Two men were arrested in a drunk-driving incident, early Nov. 20, in which the driver exhibited signs of intoxication after being pulled over for traffic violations, then urinated in a police squad car. His companion, meanwhile, tried to walk onto Interstate 290 from Harlem Avenue.
Angel Hernandez-Cruz, 23, of Woodridge was stopped on the I-290 ramp. According to police, he had no license, no identification and no insurance. He also gave police a false name.
Police report that the suspect smelled strongly of alcohol, so Hernandez-Cruz was ordered out of the car and asked to perform field sobriety tests. A police report says he obliged the request, but failed all the tests.
Some time during the incident, the car’s passenger, 21-year-old Joel Chagla-Tadeo, who was also ordered out of Hernandez’s car because he, too, appeared drunk, started walking down the I-290 ramp toward the Eisenhower Expressway.
Fearing for his safety, officers apprehended him, placing him in handcuffs and putting him in a squad car.
Chagla-Tadeo was driven to an unspecified section of Austin Boulevard in Chicago and released with a citation for standing in the roadway and interfering with traffic.
Hernandez-Cruz was taken to headquarters where he took a Breathalyzer test, and blew a .222 – almost three times the legal limit of .08.
He was charged with two counts of DUI and with operating an uninsured motor vehicle, improper turning, driving with a revoked license, and having two in-state warrants.
There was no information about the warrants in the police report.
Two swipes at credit-card theft
A Chicago man was arrested and charged with a felony on the morning of Nov. 16 for his alleged attempt to buy a sandwich at a local Subway with two credit cards that did not belong to him.
Selmon Bournes, 30, reportedly tried to pay for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich at the 125 Harlem Ave. Subway with two different credit cards, but neither was approved. He told Subway employees that he would return later with cash.
Store employees called police because they thought Bournes’ behavior was suspicious. They also thought he might be casing the store (he had reportedly been loitering inside for about half an hour) in order to rob it, according to the report.
An officer caught up to Bournes at the Walgreens, 7200 Roosevelt Rd., and asked him about the incident at Subway. Initially, Bournes denied being in Subway and said he didn’t have any credit cards.
Eventually, he said he found the cards in Chicago and was just going to use them to buy a sandwich. After that, Bournes said, he planned on returning them to Chase.
Police contacted a security representative at Chase Bank and learned that, recently, one card had been reported stolen, while another was called in as lost.
Bournes was taken to headquarters and charged with felony credit card fraud.
Deputy Chief Tom Aftanas said that, to his knowledge, the incident at Subway was an “isolated” one for Bournes.
Drunk and speeding
Police arrested a Franklin Park man who was pulled over for excessive speeding, early Nov. 16, and then failed field sobriety tests.
Jose Salina was reportedly driving 77 mph in 30-mph zone on Harlem Avenue, before an officer pulled him over on the nearby Westbound entrance ramp for I-290.
Salina told the reporting officer he was driving his cousin’s car and didn’t have his license or proof of insurance.
A name check revealed that Salinas’ license is valid, according to police, but the reporting officer reported smelling alcohol on Salinas and noticed his bloodshot eyes.
Salinas was asked to perform field sobriety tests, failed all of them, and was arrested and taken to the station.
There he submitted to a breathalyzer and blew a .144 – over the legal limit of .08.
Salinas was charged with two counts of DUI; and single counts of operating an uninsured motor vehicle, speeding, improper lane usage, and failure to signal.
Drug charges
A St. Charles man faces drug charges after police spotted him slumped over in a car parked in a local gas station on the night of Nov. 18 and then reportedly found crack and heroin in his possession.
According to police, Christopher Miner, 29, allegedly had .5 grams of crack and 7 grams of heroin, in multiple packages.
An officer first saw him hunched over in the driver’s seat of the car and went to check on Miner. The reporting officer said he saw Miner clench an object and conceal it in his pocket.
That object turned out to be two small bags of crack cocaine; officers also found 17 tin-foil packages of heroin in a later search.
Miner was arrested and charged with two counts of possessing a controlled substance.
These items were obtained from the records of the Forest Park Police Department, Nov. 14-20, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Unless otherwise indicated, anyone else named in the report has only been charged with a crime.
-Compiled by Nick Moroni
