cars have been seized since last summer, when the county ramped up its efforts, officials said.
The law allowing the cars to be seized appears to be succeeding in one respect -- the overall number of statewide convictions for driving on suspended and revoked licenses has dropped 10 percent since 2003, records show.
Still, the Illinois secretary of state's office processed nearly 75,000 convictions last year alone. And in Cook County, violations for driving on a suspended or revoked license have steadily increased in each of the last five years.
A Sun-Times spot check last month caught drivers continuing to break the law.
ACCUSED OF DUI -- AND LYING TO LAWYER?
Shahid Munir's driver's license was suspended, and he knew it, his lawyer said.
The 37-year-old North Side man was charged with driving drunk in Franklin Park in December, records show. His blood alcohol was measured at .213, far above the .08 limit to drive in Illinois, according to the ticket he was issued.
The self-employed man appeared before Judge Paula M. Daleo at the Cook County branch courthouse in Maywood on March 22 to contest the DUI. She ruled against him at the hearing, and Munir, after conferring with his lawyer, Andy Sotiropoulos, walked out of the courthouse.
After looking over his shoulder a few times, he got into the same Lexus in which he was pulled over for DUI and drove away.
Sotiropoulos said Munir "knew full well he wasn't supposed to drive," and Munir had told his lawyer that day he was getting a ride from the courthouse.
"I drove by him in my car. I saw him waiting outside," Sotiropoulos said. "He told me he was waiting for a ride. . . . I always tell my clients they're not supposed to drive. I hammer that home."
Munir wouldn't comment for this story.
STERN WARNINGS LAND ON DEAF EARS
On March 14, Fidel Martinez of Wood Dale went to the Maywood courthouse after being pulled over for driving without a license in La Grange Park on Feb. 9, records show.
Speaking through an interpreter, the Spanish-speaking Martinez told Judge Paula M. Daleo he still didn't have a license. He pleaded guilty and was fined $130.
"I'm warning you sir, if you're caught driving without a license again, the state will treat it as a misdemeanor and you'll be facing jail time," the judge told him.
But Martinez, 23, walked out of the courthouse, past the bus stop and to a black Jeep Cherokee. He promptly pulled out, went the wrong way on a one-way street and drove away. He could not be reached for comment.
On March 22 at the same courthouse, Beatriz Garcia, 19, of Cicero, pleaded guilty to driving without a license. It was her first offense, so she was given six months of court supervision, $150 in fines and a stern warning.
"If you come back before me charged with this again, you're not getting supervision," Judge William Wise told her. "Word to the wise. You understand me?"
She indicated she did, only to leave the courthouse, beep open the doors of a red Pontiac with a remote and drive off. She couldn't be reached for comment later.
JUDGES TRY HARD TO DRIVE POINT HOME
Some judges make a point to warn defendants to stay away from the driver's seat. Judge William Wise routinely warned defendants in Maywood not to drive.
Others took it a step further. Judge James A. Zafiratos, also in Maywood, asked some defendants directly how they got to court. When one man told the judge he took the bus, Zafiratos made him produce a bus pass.
When another man told the judge a friend drove him to court, Zafiratos made the man give up the name and phone number of the friend, and had a sheriff's deputy call to check it out. (He was telling the truth.)
Not every suspended driver flouts the law. The Sun-Times watched many suspended drivers wait for a bus, get a ride from a spouse or friend or even walk home from the courthouse.
Others, however, show up alone -- and drive off alone.
NO EXPLANATION FOR 'YES, SIR'
Latisha C. Fisher, 31, of Bolingbrook had her license suspended in 2003 after racking up too many moving violations, according to the secretary of state's office.
She kept driving, though, and got into an accident last September, records show. On March 21, she pleaded guilty in Maywood to driving on a suspended license.
"Ma'am you understand you cannot drive," Judge James A. Zafiratos said to her.
"Yes, sir," she replied, looking straight at him.
But after signing up for community service, Fisher got into a black car in the courthouse parking lot and drove away.
When reached later, she wouldn't say why she was still driving.
"I don't want to explain," Fisher said. "I don't feel I need to explain."
Illegal drivers in 20% of fatal wrecks
Accidents involving drivers without valid licenses continue to be a problem in the country. Nearly 20 percent of all fatal crashes in the country involve a driver without a valid license, a 2003 study found.
In that nationwide study for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, researchers from the Data Nexus firm analyzed 256,345 fatal crashes involving 287,655 deaths over seven years.
More than 50,000 of the crashes involved a driver who wasn't properly licensed. Those crashes resulted in 57,504 deaths.
The Cook County Sheriff's Department has conducted 189 courthouse stings in the last five years to catch motorists driving away from courthouses, including two stings last month. More than 1,000 drivers have been snared, spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
DuPage County also does stings, and has been on the forefront of seizing cars ever since Joe Birkett, the DuPage state's attorney, helped get the state's original seizure law passed in an effort to crack down on repeat drunken drivers.
"This is working," Birkett said of the seizures. "The rate of recidivism of these guys is low. There's only been a few repeat offenders from the guys we took cars from. ... The cops love this. So do police chiefs."
Cars seized under the statute tend to wind up in the hands of police departments, which can sell them, use them for education or find other uses.
If there's a lien on the car because of a car loan, the car goes to the lien holder.
A judge can also return the car to a spouse if there's a hardship, or to an innocent owner if they didn't know they were letting a suspended driver use it.
In Kane County last fall, a Batavia woman admitted she let Randall J. Visor use her 1998 Chevy Malibu despite knowing his license was invalid, officials said.
Visor's license had been permanently revoked after he was convicted of reckless homicide and DUI in a 1997 crash that killed four young women, three from Waubonsie Valley High School.
When Batavia police caught Visor driving the woman's Chevy last year, they seized it. They now plan to sell it and use the proceeds for drug education and enforcement.
Not all cars of people caught driving on suspended licenses are eligible for seizure. For those cars, there's a new $500 fine in Cook County that must be paid before a driver can recover the car. Sheriff Tom Dart calls it "our newest enforcement tool." Even after coughing up the cash, the driver still faces towing charges, storage fees and court fines.
Yet drivers with bad licenses keep on driving.
"It's outrageous," Birkett said.