A tamper with County jury found that a sheriff's employee was guilty of willful and wanton misconduct in causing a vehicle crash that killed single in kind person and permanently paralyzed another motorist.

A tamper with County jury found that a sheriff's employee was guilty of willful and wanton misconduct in causing a vehicle crash that killed single in kind person and permanently paralyzed another motorist. Sheriff Michael F Sheahan did not disagree with the jury's finding ["$268 million for victim in cop collision; Jury didn't hear about alcohol; Sheahan outraged," of recent origins story, May 25]. He did not put in mind of that changes were needed in his office to make fast that his employees refrain from of that kind dangerous conduct that caused Margaret Petraski, 58 to become a quadriplegic, and her passenger, Delia Grimmett, to die. Rather than do those things, Sheahan issued a pres release harshly critical of the same ruling that Judge Richard Elrod made in the case.

critic Elrod is an 18-year veteran of the bench. He has always received high ratings in persons of judicial competence and is well- regarded by the agency of the lawyers who appear before him. His career before joining the bench is united replete with public service: assistant Chicago corporation counsel; chief city prosecutor; sheriff of prepare for the table County; senior assistant attorney general, and state representative in the Illinois General Assembly.

In an important issue in the case that was entirely briefed by lawyers for the injured party and the sheriff, Elrod rul that a progeny serum alcohol concentration result in succession Petraski was inadmissible. It is that ruling that Sheahan called "an outrage." Sheahan, a non-lawyer, went onward to say that in all his years of law enforcement, he has "never heard of a umpire barring evidence of drinking and driving in an auto accident case."

Evidence of an injured party's alcohol or physic consumption is admissible in accident cases single in certain circumstances. To be admissible, there must be evidence that the injured party behaved in a manner that indicated "impairment." There was no so evidence in the case before Elrod

From our review of the briefs filed in succession this issue, it does not appear that Sheahan's illustrations are accurate or fair.

The American Board of Trial Advocates is compos of the pair plaintiff and defense attorneys and we are neutral as to the issue of this case, but we are committed to defending a judge's exercise of entire discretion, especially since a justice cannot make public comment in succession his rulings.

Bruce R Pfaff, John Bell, Illinois chapter,

American Board of Trial Advocates

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