Repeat DUI Offender Crashes Into Mother And Toddler: Cops

RIVERSIDE, IL — A California man was arrested on felony DUI charges after crashing into another car Friday near Brookfield Zoo, injuring a 34-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter, Riverside police said Monday. The mother and daughter were sent to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood for serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Minutes after Riverside police responded to the late-afternoon crash on 31st Street, it got word of another one at Wabaunsee Road. When officers arrived, the suspect who caused the first crash was behind the wheel, police said.

An officer walked up to the suspect's car, which was still running and in gear. The driver, later identified as James J. Nagel, 64, of Arleta, Calif., was incoherent as the officer asked him repeatedly to turn off his car, but he did not, according to a Riverside police news release. When Nagel started to lurch forward, the officer had to force the window down, reach into the car, shut it off and remove the keys, the release said. It was obvious Nagel was under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both, according to police.

Nagel was injured and taken to Loyola. A second occupant in the car was not. Officers learned later Nagel was in Illinois to visit his sister. Riverside police found heroin on Nagel, police said.

Police charged Nagel with felony aggravated DUI, his fourth offense; felony aggravated DUI; drugged driving, being under the influence of heroin; heroin possession; and several other traffic-related offenses.

According to police, Nagel, who holds a commercial driver's license in California, had three prior DUI convictions — in 1979, 1999 and 2000, from Minnesota, California and Illinois. He has had driver's licenses out of Illinois, California and Florida, and a fingerprint analysis revealed 16 aliases, six dates of birth and 35 prior arrests, according to the release.

Nagel's other arrests were for retail theft, trespassing, battery and drugs, police said.

"Mr. Nagel was highly impaired causing two crashes, multiple injuries and had many fake IDs, dates of birth and aliases," Police Chief Tom Weitzel said in the release. "It made this case very difficult to investigate. It took officers two days to put this case together for felony prosecution. Because this was an injury DUI crash, I will be asking the state to reimburse the Riverside Police Department for expenses associated with this arrest. There is a special Illinois statute allowing police agencies to recover monies spent on DUI crashes where great bodily harm was involved, and this case meets that criteria."

Weitzel said there was no logical reason why Nagel had a valid driver's license.