Ask the DUI Expert: What is Your Proudest Moment?

This week, we ask Officer William Pelarenos: What is your proudest moment as a DUI Officer?

Officer Pelarenos: One night in July 2001, I was on the far southeast side of Chicago, just a mile or two away from the Indiana State Line. I saw a north bound vehicle make a left turn into what is the right turn lane for south bound traffic. So I made a traffic stop and asked the driver for her driver’s license. She could not produce a license nor insurance. She said the car wasn’t hers.

She had been drinking so I conducted Field Sobriety Tests. She told me that she was just dropping off her Aunt and a friend, the two people in the car. She told me that her uncle was a cop. She told me that she was pregnant. She told me everything except her correct name and date of birth. I kept running the information through the computer and nothing was coming back as to her identity.

I arrest her and she begins crying and telling me that she never obtained a driver’s license. She told me that she has never been arrested. I towed the car and took her to the lock-up. She was fingerprinted and her prints were run through the FBI fingerprint system for identification purposes.

Low and behold, it turned out that she was wanted in State of Louisiana for murder. I guess when she told me that she had never been arrested, the murder charge had slipped her mind. 

Anyway, she was held at the Cook County Jail until extradition to Louisiana could be authorized. Here was a case of a simple traffic violation leading to the apprehension of a fugitive. I was very proud of that arrest. 

Catch up with Officer Pelarenos on his Facebook page.