A Year After Horrific Crash, State Trooper Seeks Homicide Charges Against Trucker

Photos: Illinois State Trooper Doug Balder, with wife Kimberli at his side, speaks at a press conference on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of the fiery crash that nearly took his life and killed tollway worker Vincenzo Petrella./Elizabeth Sauter, widow of Trooper James Sauter, appeals for upgraded charges against the truck drivers who caused fatal crashes on I-88, I-294. Credit: Shannon Antinori

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Exactly a year ago, Illinois State Trooper and U.S. Navy veteran Douglas Balder was able to pull himself from the burning wreckage of his vehicle after a fiery crash that left him with serious injuries and killed an Illinois tollway worker.

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On Tuesday, Balder and his wife, Kimberli, joined with Liz Sauter, widow of State Trooper James Sauter, to push for reckless homicide charges against the truck drivers who caused the fatal crashes.

“I view it as a failure of the system to take care of us,” Doug Balder told reporters Tuesday.

On Jan. 27, 2014, Balder and tollway worker Vincenzo Petrella had pulled over on I-88 near Eola Road in Aurora to assist the driver of a disabled semi-trailer when another semi crashed into Balder’s vehicle, pushing it into Petrella’s truck. All three vehicles burst into flames. Petrella, a 39-year-old father of two, died at the scene.

Velasquez is set to go on trial next month on charges of driving a commercial vehicle while fatigued or impaired and falsifying his records. Prosecutors allege that Velasquez, of Hanover Park, had been driving and working for 37 hours of the 40 hours prior to the crash.

Balder suffered second- and third-degree burns over much of the left side of his body, a brain injury, 13 broken ribs, facial lacerations and a broken shoulder blade, and spent weeks in a medically induced coma after the crash.

Sauter lost her husband to a similar crash on I-294 on March 28, 2013. Trooper James Sauter, 28, died when his vehicle was hit from behind by a semi-trailer.

Like Velasquez, truck driver Andrew Bokelman of Wisconsin was charged with traffic felonies in the crash that killed Sauter. Liz Sauter claims Bokelman was driving well over the allowed 14 hours when he hit James Sauter’s vehicle on the shoulder of I-294.

“If they had crashed into a guard rail instead of people, the sentence would be the same,” Kimberli Balder said Tuesday, adding that Velasquez faces less than three years in prison but will likely serve much less than that if he’s convicted. “Renato Velasquez voluntarily and consciously made decisions that took another person’s life and nearly took the life of my husband. Mr. Velasquez should be charged with reckless homicide to help prevent another life, another family, another tragedy from occurring.”

The Balders appealed to DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin to push for harsher charges against Velasquez.

“You stated ... that you believed a grand jury would indict Mr. Velasquez on a reckless homicide charge, but you did not feel you could win an appeal if he were convicted,” Kimberli Balder said in a letter to Berlin. “ ... The grief and sadness the Petrella family has confronted with the death of their loved one simply cannot be ignored.”

On Tuesday, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin responded to the calls for stiffer charges.

“While this tragic case involves the death of a state employee and severe injury to an Illinois State Trooper, the charging decision was handled no differently,” Berlin said in a statement. “The Illinois Supreme Court Rules of Professional Conduct mandate that as State’s Attorney, I have the duty to only bring charges that can be substantiated in a court of law. My charging decisions cannot be based on emotion, politics or any other forces. My decisions must be based on the law and what can be proven in court beyond a reasonable doubt, and that is what I have done in this case.”

Sauter said her appeals to Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have met with similar response.

“By not charging these drivers with reckless homicide, we are sending a message that the lives lost have little value and that you can actually get away with murder,” she said. “Was my husband’s life worth nothing? ... (Bokelman) is by no means being held responsible for my husband’s never coming home again, never having the opportunity to become a father.”

Balder, who has gone through 10 skin graft surgeries and endured a painful recovery process, said it’s “very disturbing” that neither Velasquez nor Bokelman have faced charges in connection with the deaths they caused.

By charging the truckers with reckless homicide, the Balders said the state’s attorneys can send a message to the trucking industry and help prevent future tragedies.

“It will happen again,” Balder said.