Oak Lawn Cops Defend Probe, Close Deadly Crash Investigation

OAK LAWN, IL — Oak Lawn police defended its investigation into a deadly crash where a man was killed in front of his home, but the driver only received a traffic citation even after she admitted having a shot and a beer an hour before the accident.

Just after 5:30 p.m., June 5, Murod Kurdi, 28, was struck by a vehicle police said was driven by 27-year-old Leanne Cusack. Kurdi was gravely injured and suffered a cracked skull and other injuries after being launched into the air. He died three days later.

Cusack later admitted to having two drinks at a bar an hour or so before the accident when an Oak Lawn police officer detected “a slight odor of alcohol,” according to police reports.

She was allowed to leave the scene several hours later after three officers determined that Cusack showed no visible signs of impairment, despite refusing field sobriety and breath tests at the advice of her attorney. The officer who was first on the scene said he performed a horizontal gaze Nystagmus test which looks for six different indicators of impairment. Cusack showed “zero signs of impairment,” police said in a written statement.

“Officers also noted that her speech was clear, logical, coherent, and not mumbled or slurred. They observed that her eyes were not bloodshot nor glassy, that she was not swaying back and forth, and that she was coordinated and did not need to use anything for balance, according to the police statement.

“Lacking the necessary probable cause, and absent any elements of a criminal act, Ms. Cusack was issued a citation for “Failure to Reduce Speed to Avoid a Crash” and given the “Warning to Motorist …”

Oak Lawn police worked with the Cook County Sheriff Office’s accident reconstruction unit and the Illinois State Police in their accident investigation. Search warrants were obtained for Ms. Cusack’s phone usage data and her vehicle’s event-data recorder, or “black box.” ISP determined that no data was recorded by the EDR because the airbags did not deploy at the time of the accident.

The Village of Oak Lawn also hired a traffic expert, Jennifer Cifaldi, the Illinois Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor for the University of Illinois-Springfield. Cifaldi said it “appeared” from the police reports provided to her “that the officers were exhaustive in their efforts to determine if impairment by alcohol or drugs was an issue.”

Cifaldi said the only indication that would have led officers to believe that DUI was a possibility were Cusack’s own admission to consuming alcohol and a “slight odor” of alcoholic beverage on her breath, leaving officers with using the traffic crash warning to motorists, which carries a statutory license suspension of six months for declining to submit to sobriety tests.

“I believe that the officers were correct in not arresting Ms. Cusack for the offense of DUI and that they followed proper protocols and procedures by utilizing the Traffic Crash Warning and noting her refusal on the form,” Cifaldi concluded.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Police completed a crash-reconstruction report. An expert in speed determination looked at video of the crash to determine if Cusack was speeding.

“Neither report showed evidence of a criminal act (her speed was estimated at 27 mph in the 25-mph zone,” police said.

The “Warning to Motorist” suspension of Cusack’s driver’s license went into effect Tuesday, 46 days after the June 5 accident, and is expected to be adjudicated by the Illinois Secretary of State.

Cusack is due back in traffic court Sept. 18 in Bridgeview, where a bench trial is expected to take place on the failure to traffic citation.

“It’s unfortunate that some people are trying to exploit this tragedy for financial gain and divide our community by making outrageous and malicious claims,” police said in their statement. “Based on all of the evidence gathered, this was a tragic accident, and our Village continues to mourn the loss of Mr. Kurdi and pray for his family."