Maple Park man charged with 4th DUI admitted to drinking 15 beers

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – The Kane County State’s Attorney has filed court papers to seize the vehicle of a Maple Park man – after three previous DUI convictions – and a fourth drunken driving arrest in which he admitted to drinking 15 beers, court records and police reports show.

Seizure of the vehicle – a 2016 gray Hyundai Tuscon, belonging to Steele G. Carrie, 68, of the 8N400 block of Percy Road Maple Park – is pending with a next court date of June 3, according to court records.

Carrie was charged Jan. 6 with two counts of felony aggravated DUI, one for it being his fourth drunken driving offense and one for having a blood alcohol content greater than 0.16%, which was 0.193%, the charging documents stated.

Carrie posted $1,000 bail or 10% of the $10,000 bond that was set, according to court records.

The two aggravated DUI charges are Class 2 felonies, punishable by four to seven years in prison and fines up to $25,000, if convicted.

He is also charged with driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content greater than 0.08%, both misdemeanors, according to court and police records.

Carrie is to appear in court Friday on the felony DUI charges, court records show.

The felony charges stem from an incident on Jan. 5, when, shortly before 8 p.m., deputies responded to an accident with injuries for a vehicle in a pond at Carrie’s address, according to sheriff’s reports.

Carrie was wedged between the pond and the passenger door and side pillar of the passenger side, the report stated.

Carrie was naked, had defecated on himself, was mumbling and in and out of consciousness, the report stated.

“I noticed a brown stain in the driver’s side seat resembling the defecation, placing Steele in the driver’s seat,” the report stated. “I noticed a(n) empty 12 oz Budweiser beer can outside on the ground near the driver’s side door. I noticed six empty 12 ox cans of Budweiser on the floorboard of the passenger side of the vehicle.”

The deputy also noted a case of Budweiser outside the vehicle on the ice containing a few cans.

The vehicle’s passenger side tires, front and back, were on top of the frozen pond and members had called police after finding Carrie stuck in his vehicle in the pond and feared that the ice would break or the vehicle would crush him, the report stated.

Burlington fire and emergency medical technicians extracted Carrie and took him to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva for treatment of his injuries, the report stated.

Under questioning at the hospital, Carrie admitted that he drank 15 beers and was driving around on his property when the vehicle slid down an embankment onto the pond. He got out to sit on the vehicle, but it slid towards the side and trapped him, according to the report and court records.

Carrie refused to submit to a breath test without an attorney, but through a medical blood draw, his blood alcohol content was measured at 0.193%, the report stated, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

Mosser’s Feb. 3 court filing to seize Carrie’s car, stated that he has three prior convictions for DUI, one in 1984 and two in 1988.

As this is Carrie’s fourth DUI violation both for drunken driving and driving with a blood alcohol content greater than 0.16%, Article 36 of state law permits the seizure of the vehicle, according to the filling. The Kane County Sheriff’s Office seized the vehicle the night of the offense, records show.

Article 36 is a statute in the Illinois Criminal Code, that states, “Any vessel, vehicle or aircraft used with the knowledge and consent of the owner in the commission of, or in the attempt to commit [an offense]… may be seized and delivered forthwith to the sheriff of the county of seizure.”

A notice given to Carrie, another person listed as the owner and a bank holding the note on the car, states that they can have an opportunity to prove to a judge that they should receive their property back.