Nov 22, 2007 11:20 pm US/Central
Off-Duty Cop Charged With DUI In Fatal Crash
Cop Stripped Of Duties
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
An off-duty five-year veteran Chicago police officer was charged with driving drunk in a crash that resulted in the deaths of two men Thanksgiving morning.
Police Officer John Ardelean, 33, who was off-duty, has been charged with one count of D.U.I. and driving left of center, according to a release from police News Affairs.
The crash happened about 3 a.m. Thursday in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, in the 2900 block of North Damen Avenue.
According to witnesses, the Durango was northbound on Damen and was traveling left of center, police News Affairs Officer Tom Polick said, when it struck the car Miguel Flores, 22, and Erick Lagunas, 21, were in. The Pontiac Flores and Lagunas were in then struck two other cars, Polick said.
Belmont District police said it was possible the Durango broadsided the Pontiac.
Lagunas, of 2837 S. 48th Ct. in Cicero, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:31 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
Flores, of 3430 S. 61st Ct. in Cicero, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, according to the medical examiner's office, where he was pronounced dead at 4:07 a.m.
A third man who was a passenger in the Pontiac was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Consoled by neighbors as they tried to find a witness to the accident, relatives Thursday night tried to learn more about the crash that killed Lagunas and Flores. The men were friends since they were youngsters. The families found an ID card and a hat, but nothing really new, either at the scene, or, they say, from police.
"Never was I contacted by a police officer or anyone telling me it was a police officer who was off duty," Miguel's sister Nancy Flores said. "Why do I have to find out from the news?"
Police tell us Ardelean is the second Chicago police officer charged in a fatal DUI this week.
The other victim was 35-year-old Denise Gerzen, a popular employee at a Burbank tavern who was killed in a crash with an intoxicated driver back in June.
But it took 5 months and the efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving to charge the officer she was riding with, with having a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
"I just want justice to be done," Gerzen's mother, Monica Gerzen, said. "Just because a policeman was involved, you know, they get away with murder. It's not fair."
The two cases come just over a year after another officer, Jason Casper was fired and then sentenced to 12 years in jail after pleading guilty to DUI and reckless homicide charges stemming from a crash in Tinley Park which killed two Orland Park teenagers.
Erick Lagunas' brother, who flew home from Texas Thursday to help console the family, expressed their frustration.
"I can't speak for all of them but if doing that, the'yre out there drinkin', these are the people supposed to protect us..." Jose Lagunas said.
Ardelean, a Belmont District officer, had five years on the force, Polick said. He has been stripped of his duties pending an investigation.
Ardelean is scheduled to appear in Traffic Court on Jan. 23, 2008 at 9 a.m.
CBS 2's Jay Levine and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
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