The Illinois Appellate Court on Tuesday revived a 2000 drunken driving charge against Orland Hills Public Works Director Michael Worley, reversing a trial court judge’s order to quash the arrest and suppress evidence.
The court also reversed Cook County Judge James P. O’Malley’s order that set aside Worley’s license suspension. The court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
O’Malley had dismissed the case in July 2000 after an Orland Hills police officer testified he was ordered by a supervisor to seek out and arrest the village employee.
Neither Worley nor police officials could be reached for comment.
Mayor Kyle Hastings said he was not familiar with the case and referred questions to Village Manager John Daly.
“That’s a case that does not have anything to do with the village. The case is a personal one involving Mr. Worley,” Daly said.
The court ruled that although Orland Hills police administrator Dave Caston had ordered Officer Dave Snyder to stop and arrest Worley in June 2000, Snyder waited for Worley to commit a traffic violation before pulling him over. After stopping Worley, Snyder observed that his eyes were bloodshot, he reeked of alcohol and his speech was “thick-tongued.” Worley also failed three field sobriety tests.
“These uncontested observations corroborated the information Officer Snyder had been given regarding defendant’s condition, and also provided him with an independent basis for concluding that he had `reasonable grounds/probable cause’ to arrest defendant for driving under the influence of alcohol,” wrote Justice Anne Burke, with Justices Joseph Gordon and Margaret Stanton McBride concurring.
According to the court’s order, Worley was called in for a meeting–on his day off–with Caston and the village administrator June 12, 2000. The meeting was canceled when Caston detected alcohol on Worley.
As Worley was leaving, Caston went to the police station and ordered Snyder to follow Worley, stop him, perform field sobriety tests and then arrest him.
Snyder pulled Worley over after his vehicle crossed the road’s center line.
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“In the absence of any evidence showing a legal basis for defendant’s crossing over the center line, we find under the evidence presented that Officer Snyder had a reasonable suspicion that defendant had committed an offense, and that the stop was valid,” the court wrote.
O’Malley had dismissed the charges because there had been no probable cause to stop his car.