By PETER HUSSMANN
The Chicago-area news media today are playing up a story out of Jasper County, Iowa concerning a former suburban county deputy sheriff's conviction on an operating while intoxicated charge stemming from an accident in April 2007 on Interstate 80 that claimed the man's wife.
The Daily Herald and WGN Radio are reporting that Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran only recently learned that former deputy Drew Pranke was charged and convicted for operating under the influence of marijuana in connection with the accident April 14, 2007 that killed his wife, Susan, left him seriously injured and hurt the couple's two teenagers.
News reports from the time indicate that the family was westbound on Interstate 80 near the Baxter exit at mile marker 158 when a tire blew on his 2000 Ford Explorer causing Pranke to lose control and the vehicle to roll into the north ditch. No one in the vehicle was wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, the reports state.
During the Iowa State Patrol's investigation into the Saturday morning crash, officers found a container among the debris that was later confirmed to contain marijuana. Officers took blood and urine samples from Pranke, who had been taken by air ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.
Pranke spent weeks at the Iowa hospital and more time at rehabilitation center in Illinois before returning to work in the detective department at the Lake County Sheriff's department in August 2007. His health never returned to a level where he could continue to work in the office and he retired last year.
Charges of operating while intoxicated, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia were filed in Jasper County District Court against Pranke, 54, in January 2008.
Pranke's Newton attorney, John Billingsley, attempted to have the samples surpressed as evidence saying his client was unable to give informed consent at the time they were taken. That effort was abandoned and Pranke plead guilty to OWI on Aug. 13, 2008. The other two charges were dismissed.
Court records from a substance abuse evaluation conducted on Pranke show that he admitted to smoking marijuana the day before the accident but had not inhaled cannabis that day. Remnants of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, can remain in the body for up to 30 days after ingestion.
Pranke was sentenced to two days in the Jasper County Jail, fined $625 and his license was suspended.
Lake County Sheriff Curran said it wasn't until Pranke was found driving under suspension last weekend in Lindenhurst, a northern Chicago suburb, that he became aware of the charge against his former deputy. He said he was making the matter public to show his commitment to openness in his administration.
"The fact that somebody in our business would be smoking dope and lying to us about it is beyond belief,"Curran told the Herald. "He betrayed all of us and all of the citizens of Lake County."
