Posted on 05/26/2007 6:21:14 AM PDT by Krankor
A DuPage County prosecutor killed in a drunken driving crash was traveling more than 80 mph and possibly using her cell phone seconds before her government-issued car struck another vehicle head-on, authorities said Friday.
A 33-page police report also indicated that Jane Radostits had been drinking before the May 11 crash during a long lunch at an Oak Brook restaurant with seven other prosecutors and another office staffer.
Lab results released last week showed that Radostits, 46, had a blood-alcohol level of .25 percent -- three times the level at which a motorist is considered drunk.
"She was drunk, and she was speeding. Those are horrible circumstances," DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said Friday after reviewing the crash report prepared by the DuPage County Sheriff's Department.
The 3:45 p.m. crash seriously injured Michele Lubinski, 36, of West Chicago, whose sport-utility vehicle was hit by Radostits' county-issued Chevy Impala. Two other vehicles were damaged in the crash near Winfield.
"My heart is broken over what's taken place," Birkett said.
He confirmed Friday that veteran prosecutor Jeffrey Kendall, who had been drinking with Radostits and later gave her a ride in his county car back to the Wheaton courthouse so she could pick up her work vehicle, has resigned in the wake of the revelations. But Birkett would not say whether he asked Kendall to leave.
Birkett would not comment on whether any of the other prosecutors who had been at the lunch at the Kona Grill in Oak Brook have been disciplined, though sources say none has been punished.
Radostits and Kendall were the first to arrive at the restaurant, coming from the DuPage County courthouse after a bomb threat forced the closure of the building. While other prosecutors arrived later and stayed for a lesser amount of time, Radostits and Kendall spent at least three hours there, investigators said.
Other prosecutors who were with Radostits, a respected deputy bureau chief in the office, estimated she had three to five drinks, but they told police they saw "no outward signs of impairment or intoxication."
Radostits and Kendall, who could not be reached for comment, had received permission to take the rest of the day off, officials said.
Data obtained from Radostits' Impala indicated that in the seconds before the crash, she was driving between 81 and 85 mph -- far exceeding the posted 45 mph limit, investigators said. There was no indication that Radostits tried to brake before the crash on Winfield Road, nor did she appear to be wearing a seat belt, investigators said.
"The excessive speed combined with the blood alcohol level may have given the driver of the Impala a false sense of how fast she was traveling," Detective Kevin Farley wrote in the crash report.
Phone records also indicate she apparently was making a cell phone call about the time the crash occurred, investigators said in the report.
Sheriff John Zaruba declined to comment on the crash report, except to say it had been released without prior review by Birkett's office.
Lubinski, who broke her left arm and left leg in the crash, remains "completely bedridden," her attorney said Friday.
Attorney Dennis Stefanowicz questioned why at least some prosecutors were drinking after the bomb threat closed down the courthouse.
"This wasn't a routine bomb threat," he said. "It seemed to be more of a party on behalf of the DuPage County state's attorney's office."
There is only one bad guy, and she is dead. Unfortunately there is another victim of her criminal behavior, and at least six other enablers. As for "rumor and innuendo" BAC is a fact, not a rumor. She was drunk, deeply drunk.
No doubt her loved ones miss her. But the rest of us have every right to be angry with her, not just for her last act, but also for the hypocrasy due to her position.
They were common in the bars around the large factories in Michigan when I was a lad. Entire shirts of men would come off their shift and walk to the large bar across the way. To deal with this huge rush hour the bars would pour, in advance, many mugs of beer (Stroh's in Detroit) and shots of bar whiskey. These would be lined up on the bar and men would simply pick them up on their way in and take a seat.
The idea of dropping a shot glass in the mug of beer and tipping the whole thing down the hatch sprung from this tradition.
After you have two you will be saying "MakerBoiler" too.
You can order them in bars of that type to this day: you will get a mug of beer and shot of cheap whiskey. Whether you drop the shot glass in the mug after drinking the top is up to you.
Some bars in Oregon will not serve two drinks (a shot and a beer) to anyone.
I was familiar with the boilermaker. The makerboiler was a joke drink from college which switched the beer and the whiskey. I know of no one who tried one (or could survive the mug of whiskey).
” Does GM build more precision and quality into systems that may never be used by their customers, such as data recorders...”
— -—
Any defendant is welcome to challenge the prima facia evidence in court if they want, but beating the prima facia evidence would be a huge task. Most of these clowns are drunks who didn’t even know they were in a car accident until the next morning when the nurse tells them where they are.
Like -- he's gonna personally pay a visit to Hell to kick this broad in the rear?
Not so sure. The Bible tells about dying twice.
This is one time size doesn’t matter. It’s tolerance.
do as i say not as i do alert.
Cars data systems are not very good. How the he11 can one get a conviction using data from a system so often known to be unreliable? At least on airplanes, these systems are redundant for any critical data - the designers knowing how fallible these system are.
The truly amazing thing about this story is it makes absolutely no sense. From all accounts, this woman was a top prosecuting attorney- one of the best. She was a very hard worker who was on her way to becoming a judge.She also appears to be a fantastic person with a great sense of humor who everyone at the office loved. Her boss says there was no indication of any drinking problem. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, this highly motivated, intelligent woman downed enough drinks to put her three times over the legal limit- and not one of nine people from the prosecutor’s office noticed she was the least bit impaired. It makes no sense at all. It defies comprehension.
There’s a piece of the puzzle missing. There’s something we don’t know. There’s something they’re hiding.
So she was trashed in the middle of a work day?
Feel for the family.
I'd much rather get a call to pick up my soused spouse than a call from the cops saying she was dead.
One of the calls was allegedly from the man she started off lunch with and spent over three hours with- Mr. Kendall. He was also the one who dropped her off at her car after lunch. He is also the one who resigned. He allegedly called her to remind her about a future court date. What’s really suspicious- the sheriff produces a 33 page report on the incident. I would assume the restaurant had a computerized bill showing the food and drinks ordered. Kendall paid for the bill with his credit card so they should be able to match the bill with the credit card pretty easily. I wonder why that wasn’t included in the report. I think this thing is gonna blow up big league.
Now that’s what I call a drinking party. When I was first stationed in Germany, I couldn’t hold my liquor, by the time I left, I was a first class drinker. My dad took me out the first weekend I was home and brought. His mistake!! I was sucking down beers like water. My dad not only had a huge bar tab but told me I was an alcoholic. I told him, laughing, the American beer is like drinking water. It’s so weak, it’s not even funny. Couple of years later I am back to drinking weak beer and a low tolerance again. I LOVED Germany.
Even though our society has built two Americas (one of the lowly and one of the political) the laws of nature do not yet recognize the delineation. The law of the harvest is still in effect - you always reap what you sew.
Thanks! Good to know.
Big brother’s watching!
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