Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd was convicted of disorderly conduct Wednesday for repeatedly honking his horn and bumping his car into another during what prosecutors described as a fit of “road rage” near the Crystal Lake commuter train station.
McHenry County Circuit Judge Gordon E. Graham sentenced Ladd, 56, a lawyer in a Loop law firm, to one year’s supervision on the misdemeanor charge. Graham also fined him $250 and ordered him to perform 45 hours of public service.
But the judge acquitted Ladd, who lives in unincorporated Crystal Lake, of criminal damage to property following the three-day bench trial.
Graham found Ladd guilty of causing a breach of the peace for continually honking his horn and bumping the car of Christine McNalis, 33, of Crystal Lake as she waited to make a left turn during the evening rush hour Jan. 8.
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Ladd, who testified that he was suffering from a sinus infection and was in a hurry to get home, motioned for McNalis to go down the street to get around a train that was stopped in the station. But she refused, and several cars backed up behind Ladd’s car.
“I’m asking this court to hold Jeff Ladd to the same standard as other people,” said Assistant McHenry County State’s Atty. David Franks. “Whether you’re a pauper or prince, the laws apply to everybody equally. Road rage is unacceptable conduct.
“He didn’t even get out of his car after his car hit her bumper. He just wanted to get home–his time was more important than the welfare of another person.”
Ladd has been chairman of the Metra board since 1984, overseeing the agency that operates commuter rail service in Chicago and the suburbs. In 1994, he ran as a Republican for Illinois attorney general but lost in the primary.
Graham’s verdict pleased McNalis and Michael Czosnyka, a key prosecution witness.
The judge “did what he thought was right; that’s what we were trying to do too,” said McNalis, adding that her car incurred about $200 in damage to its rear bumper. “In my mind he was guilty.”
Ladd said he was “disappointed” in Graham’s verdict.
“He found there was no intent in the criminal damage to property charge, and I think intent is an element of disorderly conduct as well,” Ladd said. “If the police had been at that intersection, they would have told her to move it.
“In all my 38 years of riding the train, I had never seen that kind of blockage.”
William Caldwell, Ladd’s lawyer, said he expects to file either an appeal of the verdict or a post-trial motion asking Graham to reconsider his decision.
Caldwell had asked Graham to acquit Ladd because of “inconsistencies” between the testimony of McNalis, Ladd and Czosnyka, who was standing on a nearby sidewalk. The altercation occurred while McNalis, who was eastbound on Woodstock Street, waited to make a left turn onto Grant Street at about 6:15 p.m.
The conflicting testimony included how often Ladd honked his horn, whether McNalis signaled her turn before Ladd honked, the force with which Ladd’s front bumper struck McNalis’ rear bumper and the damage to McNalis’ bumper.
“Jeff Ladd did not knowingly damage her property,” Caldwell said. “By her own testimony, she tied up traffic on Woodstock Street for five minutes. I’m not saying that more civility shouldn’t have been used; of course it should have. But Jeff Ladd’s conduct does not rise to the level of disorderly conduct.”
Graham held that there was “no question that the vehicles were in contact” but added that the prosecution failed to establish any intent by Ladd to commit criminal damage to property. He also cited conflicting testimony about the damage to McNalis’ car.
But Graham said the contact between the cars caused McNalis to become “alarmed and disturbed, and this was a breach of the peace.”
Franks, the prosecutor, said outside court that the incident rose to the level of a misdemeanor because of “the combination of continual honking of the horn and the bumping of her car.”
Franks had urged Graham to sentence Ladd to one year of non-reporting probation and order a $500 fine and 75 hours of community service. Caldwell had asked for six months of court supervision, a $100 fine and no community service.