Sep 22, 2008 8:57 am US/Central
Luck Runs Out For Naperville Man
Joshua M. Ziemer Gets 2 Years For Driving Over Lawn, Striking Man
WHEATON, Ill. (Naperville Sun) ―
Luck has apparently run out for a man who managed to avoid going to prison despite having had more than 120 contacts with police by the age of 21.
Joshua M. Ziemer, of 1086 Pomona Court in Naperville's Will-O-Way neighborhood, has been sentenced to two years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for driving his sport utility vehicle over a residential lawn and striking a 22-year-old man.
Ziemer, 21, was convicted Thursday in DuPage County Circuit Court of a felony charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, said Paul Darrah, a spokesman for State's Attorney Joe Birkett. Four other counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, criminal damage to property and reckless driving were dismissed in exchange for Ziemer's guilty plea, Darrah said.
Naperville police arrested Ziemer in the early-morning hours of April 7, after he was asked to leave a party at a house on the 1300 block of Cantigny Court in the Meadows neighborhood.
A police spokesman earlier this summer said Ziemer responded by driving his SUV over the lawn of the home where the party was taking place and a neighbor's lawn. The man Ziemer hit with the SUV was not seriously
injured, police said.
Ziemer was most recently arrested July 15 on a misdemeanor charge of retail theft, for allegedly shoplifting four DVDs with a total estimated value of $80 from a supermarket on Naperville's northwest side. That case is pending in court.
A police report written as part of that case showed Ziemer has had "over 120 contacts" with Naperville police in his lifetime, for crimes and issues ranging from larceny to burglary to narcotics possession.
Police define a "contact" as any matter in which an individual's name comes up in a public complaint to police. In Ziemer's case, he might have been the subject of an arrest, a suspect in a criminal matter that did not end in an arrest or someone who initiated contact with authorities, the police spokesman said.
Court records showed Ziemer has been arrested or ticketed by police 36 times since October 2001.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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