Crime & Safety

Ill-Advised Vacation: Court Supervision

A Rockdale woman took a Key West vacation while the man she ran over was dying in a Joliet hospital.

By Joseph Hosey 

During her sentencing hearing in Will County court, it came out that Rockdale woman Cara Quiett had to be restrained by four cops before a blood sample could be taken from her after she ran over a man riding a bicycle, and that the sample showed her to still be legally drunk nearly five hours after the accident.

That was bad enough, but then it emerged that Quiett went on a Key West vacation while the man she hit with her car, 49-year-old James Farmer, was dying in a Joliet hospital.

Quiett, 32, posted her vacation photos on Facebook and Farmer's family happened to see them.

That was probably a bad idea. It was probably also a bad idea to have syringes and small plastic bags around when the cops show up to investigate a report of a drug overdose. But that's what the Channahon police say they found when they went to the home of former Will County Chief Judge Rodney Lechwar .

Lechwar's druggie kid, Matthew Lechwar, had only gotten out of prison nine days earlier. He had served a mere seven months of an eight year prison sentence. Both the police and an ambulance were sent to the home after someone reported Matthew Lechwar had overdosed.

Special prosecutor Charles Colburn, who had a hand in setting up Matthew Lechwar's abbreviated prison sentence, said this week he did not know if he would pursue legal action.

Here's what else was going on in court last week:

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