South Suburban Drunken Driving Arrests, Nov. 27

NOV. 13: Police pulled over a vehicle with tinted windows after it sat for about 8 seconds at a green light without moving in the 9100 block of 159th Street around 1:10 p.m. The driver’s breath smelled like alcohol and he failed field sobriety tests, police said. Nicholas R. Thompson, 25, of the 1600 block of Fieldstone Drive in Shorewood, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving without a license and driving with illegally tinted windows.

NOV. 10: Police pulled over a car swerving between lanes at 159th Street and 88th Avenue around 12:20 a.m. Police smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath, and the driver said he didn’t have his license on him, police said. Police found empty beer cans in the car and the driver failed field sobriety tests, according to the report. Antonio Dominguez, 29, of the 2500 block of Springfield in Chicago, was charged with driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than .08, driving with a suspended license and improper lane use.

NOV. 9: Police were called about a two-vehicle car accident with possible injuries in the 9500 block of 151st Street around 5:45 p.m. A man found slumped behind the wheel of a car didn’t respond when a police officer knocked on the window, police said. The officer smelled alcohol in the car when he opened the door, and the driver wasn’t able to tell the officer what happened, police said. He later failed field sobriety tests after declining medical treatment, police said. A woman driving the other car told police she was at a stoplight when she was rear ended by the man, according to the report. Brian E. Sansone, 26, of the 14900 block of 81st Court in Orland Park, was charged with driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than .08, driving with an expired license, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and driving an uninsured vehicle.

NOV. 9: Police received lab results on Nov. 8 that revealed a man involved in an accident was driving with a blood-alcohol content greater than .08 and had an open container of alcohol in the vehicle, according to the report. The man turned himself in to the Orland Park Police Department on Nov. 9 around 8:30 a.m., police said. Jimmy L. Bricker, 66, of the 9200 block of Bundoran Drive in Orland Park, was charged with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than .08 and illegal transportation of alcohol.

NOV. 8: Police pulled over a vehicle for rolling through two stops signs and drifting between lanes on 144th Place near John Humphrey Drive, around 12:05 a.m. Police smelled alcohol in the car and the driver failed field sobriety tests, according to the report. While the driver was being booked, police found a plastic bag with 20 white pills in his sock, according to the report. At least three of the pills were from a prescription, police said. Bernard P. Klimas, 49, of the 15300 block of Royal Foxhunt Drive, in Orland Park, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of a controlled substance, improper lane use, improper turning and disobeying a stop sign.

NOV. 1: An officer stopped at a wrecked truck in the 17300 block of 108th Avenue around 1:05 a.m. The driver, who police found standing next to the truck, slurred his speech, stumbled while walking and failed field sobriety tests, police said. A bag of marijuana was found near the front side of the truck, police said. Robert C. McAlister, 21, of the 14400 block of South Wooded Path Lane in Orland Park, was charged with driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than .08, possession of marijuana, driving in the wrong lane and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

NOV. 18: A driver who was pulled over Friday for nearly crashing into a curb inadvertently admitted to police that he was driving drunk. Tinley Park cops pulled over Jeffrey M. Janik shortly before 2 a.m. when he was swerving in the roadway near the intersection of 159th Street and Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park, according to reports. An officer approached Janik, 25, of the 15100 block of South Ridgeland Avenue in Oak Forest, who told them he was driving his friend's car home because the friend was "too drunk" and he thought he was "better off" behind the wheel, the report said. Police said Janik failed field sobriety tests. Janik then told police he wouldn't be able to do them "even if he was sober," the report said. Around 3 a.m., he blew a .162 on the Breathalyzer, according to the report, and was acting belligerent with officers. He was charged with improper lane use, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, driving without a valid driver's license and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol content greater than 0.08.

NOV. 13: Tinley Park police arrested a local woman last week after finding her silver Lexus convertible running idle and resting against a tree just a few blocks from her home. The cops were called to the 17700 block of Iroquois Trace in Tinley Park around 12:30 a.m. Nov. 13. They found tire tracks in the front lawn of a residence there and "several parts of what appeared to be the front bumper of a silver vehicle scattered through the yard," according to the report. Police said they followed the tire tracks south down Iroquois Trace, to the intersection of West Piute Trail and Navajo Trace, where they found Barbara Oles, 59, sitting in her car—it had hit a tree—with her tires spinning in reverse.

NOV. 10: Christopher W. Canali, 35, of the 1300 block of Campbell Avenue, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after he was stopped in his driveway for failure to signal and not using headlights, according to the report. When asked to take Breathalzer test, Canali yelled, "I'm not doing that! There's no way I can pass that test," police said. After being taken into custody, Canali became irate and yelled obsenities at police, stating, "I'm your neighbor, you're ruining my (profanity) life," according to the report.

NOV. 16: Michelle Scofield, 39, of the 600 block of South East Street in Gardner, IL, was cited at Lincoln Highway and LaGrange Road about 2:55 p.m. for driving under the influence, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, illegal transportation of alcohol and BAC over .08, police said.

DID YOU KNOW? THANKSGIVING THE WORST TIME FOR DUI FATALITIES

You might think New Year's Eve is the night when most drunken driving accidents happen, but you'd be wrong. "New Year's Eve runs a distant second to the holiday that statistically has the largest number of drunk driving fatalities—Thanksgiving," according to LifeTips.com.

Police report information is provided by local police departments. Charges are not evidence of guilt. They are a record of police actions on a given day, and persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. If you or a family member are charged or cited and the case is subsequently adjudicated, we encourage you to notify the editor. We will verify and report the outcome.