Driver Gets Fine, Community Service In Accident That Killed Pedestrian

OAK LAWN, IL — A Cook County judge found an Oak Lawn woman guilty of failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident in which she struck and killed a pedestrian, 28-year-old Murod Kurdi, in June. Leanne Cusack, 27, appeared before Judge Diana Elena Lopez Tuesday afternoon for a bench trial at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

Despite remaining for hours at the crash scene, where she was interviewed by Oak Lawn police officers and admitted to police that she had been drinking —including to one officer who said he detected a “slight odor of alcohol” on her breath — Cusack was allowed to go home with just a traffic citation. She also refused breathalyzer and field sobriety tests.

Activists from the Arab American Action Network and community members, including many Arab Americans, allege that Cusack received special treatment by police because she is white and Kurdi was Palestinian American.

Attorneys for Cusack and the Village of Oak Lawn outlined details of the case for Judge Lopez. Kurdi’s brother, Suphi, and three Oak Lawn police officers were called to testify. Cusack did not take the stand.

“Simply put, on June 5, Murod Kurdi was getting out of his Ford F150 and was struck by a white Kia,” Oak Lawn village prosecutor Mike Smith said in his opening statement. “[State statutes] require drivers to operate in a safe manner and not hit any pedestrians.”

Cusack’s attorney, Robert Olson, said in his opening statement that he and his client were “very sorry for the Kurdi family.” He stated there was a “preponderance of evidence” indicating that Cusack was not guilty of failure to reduce speed.

“We have one cop who thought her breath smelled of alcohol, and two who said she showed no sign of impairment,” Olson said. “She passed a horizontal gaze test. Her speech was not mumbled or slurred. There was no swaying. She cooperated. She stopped when she realized she hit something.”

Just after 5:30 p.m. June 5, Murod Kurdi, 28, had returned home from work and parked his Ford F150 pickup truck on street in front of his family’s home in the 5100 block of 51st Street. Cusack had turned westbound on 91st Street in her 2018 Kia Optima after stopping at McDonald’s, where she later told police she had consumed chicken McNuggets and a Big Mac.

Passing the Kurdi home, Cusack’s 2018 Kia Optima hit Kurdi as he was standing next to his truck, launching him over the front of his vehicle until he landed on the parkway west of his residence, according to police reports and testimony in court.

Kurdi hit the ground so hard it shook the vehicle next to where he landed. He died three days later of severe head trauma.

Cusack heard a loud bang on the passenger side of the Kia. She stopped her car a block away and returned to the accident scene after looking in her rearview mirror and seeing neighbors running to the gravely injured Kurdi’s aid, according to police reports and court testimony.

Murod’s older brother, Suphi Kurdi, 32, was the first witness to take the stand for the prosecution. He stated that he downloaded video from his family’s security cameras onto a flash drive that was eventually provided to Oak Lawn police. The video, which showed four angles of 91st Street, did not show Kurdi getting out of his truck. Suphi stated he did not know who slowed the video down, or if it downloaded that way onto his flash drive.

Olson repeatedly objected to the video, which had been slowed down to show the accident, claiming that it was “altered.” Olson’s objections were overruled.

“We don’t know who slowed down the video, how many frames per second were downloaded from the DVR, who altered it or where it came from,” Olson said. “There is no chain of custody.”

Ben Tholotowsky was the first Oak Lawn officer to arrive on the scene. Kurdi was on the ground, bleeding from the head and not responsive. Tholotowsky asked bystanders who was involved, and they told him “the woman in the white Kia,” who was parked about four houses down from the crash scene.

He testified that Cusack admitted to drinking a pint of Old Style and a shot of Patron tequila at Demma’s Bar and Grill approximately one hour before the crash, although the timeline of when she said she had consumed alcohol kept shifting to two hours. She also told the officer that she was driving about 27 MPH,” which is within the posted 25 MPH speed limit.

Tholotowsky then described giving Cusack a horizontal gaze nystagmus test, which checks for a jerking of the eyes, but found no indicators of impairment.

Due to the alleged smell of alcohol on Cusack’s breath and her admission to drinking prior to the crash, Tholotowsky asked Cusack to perform additional field sobriety tests and preliminary breath tests.

She refused, stating: “I don’t want to be liable for someone walking in front of my car,” Tholotowsky said.

Tholotowsky also took photographs of the Kia, which showed damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. Kurdi’s driver’s side door was undamaged, indicating that the door was closed when he was struck. Tholotowsky testified that he also found blood on the Kia’s rear passenger-side tire.

The officer further stated that with the exception of the video being slowed down, it accurately depicted the events that he watched on a neighbor’s phone who had access to the Kurdi family’s security video the day of the accident.

Asked if she showed signs of impairment, he replied: “Absolutely not.”

Two more Oak Lawn police officers also briefly testified. Officer Mark Hollingsworth said that a few days after the accident he obtained a search warrant to examine the Kia’s event data recorder, or black box, to determine the vehicle’s speed up until the moment of the crash.

The black box was sent to Illinois State Police to be analyzed to determine the Kia’s speed, braking or steering maneuvers before and after the crash, but no data was recorded by the EDR due to the airbags not being deployed, nor did the vehicle record the “event” as being “significant” enough to trigger the recording system, Hollingsworth testified.

A third Oak Lawn police officer on the scene, Matthew Shilney, who spoke to Cusack at the scene, testified that she did not display signs of alcohol impairment. She was able to stand and walk without swaying, her speech wasn’t slurred and her eyes were clear. Shilney said he detected no odor of alcohol on Cusack’s breath.

Shilney said he asked Cusack a second time if she would take a breathalyzer test, but she told the officer that there would be no alcohol in her system “because it had been two hours” since her last drink.

Olson called for a directed verdict based on the fact that Cusack wasn’t speeding and the “altered” video. Olson said Cusack called 911, although he told Patch previously that she called him from the scene and that he advised her not to submit to any breath or chemical tests, or perform field sobriety tests.

Later, after the trial, Olson told Patch that he believed his client called 911 “but didn’t know for sure.”

A poster of Murod Kurdi distributed by the AAAN. | Lorraine Swanson, Patch

Olson’s objections regarding the slowed-down video were overruled.

“We don’t know who slowed down the video, who altered it or where it came from,” Olson said. “There is no chain of custody.”

In his closing argument, Smith said that even when driving the legal limit, state statutes require drivers to reduce their speed to avoid an accident.

Olson’s associate, Gilbert Broderick, delivered the closing argument, stating that the attorneys’ hearts “went out to the Kurdi family for their terrible tragedy.”

“Not every crash is an offense,” Broderick said. “She was never cited for DUI. The black box on her Kia was not activated and her car did not show front end damage. The crash alone does not mean failure to reduce speed.”

Broderick stated that the “altered” video also showed another vehicle driving in the eastbound lane of 91st Street.” Street parking is prohibited on that side of 91st Street.

“She would have crashed into the vehicle. She was trapped,” Broderick said. “In Leanne’s case, it was a terrible and unforeseeable accident.”

Judge Lopez said the prosecution met a “different burden of proof in this matter.”

“Based on the conversation between [Office Tholotowsky] and Cusack’s statement of not wanting to be liable for someone stepping in front of her car, and all the evidence, I find her guilty.”

Before she was sentenced, Olson told the judge that Cusack “feels terrible.” When she made her remark about not being liable for someone walking in front of her car, Olson stated at the time she did not know the severity of Kurdi’s injuries.

Cusack was subsequently fined $750. She also has to complete a one-hour victim impact panel class, and perform 30 hours of community service.

After the trial, David Petrich, the Kurdi family’s private attorney, said during a news conference that the defense’s claims of Cusack calling 911 were not true.

“I am not aware of Leanne Cusack calling 911. They said she did in court, which is not true because I have the 911 calls,” Petrich said, who has filed a wrongful death suit on the Kurdi family’s behalf. “One is not from her, although she is in the background because you can hear her talking.”

Oak Lawn police defended their probe into the accident and have closed their investigation.

Unlike her last court appearance in August, when she entered and exited the building through a private entrance, Cusack was escorted out of the Bridgeview Courthouse through the front public entrance, surrounded by a dozen Cook County Sheriff’s deputies. About 30 supporters of the Kurdi family booed her and cried “murderer.” Cusack covered her face with the hood of her sweater.

Kurdi’s mother, Fadia Muhamad, said while Cusack was found guilty of the traffic citation, she didn’t feel that justice was served.

“I think that despite all the evidence presented to Oak Lawn police at the time of the incident, despite Leanne Cusack’s admittance to consuming alcohol, [her] admitting to speeding … that [she] admitted to being on her cell phone at the time she struck and killed my son, I think that despite all of this again that was presented I think there is something highly problematic within the Oak Lawn Police Department.”

The Kurdi family currently has a wrongful death lawsuit pending against Cusack and Demma’s Bar. More defendants may be added later as the case continues in the discovery phase, including the Oak Lawn Police Department.