An Aurora man who police say fled a local hospital to avoid arrest after crashing a car during a police pursuit last month is back in custody after a Kane County judge increased his bail in two unrelated cases to a total of $250,000.
Billy J. Cole Jr. was released from jail Saturday after his stepbrother posted the $7,500 bond for his $75,000 bail for a handful of felony charges connected with the police pursuit, crash and foot chase March 27 in Aurora.
At the time of the crash, Cole was out on two separate bonds – one cash and one signature – on unrelated charges of attempted murder and aggravated drunken driving.
He’s facing felony charges including attempted murder, class 3 felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor DUI in connection with a December 2015 attack in Aurora while he was driving a Chevrolet Malibu with three passengers, according to court records.
About two months after his release from Kane County Jail by posting $5,000 bond in the attempted murder case, Cole was charged Dec. 20 with two counts of aggravated DUI on a suspended or revoked license, both class 4 felonies; reckless driving, a class A misdemeanor; and driving with license revoked, a class A misdemeanor, according to Kane County court records.
Court records indicate Cole did not sign conditions of bond, which included abstaining from alcohol and driving, on the December DUI case, but was released again Feb. 15 on a personal recognizance bond by Judge Donald M. Tegeler Jr.
Tegeler on Wednesday raised the attempted murder bail to $150,000 and added a $100,000 bail to the DUI case, essentially revoking the signature bond, according to court records.
While Kane County deputies initially took Cole into custody after the crash, which also injured his sole passenger, medics took him to Rush-Copley Medical Center. He stayed one night and walked away the next day as officials were preparing a warrant, Kane County Sheriff spokesman Lt. Patrick Gengler said.
Cole eluded authorities for about two days, until they got a court order for his cellphone records and found he was in Quincy, where U.S. marshals took him into custody, Gengler said.
He faces charges of aggravated fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, a class 3 felony; aggravated reckless driving causing great bodily harm, disability or disfigurement, a class 4 felony; leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, a class 4 felony; driving on a revoked license where two or more people were injured, a class 4 felony; driving on a license revoked for DUI, a class 4 felony; resisting or obstructing a peace officer, a class A misdemeanor; and disobeying a stop sign, a traffic offense.
Since Cole was 18, he has served time for several criminal convictions, most recently discharged from prison in October 2014, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.
When medics took Cole to the hospital, the sheriff’s office didn’t know the full extent of his criminal record, Gengler said.
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The sheriff’s office, under the impression Cole was likely to be there for another day, didn’t assign an officer to watch him at the hospital, Gengler said.
To Gengler’s knowledge, Cole, knowing he would eventually be arrested, walked out of the hospital before he was medically discharged.
When to assign an officer to guard someone at the hospital is ultimately a judgment call unless the person is already in custody at the jail, in which case the sheriff’s office does assign someone, Gengler said. After discussing the case with Sheriff Donald Kramer, Gengler said the department, moving forward, will continue to evaluate each case based on its individual facts.
“In the Cole case we did not think that he was going to flee based on the medical information we were provided,” Gengler said in an email Wednesday. “That turned out to not be the case and now looks like we may have made the wrong decision.”
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